About this ebook
This book was also inspired by many students of a variety of ages who came to me saying they just wanted to play and not be bogged down by theory and scales and whatnot. They weren’t looking for shortcuts, they just genuinely wanted to solo and sound good without having to learn theory in order to do it. Admittedly, I was discouraged at first but I put myself in their shoes and came up with this method to get to the good stuff faster, and sound good.
I won’t deal with pentatonic scales here as you’re probably already well-versed in those and are looking to be able to solo over simple and common chord progressions or add more variety to your improvisations. If you’re looking for a system to learn pentatonic scales (and modes), which is also theory-lite, check out another of my books: Beyond Pentatonics.
All the music theory terms you’ll find in this book are for labeling purposes only and will help you recognize these concepts in songs or pieces you already know; they’ll also help you find the information on the fretboard when you need it instead of fumbling around. What’s more, due to the simplicity of this approach, you’ll be able to reduce your thinking to a minimum and concentrate on making a musical contribution to whatever situation you find yourself in and making jamming/playing out a far more enjoyable experience.
I love this approach and often teach it to people who don’t want to practice 10 hours a day, are not interested in theory or knowing the whys and wherefores of everything. They just want a straightforward, “if you learn this and play it here, it’ll sound good”, method so that they can express themselves in a jam session, solo with more than just a pentatonic scale, or play out on the weekends.
If you have even half an hour a day to play/practice guitar, you can make a world of progress with your soloing by using this method.
About the author
Graham Tippett (1977-) studied literature, music and languages in the UK before making a permanent move to Mexico in 2005. It was there he began to explore and research methods of improvisation on the guitar and published the '2 Position Scale System' series of instruction books in 2014, which are the fruit of that research. He is also well-known for his love of languages and music, drawing parallels between the two art forms as he continues to write and research on the subjects of language learning and improvisation. His relentless research into guitar improvisation has recently lead to the creation of the Hacking the CAGED System series of books, and Soloing Without Scales - an alternative look at how to improvise on guitar. Graham is also a graduate of the ACM (Academy of Contemporary Music) in Guildford, where he was taught by the likes of Guthrie Govan, Dave Kilminster, Eric Roche and many others.
