Where to start
Not a list. A route.
Eight orders of study, one for each area of the catalog — where every publication builds on what the one before it established.
Harmonic Concepts
Four routes through harmony.
Harmonic Concepts
Modern Voicings & Contrapuntal Studies
This is the chord side of the instrument: how voicings are built, how they move, and how separate voices move against each other. It is harmony you play, not harmony you analyze.
From one voicing to two moving voices
Voicings for every chord type, and the descending chromatic ii-V-I that shows how they connect — the vocabulary the rest of the route is built from.
The same vocabulary written out as music: eight etudes that work voice-leading and the left hand at once, so the shapes are learned in motion rather than in isolation.
Twelve harmonic etudes over a single 12-bar minor blues — one form, held long enough that the harmony has somewhere to go, with a track to play it against.
The hinge of the route. A chord played as an unwinding line, where one shape starts behaving like two voices moving apart — on video, so you can see the hand do it.
Harmonic Concepts
Technical Studies & Chordal Etudes
Chord playing as a physical discipline — written etudes that put voicings in motion over real tunes. You build fingers, voice-leading and fretboard navigation at once.
From a single grip to the whole form
Finger independence and chordal technique in every position on the neck — the physical groundwork, and the navigation system everything after this leans on.
One structure, isolated and worked on its own terms before it has to do a job inside a tune. Six dollars and a backing track to test it against.
The first whole tune. One Metheny form navigated at several chord densities, sparse to dense, so you hear what each level actually does to the music.
Modern voicings on a standard, and comping that answers the melody rather than just marking the bar — the difference between accompanying and playing with someone.
Harmonic Concepts
Re-harmonization & Chordal Substitution
Re-harmonization means replacing a tune's written chords with others that still hold the melody. These studies show how those substitutes are found and how far they can be pushed.
From one chord's alternatives to a system for tension
Free, and one trick: a handful of substitutes for the tonic of a ii-V-I. Best heard on an intro, an outro, or the last chord of a tune.
The same chord approached the other way — not replacing the tonic but colouring against it, so the point of final rest stops sounding quite so settled.
A whole standard now. Stella by Starlight taken apart on video and rebuilt, so you watch the choices made in sequence instead of meeting them one at a time.
A system rather than a set of moves: every degree of the chromatic scale offered as a candidate over ii-V7-I, with tracks to hear which ones actually hold.
Harmonic Concepts
Chord-Melody Arrangements
Chord-melody means playing a tune's melody and its harmony at once, on one guitar. These studies cover reharmonizing standards and voicing those chords on the neck.
From a familiar melody to modern voicings
Free, and the gentlest way in. Chick Corea’s tune treated as a portrait of the man — harmony used to catch a character rather than to solve a progression.
The same idea against a harder tune. Monk’s harmony is already strange, so the arrangement has to answer it instead of decorating it.
From portrait to method: a standard re-harmonized and set for chord-melody, written as a workout for contemporary voicings rather than as a finished performance.
The method again on a second ballad. The point of a pair is that you begin to see which choices belong to the tune and which are yours.
Melodic Concepts
Four routes through melody.
Melodic Concepts
Modern Melodic Phrasing & Vocabulary
This area is about the raw material of modern jazz lines - motifs, groupings and chromatic ornaments. The work is turning that material into phrases you can play over changes.
From one interval to playing outside
Triadic helixes over ii-V7-I-VI7 at speed. One device, small enough to hear working, and the quickest way to feel how this material behaves under tempo.
One interval — the fourth — taken as the unit everything is built from, then combined with seconds and thirds across the whole neck. The largest vocabulary here.
Tension now, not just vocabulary: tritone relationships moved through dominant, minor and major harmony to pull a line off its centre and bring it back.
A whole phrasing idiom rather than a device — Jonathan Kreisberg’s melodic language taken apart into ideas you can actually practise.
Melodic Concepts
Technical Studies & Etudes
Patterns, motifs and workouts you drill until they run on their own. The aim here is fretboard navigation and left-hand control, rather than licks to memorize.
From a method to a finished etude
Three dollars, and the hardest form in the book: the Triad Quilt helixes taken over Coltrane’s Giant Steps. Material that survives this survives anything.
The Kreisberg language at speed over minor ii-V-i, with video to watch the fingering. The longest study here, and the one that most repays slow practice.
Metheny’s phrasing over the Tadd Dameron turnaround on Lady Bird — four bars that come round and round, so one small idea gets many chances.
Quartal phrases over a plain major ii-V7-I. After the three before it this is the calm one, and the clearest place to hear the fourth as a melodic interval.
Melodic Concepts
Warmup & Finger Independence
What you play before the music starts — exercises that wake the hands up and teach the fingers to move independently. The payoff is cleaner lines, even articulation, and a fretboard you can cross without thinking about it.
From five notes to the whole fretboard
A five-note motif drilled until the neck has a map on it. Hristo calls this the most important element of his own fretboard work — the system the rest hangs on.
The same discipline turned to intervals: spirals that pull the fingers apart and keep them independent, with a track so it stays music rather than exercise.
The first one pointed at a progression. Melodic minor arpeggios drawn out of a minor ii-V7alt-i, so the mechanics finally have somewhere to go.
The neck read three ways at once — vertically, horizontally and diagonally — out of one triadic shape. The largest book here, and the one that changes what you see.
Melodic Concepts
In The Style Of
These studies take one player's melodic language apart into mechanisms you can practice, then put it back over changes. The bulk of this area follows Pat Metheny's vocabulary.
From the vocabulary to the touch that carries it
The foundation book — Metheny’s chromatic ornamentation taken apart into mechanisms you can practise, rather than licks you copy off a record.
Four bars, studied properly: Pat’s solo break on Third Wind traced through its versions, so you watch a phrase evolve in the player’s own hands over years.
The major triad through every inversion on the neck, with three chromatic ornaments laid over it. The mechanism from step one, slowed down and made concrete.
The same language organised for the progression you meet most — one Metheny-inspired ii-V-I phrase, taken apart until it is yours rather than borrowed.