The Ultimate Guitarist's Survival Guide: 2nd Edition

This book outlines a comprehensive practice routine for truly mastering the fingerboard of the guitar. This is not just a collection of scales, chords, and arpeggios, but also a set of exercises that will teach you how to really use these tools and, most important, the presentation of a system that will give you full command of whatever you wish to play on the guitar.

The Ultimate Guitarist's Survival Guide covers: Technique - How your body moves and how to teach it to work with the guitar. This includes photographs, suggestions about posture, and practice methodology. Scales - Position based fingerings for all primary scale types (major, natural minor, melodic minor, harmonic minor, major/minor pentatonic, dominant/dorian pentatonic, diminished, and be-bop), exercises for moving between positions, and numerous exercises and sequences for developing melodic sensibility. Arpeggios - Sweep triad fingerings (major, minor, augmented, diminished, sus4, major b5) and position based fingerings for maj7, 7, -7, -7b5, and a template for creating arpeggios for any other chord type. Voiceleading exercises using triad and 7th arpeggios for common chord progressions. Chords - Voicings for all inversions and all possible 7th chord types in drop 2, drop 3, and drop 2 & 4 arrangements. Voiceleading exercises for developing a melodic approach to using chords through common chord progressions. Substitutions - An explanation of the principles of chord substitution and a list of over 30 possible ways to use basic 4 note chords as substitutions to create voicings with chord tensions or to find different ways of using arpeggios. Etudes - 3 studies for alternate-picking, sweep-picking, and string skipping.

A consummate band leader, soloist, and sideman, Brant Grieshaber performs all over New England, from the Maine Music Society to the Beantown Swing Orchestra, from The Beehive to Johnny D's. He's shared the stage with jazz giants such as Bill Frisell (Grammy nominee), James Carter, and Charlie Hunter and he often performs and records with faculty from Berklee College of Music. He also teaches guitar and composition at his studio in Boston, where students come from across the globe to explore the fingerboard. Brant is an artist endorser for Godin Guitars and JazzKat Amplifiers. At the age of 8, Brant began classical and ragtime piano, studying with Bates College professor Dr. Marion Anderson. At 13, Brant took up jazz and rock guitar. He earned his BA at Berklee College of Music, studying with Garrison Fewell and Bret Wilmott. At the Boston Conservatory, he did graduate studies in classical composition with Osvaldo Golijov. He has also studied guitar with the jazz/fusion giant, Frank Gambale.