50 Ways to Improve Your Improvisational Skills By: Tom Kolb This book/CD pack explores all the main components necessary for crafting well-balanced rhythmic and melodic phrases. It also explains how these phrases are put together to form cohesive solos. Many styles are covered - Rock, Blues, Jazz, Fusion, Country, Latin, Funk, and more - and all of the concepts are backed up with musical examples. The 50 ideas are divided into five main sections: The Basics - covers fundamental but all too often forgotten techniques, such as slurs and vibrato, that can breathe new life into your phrases; Melodic Concepts - explores various aspects of melodic phrasing, such as motifs, chromaticism and sequences; Harmonic Embellishments - discusses the melodic potential of harmonic intervals (dyads), chords and chord partials; Rhythmic Concepts - explores various aspects of rhythmic phrasing, such as accents, free-time phrasing and metric modulation, and how it pertains to melodic soloing; Solo Structure - all of the topics discussed in the book come together to help form the big picture. The companion CD contains 89 demos for listening, and most tracks feature full-band backing. Also available for keyboard, tenor saxophone and trumpet. 48 pages, softbound book with CD