Jim Ferguson's Jazz Guitar Books, Original Compositions, Solo CDs

Jim Ferguson's Books, Compositions, and CDs

All Blues for Jazz Guitar: Comping Styles, Chords & Grooves	All Blues Soloing for Jazz Guitar: Scales, Licks, Concepts & Choruses	*All Blues Scale for Jazz Guitar: Solos, Grooves & Patterns*	All Solos & Grooves for Jazz Guitar: Position Studies, Scales & Patterns


The book that started it all! A comprehensive guide to jazz/blues comping styles. This 92-page book/CD package (with 30 tracks) covers straight-four playing in the style of Freddie Green and others, swing riff comping, bebop linear comping, and walking bass lines with chords. In tablature and standard notation. Named one of "100 Great Guitar Books" by Acoustic Guitar Magazine. 92 pages, 30-track CD. "Essential for all of my students!" —Howard Morgen, guitarist and instructor	The most complete guide to jazz/blues soloing ever written, All Blues Soloing details the sounds, elements, and approaches that make the blues such an integral part of the jazz vocabulary. Moving from blues progressions to fingerboard organization to phrasing, this 96-page volume covers essential blues scales, riffs, licks, lick development, and an array of advanced concepts and devices, including substitute scales and extended super arpeggios. In the process, it features 38 complete solos, more than 100 music examples, and hundreds of licks. With both standard notation and tablature, the book also comes with a 32-track CD that lets you hear the music, as well as see it. All Blues Soloing follows in the footsteps of Ferguson's critically acclaimed All Blues for Jazz Guitar—Comping Styles, Chords & Grooves. 96 pages, 32-track CD. "Learn these smoky lines, and you'll amaze your bandmates the next time they launch into a shuffle." —Guitar Player Magazine	The only book to exclusively focus on the blues scale as it applies to jazz guitar, All Blues Scale for Jazz Guitar—Solos, Grooves & Patterns features a wealth of information, including many scale patterns, six complete solos with dozens of licks, and diverse accompanying grooves that use a wide array of chords, tempos, and rhythmic feels. Inspired by the work of legendary players such as Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, and George Benson. 32 jam-packed pages; includes standard notation, tablature, and a 30-track CD that lets you hear the examples as well as see them. "No other book stands alone and covers the blues scale as well." —Dr. Frank Forte, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine	A powerful method for learning scales, the fretboard, and improving your improvisational fluency while learning cool licks and hip vamp grooves, this innovative book's five solos and grooves are designed to be position study etudes that cover each of the five basic scale fingerings in the context of either a swing, ballad or Latin feel. Each solo emphasizes rhythm and phrasing, and is grounded in a single key center and limited to a single fingering, enabling you to fully explore and familiarize yourself with the fingerboard without the added complications of changing key centers and fingerings. Also covers minor scales and modes and patterns. 40 jam-packed pages with a 26-track CD.

All Intros & Endings for Jazz Guitar: Bebop, Swing, Latin, Ballads	Cedar & Silver: Music for Solo Guitar	Shapes, Patterns & Lines for Jazz Guitar	Moonstone: Music for Solo Guitar


Dozens of hip intros and endings that you can not only use on the gig tonight, but also use as a starting point for developing your own ideas. Includes chord progressions, voice-led ending chords, vamps (bebop, swing, Latin, ballads), extended ideas, classic intros, many concepts, and more. 40 jam-packed pages (tab as well as standard notation), with a 40-track CD. "Jim Ferguson continues with a terrific book of all intros and endings. If you've ever had trouble coming up with interesting intros or endings, this will surely help. Highly recommended." —Just Jazz Guitar Magazine	Jim's first solo CD includes 11 original compositions plus two arrangements/medleys for fingerstyle guitar that meld world, classical, jazz, and blues elements. Highlights include the title track, "Asian Pavan," "Brothers," "Horace," "Aurora," "Nisene," and "Blanca." "Medley for Kirk" includes the love theme from Spartacus plus the theme from The Vikings. "Gospel Medley" includes jazzy treatments of "Amazing Grace," "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Sheet music available (for sheet music not listed on this page, please Contact Us). For CDs and downloads, see: Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, and CDBaby. "All the pieces are unique and distinctive....Throughout [Cedar & Silver] there is a wonderful feeling of soulful sensitivity demonstrated by this ever so multifaceted virtuoso guitar player." —Dr. Frank Forte, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine	Unleash the improvisational power of fingerboard shapes—utilized by many guitar greats—with this book, which covers numerous major, minor, and dominant chord-based patterns and superimpositions, and a host of ideas and concepts to help you assemble them into dynamic solos. 32 pages including four complete solos on common song forms/progressions and a 28-track CD. "I would highly recommend this book. The concepts presented are easily digested and applied by any level of player and the material is laid out in a clear, easy-to-follow manner." —Matthew Warnock, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine	Jim's second solo CD features 17 original compositions for classical/fingerstyle guitar, four of which are included in the Contemporary Anthology of Solo Guitar Music for Five Fingers of the Right Hand ("Before Six," "Leo's Blues," "Chuck's Waltz," and "Sumi Dance"). Highlights include the title track (a 9:24 tribute to the music of India), "Lady Di," "Cirque du Soul," and the first six 12 Simple Jazzy Studies. Sheet music available (for sheet music not listed on this page, please Contact Us). For CDs and downloads, see: Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, and CDBaby. "[Moonstone] is convincing evidence of Jim Ferguson's place among the great fingerstyle jazz guitar artists. He fits in the ranks of Gene Bertoncini, Charlie Byrd, Ken Hatfield, and Lenny Breau. See if you hear it in Moonstone." —Just Jazz Guitar Magazine


Contemporary Anthology of Solo Guitar Music for Five Fingers of the Right Hand	*12 Simple Jazzy Studies*	*Lady Di*	*Cirque du Soul*


This is the first compilation of guitar music specifically composed for right-hand technique that includes the little finger. The 57 compositions are by a host of renowned guitarist/composers (including Jim Ferguson). The pieces show the advantages of a five-finger technique in the playing of scales, chords, arpeggios, tremolos and harmonics, and the advantages of using the little finger for speed, accuracy, strength and balance. All the compositions were edited and fingered by Charles Postlewate, pioneer of the five-finger technique. Standard notation only. In English and Spanish. 156 pages. Jim's contributions: "Leo's Blues," "Before Six," "Chuck's Waltz," "Sumi Dance," "Debussiana," and "Asian Pavan." N.B. Click here for Changes/Additions/Errata (for Jim's pieces only). "This book offers a very rich collection of good music from the pens of experienced and successful composers!" —Thomas Bittermann, Concertino Magazine	In 12 Simple Jazzy Studies, Jim presents 12 pieces in nine keys, featuring a wealth of rhythms, chord voicings, and settings. Easy to intermediate; 24 pages, standard notation only, published by Les Productions d'OZ. Six of the studies are included on Jim's CD Moonstone, and all of the studies are included on Jim's CD 24 Jazzy Studies (available separately). To view the first page, click here. Sound samples: See tracks 1 - 12 of 24 Jazzy Studies, on: iTunes N.B. Click here for Changes/Additions/Errata. "The studies are engaging and a rewarding challenge well worth the time to play them." —Dr. Frank Forte, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine	Published by the prestigious Les Productions d'OZ, this vibrant guitar solo wavers between Mixolydian and major tonalities, as it moves toward a dynamic middle section that sequences back to the main theme. Standard notation only; 4 pages. To view the first page, click here. For a sound sample of Lady Di, click here. "This little gem...would be ideal as a little filler in a concert and deserves to do well." —Chris Dumigan, Classical Guitar Magazine	Published by Les Productions d'OZ, this kinetic solo composition, whose primary performance instruction is "Festive and a bit off kilter," conjures a circus atmosphere, with its unique balance of chaos and order, grace and suspense. Standard notation only; 8 pages. To view the first page, click here. For a sound sample of Cirque du Soul, click here. N.B. Click here for Changes/Additions/Errata. "Cirque du Soul is a quirky and humorous piece, with an occasional hint of menace, which successfully evokes the strange world of the circus with its slightly off-kilter view of the world...an interesting and attractive composition...which I would imagine, could become many a student's favourite piece...." —Steve Marsh, Classical Guitar Magazine

*Film Noir—Four Scenes*	*Four Monsters*	*Requiem For A Fallen Artist*	*Winedark Sea*


Film Noir—Four Scenes ("Dark Streets & Shadows," "Wheelman," "Femme Fatale," and "Heater"), Jim's ambitious tribute to classic films of the 1940s and 1950s, published by Les Productions d'OZ. Rife with effects that conjure clock tolls, footsteps, squealing tires, a kiss, and a fatal gunshot, Film Noir evokes dark moods, tense situations, and violent conclusions. Challenging but accessible; standard notation only, 16 pages. To view the first page, click here. Sound samples: Dark Streets & Shadows Wheelman Femme Fatale Heater N.B. Click here for Changes/Additions/Errata. "This is a really interesting work and something that would be most effective in a recital...well worth investigating and wonderful fun to work out and play." —John Arran, Classical Guitar Magazine	In the Gothic tradition, Four Monsters explores various shades of darkness (with a bit of humor thrown in), conjuring images of bleak, fog-ridden landscapes and clandestine laboratories. Movements: "Frankenstein Meets The Jazzman," "The Raven Vanishes," "Mad Love," and "The Fly." Technical requirements are moderate to difficult ("The Fly"). Standard notation only; 16 pages, published by Les Productions d'OZ. To view the first page, click here. Sound samples: Meredith Connie's performances of "Frankenstein Meets The Jazzman" and "Mad Love" and "The Fly" Meredith Connie’s Fairy Tales, Monsters And Wild Animals CD, which includes the entire Four Monsters suite. N.B. Click here for Changes/Additions/Errata. "Well, here is a strange one indeed....I can see this having quite an impact." —Steve Marsh, Classical Guitar Magazine	Jim develops a single rhythmic motive in the context of both modal and sequential harmonies throughout this highly organic solo composition. Now available as a single publication, "Requiem" is also featured in the anthology 25 Compositions (Les Productions d'OZ), and was recorded by the marvelous Canadian classical guitarist Marlène Lemay. Standard notation only; 4 pages. To view the first page, click here. Sound sample: Marlène Lemay plays Jim's "Requiem For A Fallen Artist" from 25 Compositions	Dedicated to Maestro JoAnn Falletta for her support and encouragement, "Winedark Sea" is a programmatic piece inspired by Homer's The Odyssey. Featuring Jim's characteristic jazz harmonies, it suggests the launching of ships, rough waters, and calm seas. Standard notation only; 4 pages, published by Les Productions d'OZ. To view the first page, click here. "What a gorgeous piece—haunting and unforgettable." —JoAnn Falletta, conductor and guitarist

Comping Standards For Jazz Guitar	*Jazzotica*	12 Semi-Simple Jazzy Studies	24 Jazzy Studies: Solo Guitar


Jim—author of the highly acclaimed All Blues For Jazz Guitar: Comping Styles, Chords & Grooves—again helps you take your playing to the next level with Comping Standards For Jazz Guitar. Using common jazz chord progressions, the book walks you through three primary comping approaches: straight-four, moving bass lines, and combo variants. In the process, you'll learn numerous chord voicings, ways to organize them, and a wide variety of dynamic rhythmic figures used in jazz. The material comes to life on the accompanying 17-track CD. In both standard notation and tablature; 32 pages.	This three-part suite for solo classical guitar, Jazzotica, integrates jazz harmonies, odd meters, and a variety of other dynamic elements. Movement I: fast, in 7/8 and 5/4. Movement II: a slow and delicate off-kilter waltz. Movement III: spirited in the Mixolydian mode, includes a quasi ad. lib. section, and a dramatic ending. Standard notation only; 11 pages, published by Les Productions d'OZ. To view the first page, click here. "This is a first-class piece of writing, effortlessly individual and constantly musical and engaging. It takes a good player to do it justice, but lesser talents will also enjoy trying to wrap their heads around this fine, entertaining work." —Chris Dumigan, Classical Guitar Magazine	Building on 12 Simple Jazzy Studies, in 12 Semi-Simple Jazzy Studies, Jim presents 12 pieces in ten keys, featuring a wealth of rhythms, chord voicings, and settings. Intermediate elements include odd meters, barres, right-hand harmonics, and upper position episodes. Standard notation only; 24 pages, published by Les Productions d'OZ. All of the studies are included on Jim's CD 24 Jazzy Studies (available separately). To view the first page, click here. Sound samples: See tracks 13 - 24 of 24 Jazzy Studies, on: iTunes N.B. Click here for Changes/Additions/Errata.	Jim performs his dynamic 12 Simple Jazzy Studies and 12 Semi-Simple Jazzy Studies on one CD. 49 minutes. For CDs and downloads, see: Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, and CDBaby.

*Night Cats*


Ambiguously named for felines or jazz musicians, Jim’s newest three-part suite for solo classical guitar consists of a slow, dissonant opener (I); a melodic, extended waltz (II), with contrary motion that expands harmonically and a long parallel chord episode; and a rousing finale (III), with contrasting sections and numerous harmonic surprises. Advanced. Standard notation only; 8 pages, published by Les Productions d’OZ. To view the first page, click here. "The jazz element is there, but Ferguson’s approach is more subtle and original." —Chris Dumigan, Classical Guitar Magazine

Jim Ferguson's Books, Compositions, and CDs