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You probably wouldn't need more than ten fingers to count out the bonafide masters of this form. Pass, Montgomery, Farlow, Ellis and Breau would likely make everybody's list. Save one of those fingers for John Stowell, the guitarists' guitarist and one of the modern masters of jazz chord melody guitar.

"John Stowell plays jazz, but he doesn't use any of the clichés; he has an incredible originality. John is a master creator," says Larry Coryell. Herb Ellis agrees saying that, "More guitarists would play like John Stowell if they only knew how." John Stowell's Modern Chord Melody reveals Stowell's original approach and raises the bar for lucid, insightful instruction for jazz chord melody and improvisation.

Modern Chord Melody takes the student beyond conventional harmony and chords by introducing a broader, more contemporary palette of voicings, shapes and single note ideas. Stowell beckons students to think out of the box, to create and visualize new shapes and sounds on the instrument. John also demonstrates a series of new inversions, which can be readily employed in accompaniments and compositions, and may also serve as templates on the neck to generate unusual and original sounding melodies and motifs.

Students will play their way through Modern Chord Melody using Stowell's original tunes as a workbook for demonstrating the new techniques and sounds presented in the course. Each arrangement showcases key techniques and approaches in context, after which Stowell explains how to extract and apply the moves in your own playing, arrangements and compositions.

Modern Chord Melody is not for the feint of heart. Much of the material in this course presents new approaches, voicings and techniques that will take serious practice time to absorb and master. Modern Chord Melody will reward the student's diligence with an impressive faculty for chord melody.