I have purchased Chordal Bebop Lines by Jim Bastian in the three-volume set. What I can say is that the chords and chord forms are great, the idea is to give yourself a nice chord "vocabulary" with which you can improvise. I think the first volume does a great job of this. The second and third volumes contain transcriptions from solos, which I think speak for themselves as they are transcriptions of Kessel, Montgomery and others.

As for the musical examples in volume 1, I agree with guitarplayer007, that they are somewhat basic. But, I found that once you vary the RHYTHM of the examples, you instantly get very rich bebop phrases in block chord chunk fashion. I think the author kept the rhythms as basic as possible for the initial musical example exercises. So, if you have a creative and "busy" rhythmic ear, these examples will provide you with great chordal combinations to tweak as you like.

Also, another book that provides a great chord "vocabulary" is "Chords for Jazz Guitar: The Complete Guide to Comping, Chord Melody, and Chord Soloing" by Charleston Johnson. I bought this book before Chordal Bebop lines, and it also provides a great "vocabulary" of movable block chords for improvised chord soloing (not chord melody). As the author of Chordal Bebop Lines points out, there is indeed a drought of instructional material on chord soloing, but I feel this book by Johnson doesn't get mentioned enough when discussing the body of literature for chord soloing. I do, however, find Johnson's transcription method somewhat cumbersome compared to Jim Bastian's books.

Lastly, you don't actually need a whole ton of chords to do chord soloing, just enough to allow you state what you feel for a given song. I feel Bastian's book will give you material that you can spend years working through, which is a great resource.


To me chord soloing is one of the funnest aspects of playing jazz guitar. It's also something that places jazz guitarists in their own little "niche", because other most other jazz instruments are limited to single-note soloing. So, I feel it's almost our duty as a jazz guitar community to continue pushing the forefront of chord soloing. Just my two cents.


Thanks, and God bless,

Jay R.