These started life as material for Tim’s chordal improvisation class that never made it into the class. Pages of short examples, written up and set aside, until it became obvious they worked better on their own than as part of something larger.

His own description of who they suit is worth repeating: players looking for more modest material, short little bits of things you can get your fingers on. That is an unusually honest pitch, and it is accurate.

The idea underneath

Everything here is built to reduce the separation between chord grips and melodic ideas. Most guitarists keep those in different compartments: chords are shapes you hold, melody is something you play over the top. The workouts treat them as one motion, where the top voice moves and the harmony follows it, or the bass shifts underneath a held idea and changes what the chord means.

How it runs

Ten workouts, roughly thirty minutes in total. The examples run through the key of C first, then the same thinking is carried into D, which is where you find out whether you learned the idea or just the fingering. Along the way there are altered dominant colors, sharp nine and flat nine sitting a melody note apart, and small bass movements that recolor a chord without changing the grip.

Nothing here takes long. That is the point of it.