Guitar books that give you a system, not a pile of licks
Practical methods for scales, the fretboard, theory, improvising, blues, chords and practice. Most are in Kindle, paperback and PDF.
Allan Holdsworth — A Guitarist’s Guide
His approach to chords, scales and improvisation: the 4NPS system, his chord-scale thinking, and how to apply it to your own playing.
The Guitar Hacks series
150 playing hacks for chords, scales, soloing, technique and practice, across three books.
The 2 Position System
Five CAGED shapes or seven 3NPS patterns, or two positions per key that cover the whole neck. The same two positions hold your scales, arpeggios and chords, and on bass they hold everything. Each book stands on its own.
Beginners
2 titlesFor players in their first year or two — past the first chords, not yet committed to boxes and shapes.
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Before the Boxes
The alternative beginner’s guitar book. Notes, intervals and chord tones first — the pentatonic box arrives in chapter seven, as five notes you can name rather than a shape to sit inside. Chapter one is free to read.
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Music Theory for Guitarists
The next step after Before the Boxes. How chords, keys and progressions work, worked out on the fretboard with the intervals you already know. No notation, no tab.
The 2 Position System
4 titlesTwo positions per key instead of five or seven shapes, and the same two positions for scales, arpeggios, chords and bass. No reading order: each book teaches the positions from scratch. About the series · All four as PDFs
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The 2 Position Scale System
The core system. Scales and arpeggios all over the fretboard from two positions per key, with scale changes, open-position scales and stacking.
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The 2 Position Guitar Chord System
Two grips for every chord, taken from the same two positions as your scales. Position 2 puts the root on the bottom, Position 1 the 3rd.
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Exotic Scales You’ll Actually Use
Ten exotic scales, from Phrygian dominant to Hirajoshi, each a scale you already know with a note or two moved, and the chords each one fits.
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The 2 Position Bass System
The system on bass, where it works even better: every string is a fourth apart, so the patterns never warp. Scales, chord tones and chords in one book.
Scale systems
7 titles-
Hacking the CAGED System – Book 1
The CAGED system hacked and reinvented — now it makes perfect sense. 2026 revised edition, with six new chapters.
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Hacking the CAGED System – Book 2
The CAGED system hacked and reinvented — now it works for melodic and harmonic minor scales and chords. 2026 revised edition, with three new chapters.
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Intermediate Guitar Scales Handbook
Where to go after learning pentatonic scales and how to stay musical.
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Intermediate Guitar Scales Handbook — Exotic Scales
How to incorporate exotic scales into your playing while staying musical.
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Woodshedder’s Guide to Guitar Scales
The most efficient and effective way to woodshed your scales.
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The 4NPS Scale System
Move across the fretboard like Holdsworth with this in-depth look into 4NPS scales.
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Scale Fluency series
Pentatonics, Major Scale Modes, Harmonic Minor Modes, and Melodic Minor Modes — one- and two-octave fluency across the whole neck.
Improvisation & soloing
10 titles-
Breaking the Box
A practical, 3-step guide to breaking out of scale boxes and developing true fretboard freedom.
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Melodic Soloing in 10 Days
A method for playing and thinking melodically and effortlessly, from one unforgettable class at music college.
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From Scales to Solos
Discover how zonal improvisation can take your soloing and phrasing skills to the next level.
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No Theory Guitar Soloing
The soloing system inspired by Lee Anderton — for anyone who doesn’t have time to learn theory and just wants to play.
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The Dorian Improvisation System
How to access a vast range of Dorian scales and improvise over pretty much anything.
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Beyond Pentatonics
Not about abandoning the pentatonic scale — using it as a springboard to expand your harmonic awareness.
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Major Scale Modes Designed for the Guitar
The “how do I get this on the fretboard so I can actually use it” part of learning the modes.
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Alternative Pentatonics
28 new pentatonic scales divided into chord types, so you’ll know exactly which chords to use them over.
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Guitar Hacks: Triads and Inversions
Every triad and inversion across the neck, and how they connect to the chords and intervals you already know.
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Melodic Triad Soloing: A New Approach
A fresh way to build melodic solos directly from triads, rather than scale patterns.
Blues guitar
5 titles-
Slide Guitar in Standard Tuning
Blues slide without the open tunings. In standard tuning the ♭3 and ♭7 are already under the slide, and every other note you need is a fixed distance from it.
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Simple Blues Soloing System
Blues concepts and ideas you can get up and running on the fretboard, without wading through theory and scale patterns.
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Blues Soloing Maps — Playing the Changes (Books 1 & 2)
The shortest, most powerful books you’ll ever read on how to actually play blues changes.
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The 2 Position Scale System — Blues Soloing
A genius system for learning scales and arpeggios all over the fretboard, applied to the blues.
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How to Practice the Blues
Most guitarists don’t have a technique problem — they have a listening problem. Fix it here.
Theory & harmony
6 titles-
Music Theory for Guitarists
The theory behind what you already play. Intervals, chords, keys, progressions and modes worked out on the fretboard instead of the stave. No notation, no tab. The diagrams do the explaining.
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2-Note Chords
Jazz, extended and fusion voicings from two notes, with the bass note doing the naming. A 13b9 is a nightmare as a grip and trivial as a dyad.
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No Shapes: The Interval Method
Everything on the guitar from one note. One shape to memorise, one interval map, and a list of formulas — no boxes and no diagrams anywhere in the book.
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Chords from the Top
Chords filed by the note on top rather than the root — the one the listener actually tracks. Not a chord dictionary.
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Quickstart Guides: Modes
The theory you need to access any mode in any key on the fretboard, without learning endless scale patterns.
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Hacking the CAGED System: Diatonic Harmony
A stand-alone system for constructing every component of any key signature on the fretboard. 2026 revised edition, with three new chapters.
Fourths tuning
3 titles-
Fourths Tuning Scales and Arpeggios
Move from standard tuning to fourths tuning, starting from familiar scale knowledge.
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Fourths Tuning Chords and Inversions
30+ chord types, showing how the symmetrical fretboard makes harmony more logical and easier to apply.
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Fourths Tuning Modes
A clear system for major and melodic minor modes in fourths tuning, using the symmetrical fretboard.
Extended range guitars
2 titles-
7 String Guitar Method — Book 1
A practical 7-string system covering scales, chords, and arpeggios, built from three familiar patterns.
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8 String Guitar Scales and Arpeggios
16 scale types and 5 arpeggio types, with movable fretboard diagrams for any key.
Bass
1 titleThe 2 Position System, moved to bass. Every string is a fourth apart, so there’s no warp: the patterns are the same wherever you start them.
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The 2 Position Bass System
Scales, chord tones and chords from two patterns instead of five. Every note from root to octave has one fixed place in each position. Diagrams only, no tab.
Bundles
8 bundlesWhole systems in one download, for less than buying the books separately.