Refills

The idea behind the two Refill packages is two-fold:

1. as a refill after the Jazz Exercises package: this package contains exercises that build up to real solos, and ends with one full tune. But, after that you'll want to play more full tunes, so the refills provide that: 5 new tunes with notes/TABS, and backing tracks in each refill. Furthermore, if you have set up the fretboard visualizer, you'll want more material in this format, where you can take advantage of this way of real-time visualization. The refills are provided in the same format, so you can make full use of the visualizer again.

2. even if you do not have the Jazz Exercises, the refills are designed to be a source of accessible soloing ideas. They try to strike a balance between pure exercises on the one hand, and real live solos on the other. Pure exercises, though very useful and necessary at some point, are also necessarily limited to some aspects of soloing, whether it is scales, chords, rhythm, phrasing etc. Therefore, they cannot sound as good and complete as full mature solos. On the other hand, transcriptions of real live solos of some jazz guitar master, can be a step too far: too complicated and too hard to grasp, too much going on at the same time. The solos in the Refills, as played by Matt Otten, are played as fully mature solos, but keeping it as clear and comprehensible as possible. Furthermore, each tune has at least two solos, one a bit easier than the other. The explanatory guide explains the principles behind each solo.

Obviously, the Smooth Jazz Refill focuses on contemporary smooth jazz tunes, while the All Jazz Refill covers mainstream jazz, that is swing/bop, latin-jazz, and a jazz waltz.

In 2024, the Refills have been upgraded and converted to online format, offfering easy access and other advantages over the old format.