Lessons, Books & Tools

Everything you need to fill the holes in your playing and unlock your creative voice on the guitar.

Join the Class โ†’
๐ŸŽ“ Study With Me
Guided lessons, accountability, and a community of guitarists working through the fundamentals together.
Creative Guitar Fundamentals Class
Program
Creative Guitar Fundamentals
My online class on Skool. Cameraderie and accountability with loads of content and materials. Master the fundamentals with a community of like-minded guitarists.

๐Ÿ›  Free Web Apps
Interactive tools for exploring scales, chords, fretboard positions and more. All free, all in your browser.
Guitar Burpees
App
Guitar Burpees
The ultimate fretboard workout. Roll a random root note and quality, then work through 10 steps: triads, arpeggios, pentatonics, scales, chords and colorful voicings across 6 qualities.
Zone Workout
App
Guitar Burpees: Zone Workout
A focused, single-position version. See how roots, triads, arpeggios, pentatonics, scales and chords all live in the same zone โ€” revealed layer by layer like anatomy transparencies.
4-Note Universe
App
4-Note Universe
Explore the relationship between scales and 4-note chords. Pitch clock visualization, interval transformations, negative harmony and rhythmic notation โ€” all interactive.
Modal Dice
App
Modal Dice
Digital version of the physical dice set. Roll a parent scale, mode and pitch to randomize your practice. 6 parent scales, 8 modes, 12 pitches โ€” endless combinations.

๐Ÿ“š Books
Available as eBook (PDF), spiral-bound, or softcover from Amazon. Visit the store โ†’
Creative Guitar Fundamentals
BookNewest
Creative Guitar Fundamentals
213 pages. Systematic exercises for your hands, ears, eyes and mind. Triads, arpeggios, inversions, 7th chord voicings, creative arrangements and original compositions. The textbook for my Skool class.
eBook $20 ยท Spiral $34.99 ยท Amazon $29.99
The 4-Note Universe
Book
The 4-Note Universe
332 pages. A systematic exploration of all 165 four-note chords and arpeggios in 43 groups. With 43 duet etudes, audio files and video links. Every 4-note chord that exists.
eBook $25 ยท Spiral $44.99 ยท Amazon $39.99
J.S. Bach Partita no. 1
Book
J.S. Bach Partita no. 1 for Electric Guitar
8 movements from BWV 1002, arranged as if Bach intended them for Fender Telecaster. TAB and standard notation. Video performance links included.
eBook $10
Modal Etudes
Book
Modal Etudes
36 etudes in 35 tonalities. With a foreword by Dweezil Zappa. Standard notation and TAB versions available. The ultimate modal workout.
eBook $10 ยท Spiral $21.99 ยท Amazon $16.99
Voicing Modes
Book
Voicing Modes
3rd edition. 181 pages. A chord-voicing approach to hearing and practicing modes. For comping, improvisation, reharmonization and composition. 12 modal etudes with YouTube performance links.
eBook $10 ยท Spiral $24.99 ยท Amazon $19.99

โœ๏ธ Articles
Published in Premier Guitar magazine.

๐ŸŽ Free Resources
Samples, tools and videos to get you started.
Free
Creative Fundamentals โ€” Free Sample
Introduction and triad arpeggios chapter from the textbook.
Free
Voicing Modes โ€” Free Sample
Sample pages from the 3rd edition of Voicing Modes.
Free
YouTube Channel
Performance videos, tutorials, Bach arrangements, and more.

๐Ÿ’ฌ What People Are Saying

"Musicians of all types will seriously benefit from the melodic and harmonic concepts presented in Noel's book. It unlocks several mysteries, and then some! It takes the age-old 'what scale goes with what chord?' question into outer space and answers it from there."

โ€” Mark Lettieri, Guitarist (Snarky Puppy)

"Noel Johnston's modal dice method reveals all guitarists' strengths and weaknesses while simultaneously providing fun ways to improve their overall musicality."

โ€” Dweezil Zappa (from the foreword to Modal Etudes)

"His new book is the fruit of decades of obsession and depth at a topic about which so many of us thought there was little more to understand. Noel is the single most profound person I've ever known on scales and modal voicings."

โ€” Mark Cuthbertson (Fantasticboom)

"I just cracked open Noel Johnston's new Voicing Modes book. In my head I was like 'I get it, I took lessons with Noel, I know modes and stuff.' NOPE โ€” I'm on page 5 and I'm already looking at things differently."

โ€” Chris McQueen, Guitarist (Snarky Puppy)

"I have been looking through the book and now remember what a 'smart' book it is! You have covered a lot of stuff! I definitely think there is no one way or best way to approach the teaching of improvisation. Your approach is consistent and clear for those that are willing to dig into it! Good work, man!"

โ€” Dan Haerle, Legendary jazz educator, pianist, author

"Beautiful. This body of work is demonstrating the electric guitar as more than a novelty. It is showing it as an entirely legitimate instrument for interpreting this music."

โ€” YouTube comment on J.S. Bach Partita no. 1