TESTAMENT lead guitarist Alex Skolnick has released a new instructional book, "Jazz-Rock Guitar Improvisation: Modal Systems, Modern Chords, And Musical Freedom," out now via Hal Leonard.
Co-written with veteran New York City guitarist, educator and author Dave Rubin, the book is aimed at intermediate and advanced players looking to expand beyond conventional rock and metal vocabulary. It covers modal harmony, melodic minor modes, altered and diminished sounds, chromatic concepts and outside playing, translating those ideas into practical fretboard shapes and real-world musical applications rather than pure theory. The release includes companion online videos in which Skolnick personally demonstrates every musical example in the book, available for streaming or download, making the material usable for both independent study and private instruction.
The book draws on Skolnick's unusually broad musical background. Best known as TESTAMENT's lead guitarist since the band's earliest days, he has spent decades building a parallel career in jazz, leading the critically acclaimed Alex Skolnick Trio and studying formally at The New School's jazz program in New York. He also hosts the podcast "Moods & Modes" and serves as a regular clinician at Joe Satriani's "G4 Experience" guitar camp, reinforcing his standing as one of metal's most respected crossover educators.
Rubin, the book's co-author, brings his own extensive résumé to the project as a contributing editor to Guitar Edge magazine and the author of dozens of bestselling guitar instructional titles, lending additional pedagogical structure to Skolnick's playing concepts.
"Jazz-Rock Guitar Improvisation" is available now through Hal Leonard and music retailers worldwide. For a guitarist who has spent more than three decades moving fluidly between thrash riffing and jazz improvisation, the book offers a rare distillation of that dual expertise into a single practical resource — aimed squarely at guitarists looking to break out of familiar patterns and expand their own musical vocabulary, whatever genre they call home.