Claudio Parravicini is a master of Scruggs, melodic and single-string styles. In this book, he not only provides a theoretical and hands-on approach to improvisation, but also brings his skills to bear on stellar arrangements of Cripple Creek, The Devils Dream, Dover Breakdown, Blackberry Blossom, Blues for Rudy, Thinking Yule, and Tico-Tico—each of which is given a theme and variations treatment worth the price of admission.

Standard gDGBD tuning is used throughout. Although intended for intermediate to advanced players, diagrams for basic chord shapes are included. To introduce and clarify music theory, the first third of the book is written in standard notation before revealing hot licks in banjo tablature. As a result, it is possible to see how scales, intervals, arpeggios, and chord inversions work collectively when improvising throughout the entire fretboard.