Guitar method books

tranceFusion · #1 09-17-2009, 10:37 AM

Is there a method book series for guitar that people get as excited about as Friedland's books for bass?

Billnc · #2 09-17-2009, 11:00 AM

Not that I know of, but I swear by the Mel Bay still. If a method book has tabs in it it is garbage. There may be good books on how to do some things for guitar, but as a general method I dtill like Mel Bay.

tranceFusion · #3 09-17-2009, 02:09 PM

Is that Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method that you are talking about? I noticed there is also a Chord series of books.. do the method books not cover chords??

The other two big sellers on amazon seem to be Leavitt (Berklee) and Hal Leonar. Are those any good?

derekd · #4 09-17-2009, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tranceFusion

Is there a method book series for guitar that people get as excited about as Friedland's books for bass?

I would say no, but frankly, there are too many guitar books out there, and so many are so so. There are books for guitar that are as good as Ed's but with the over saturation, the buzz gets diluted imo.

Ed's book is wonderful, I am using it with a couple of students currently.

tranceFusion · #5 09-17-2009, 02:50 PM

Well, I'd like to pick one up for myself to self-teach. I already have basic theoretical knowledge having played bass for a good while, but I want to be able to sight read the treble clef and play something beyond the basic open chords.

Billnc · #6 09-17-2009, 07:32 PM

The Leavitt book is good, I've found it not to be the greatest 'book' one. It assumes prior musical knowledge. I was taught the Mel Bay books one and two, and after that was taught chord melody, where I wrote my own book guided by a teacher, and the Mel Bay Rythm Guitar Method. If I remember correctly that was a good system, in fact I would consider any system I didn't have to look up again good! I did however have to remember all the scale degrees in each chord and inversion so I could make alterations.

In a nutshell, the comping system I learned was; learn the major seventh chords, 4 inversions on string group 2 3 4 and 6. Memorize the scale degrees of each inversion. Flat 7 you have dominant. Flat 3 to that and mi 7th. Etc. Raise the root a whole step for 9th chords, 5th a whole step for 13ths etc. Then memorize the ii V patterns so you see them as progressions.