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Post by PistolPete on Jul 20, 2024 13:48:22 GMT
I have an abundance of beginner guitar literature, but I've never really settled on one book I would recommend to my students. I just wondered if people here know of any they think stand out above the rest?
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Post by borborygmus on Jul 20, 2024 14:02:47 GMT
Bert Weedon's Play in a Day
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Post by martinrowe on Jul 21, 2024 9:13:41 GMT
Your post made me think PistolPete , thanks for that. I started with a small pan paperback from Smith’s ~ all I could afford and got on well with it. I learnt all the basic chords and how they related to keys. I couldn’t really use the information though. A few years later there was an advert in the local paper about a guitar repair shop opening up that was also going to give lessons. I plucked up the courage to give it a try. I went along and, with three others, learnt a classical piece, that I liked ~ pima, and a challenge. I would get home from work and spend about an hour each day learning/playing it. It was the first time I could see the progress happening day by day. I learnt a tune I liked but, and I think that this is probably the point, I started to hear how playing at different speeds changed it. I started to hear the details. I went back the next week and was the only one who could play it fluently - it was a piece of music. Quite a landmark. The teacher criticised me because I wasn’t reading the music as I was playing. I didn’t go back. The obvious thing to do was to encourage- he didn’t. Anyway, apart from the tune it was all the other stuff that, looking back, was important. i.e. it stood up as a piece of music, I was in control of it, regular practice worked, and, I started to hear the subtlety. I could play it. Perhaps there isn’t a book and perhaps they just lead to a lot of tunes/songs played to an average standard. I learnt one small piece of music played well. Perhaps the answer is to start with the student, teach them one piece that they want learn, and help them to play it very well. Perhaps the tune is just the start, what they really need to learn is how to be a musician. I’ve heard two people recently, Nicola Benedetti and Nigel Kennedy, talk in glowing terms about why Yehudi Menuhin’s playing is so good. He had the technique and, and this seemed to be their emphasis, conveyed the meaning behind the piece of music in his own way. I wonder if that is what makes people want to play music? One thing that seems to stick in my memory is that for a long time Muddy Waters only knew I can’t be satisfied. I don’t want to play it exactly like him but I want to play it as well as he does. Hope my ramblings help.
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delb0y
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Post by delb0y on Jul 21, 2024 10:12:59 GMT
I don't know about beginner books. From memory The Complete Guitar Player series was good, and Arnie Berle's Chord Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar was a revelation. But I think at beginner level it's probably better to teach songs, pieces, tunes relevant to the student. There are so many great two chord, three chord, four chord songs, so many cool but easy melodies, blues, fiddle tunes, etudes, that I'm sure any student's taste and aspirations can be accommodated.
That said, I think once some initial progression has been made the best thing is to choose a book, method, DVD, and stick with it.
I've only ever "finished" a few books, but doing so has proved very beneficial.
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Post by borborygmus on Jul 21, 2024 13:59:51 GMT
The Complete Guitar Player was by Russ Shipton - I probably spent most of my time in my late teens with Folk Guitar Styles of Today by him, and subsequent volumes. I gather that it's out of print now. As the "styles of today" included Dylan, Paxton, Donovan, Lightfoot, McTell and even Jansch, maybe a young learner today would find these songs less enticing than, say, Taylor (Swift, not James). But because it was based around learning songs that I could play and sing, it was very appealing.
Peter
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Post by Onechordtrick on Jul 21, 2024 14:15:57 GMT
The Complete Guitar Player was by Russ Shipton - I probably spent most of my time in my late teens with Folk Guitar Styles of Today by him, and subsequent volumes. I gather that it's out of print now. As the "styles of today" included Dylan, Paxton, Donovan, Lightfoot, McTell and even Jansch, maybe a young learner today would find these songs less enticing than, say, Taylor (Swift, not James). But because it was based around learning songs that I could play and sing, it was very appealing. Peter I started with Bert Weedon as well but made more progress with the Russ Shipton books. borborygmus, I think it’s still available. When I began relearning guitar after a thirty year break it was by finding tabs of tunes I wanted to play.
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cesspit
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Post by cesspit on Jul 22, 2024 8:51:34 GMT
I found books of chords the most helpful when I started. Couldn't read music and still can't, completely self taught and I play by ear. With all the internet and other lessons available today I still thing a beginner would benefit from chord books. They are the foundation of everything I've done, both rhythm playing and lead. Just my personal, uneducated thoughts.
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Post by jonnymosco on Jul 24, 2024 12:13:04 GMT
I use Beginning Fingerstyle Blues with a lot of adult beginners, generally a good approach, but some odd stretches we avoid, replaced with open strings.
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tangledfool
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Post by tangledfool on Aug 19, 2024 23:34:38 GMT
I've been making slow and unspectacular progress through Contemporary Travis Picking and Understanding DADGAD for Fingerstyle Guitar - but not on the same guitar at the same time! I just don't feel the urge to race through to page n without feeling I have at least barely mastered some of the principals/skills that the books are trying to impart. I often check my local charity shops to see what guitar tutorial books they have in stock, and last week I found this: This was the first time that I encountered Josh White, and I found his life story incredible but blighted by terrible injustice that he suffered.
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Post by Mike Fowler on Aug 24, 2024 9:06:51 GMT
I had some Russ Shipton books in the 80s but in hindsight I think that emphasis on strumming patterns was off putting. As if there was a correct way to strum each song.
Learning classical I found Fred Noad's book very helpful. For reading music and making arrangements of folk tunes I came across Robin Williamson's Penny Whistle book which is just a delight.
There was a lead guitar book as well, that utterly transformed my playing especially at the very beginning, but I can't remember the specific title. It had Pete Townshend on the cover. Being able to play little solos to chord sequences totally opened up the entire fretboard. I think this was invaluable when I became near enough exclusively acoustic about ten years later.
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minorkey
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Post by minorkey on Aug 25, 2024 20:32:51 GMT
Well I can recommend The Guitarist's Way books of course...
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