Guitar Fretboard Workbook
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Book Reviews of Guitar Fretboard Workbook
Book Review: Takes away all my frustration and worry about learning the guitar.
Summary: 5 Stars
First off all I can say on this book is praise.
Having recently started playing around on a guitar I've taken a look at counless 'beginner' websites and lessons out there on the net and have purchased quite a fair number of books for the learner that claim to be for those of us who are starting out from little to no musical background. And I can't knock them, they all will have and do have their place in my learning. Three of them that I highly recommend to the novice:
-'Guitar For Dummies' is quite humourous and is currently helping me practice proper technique and learning the chords.
-'Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method' is quite nicely laid out, and is making musical notation not seem so daunting. Sure TAB is wonderful but this book is really a great read and makes notation a bit easier to grasp and relate to the strings.
-And then we come to this book, 'Guitar Fretboard Workbook'. And that'll be the focus from here on.
This is an amazingly well put together lesson book. I was a bit skeptical about all the positive reviews and everybody claiming how it magicly helped them understand the fretboard. But I must say this is my favorite guitar book. The author really knows just how to put words to the concepts that all of us can understand, even those just starting out in the musical world.
Every turn of the page brings a new lesson and a new excercise for you to work on. And these arn't monotonous pages, each one brings a new concept into play and ties into the previous pages. Truely the author speaks to you and knows just how to grind the basic concepts of the guitar/fretboard into your memory, both mental and muscle memory, all while you are actually enjoying what you are learning.
Other books I have tried while very usefull do have the feel that you ARE working to learn the instrument, where in 'Guitar Fretboard Workbook' you keep wanting to practice your lesson so you can turn the page and keep building.
This book is well worth it's weight in gold if you are starting your guitar experience and want to get a very well written intro into the insturment and to know what exactly you are doing when all those other books are telling you to put your fingers on certain points of the neck instead of just nodding your head and putting your fingers where the dots tell you.
Book Review: Even if you have other methods BUY THIS BOOK
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was bought early, as I will be doing more scale work after I complete the current project. I got the book on Friday and was immediately sucked in. By Sunday I was able to find a note on the fretboard in seconds AND identify any note on the fretboard in Seconds. Prior to this weekend the area above fret 5 on strings 1 through 4 took me almost 30 seconds per note. Also note I had gone through almost 20 blank fretboard printouts in one weekend. I have set aside my other project for the last two weeks of this year to make sure I do the exercises in chapters 2-5 daily to ingrain this wonderful stuff in long term memory. I will also be writing things and say things out of my other methods as well. I also plan on returning to this method once my current project is complete (a bit earlier than originally planned).
As with all methods I get, I read ahead. Chapters 1, 3 and 6 are review for me. Even though it was not an issue for me (already knew major scale patterns), I can see the issue with Chapter 7. There is a jump from major scale pattern on one string to full the major scale patterns across the strings. Unfortunately, this jump is common to most methods. The missing step is how to turn the major scale on one string into the 5 common major scale fragments (in order from lowest to highest string VII-I-II, III-IV-V, VI-VI-I, II-III-IV V-VI and back to VII-I-II) and then how to reassemble them (in the order given) to create the 5 scale patterns (same fragment used on strings 1 and 6). By learning fragments first, learning all scales becomes easier to understand and you will learn them faster.
I won't be able to tell you about chapters 8 and beyond until sometime next year. For chapters 1-5 alone BUY THIS BOOK and you get the free bonus of all the other chapters! I also bought this book (and 100 blank fretboard diagram pages) for my brother who also plays guitar.
With this book I highly recommend you find a good blank fretboard diagram page (with multiple diagrams per page) and print out 100 copies. Use these instead of writing in book, that way you can do the exercises multiple times daily until you are ready to move on.
Book Review: Excellent book
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a player of over 12 years now and finally realized that it was time I get serious about this instrument. Up to this point, I was able to sit with a program and learn songs at half speed and "knew" my scales but whenever I sat down with a jam track it just sounded like noodling. I could play some fairly complicated tracks but when asked to produce something myself all that came out was some scales and, at best, some quotes from other songs. I wanted to break this barrier and having studied music years before had a strong feeling my lack of theory was the disconnect.
You can learn scale shapes but without theory they sound lame. You can learn chords but need some theory to give them direction. This book forces you to learn the fretboard (something I never bothered with beyond the 6th and 5th string), learn the CAGED method (I taught myself the three note per string shapes), Pentatonic and Major scale shapes in CAGED, focusing not on shapes but the notes contained and where within those shapes, intervals, arpeggios and from that point on more heavy duty stuff.
This book isn't a learn licks book, instead it really teaches you your instrument. It sounds cliche, but this book has really opened up the guitar as well as made the scales much more applicable and understandable. Forcing you to use the arpeggios allows you to find notes of the progression within the scale and transform your solo from noodling to solid harmony.
While this book isn't the magic bullet that will solve all of your problems most people here have, correctly, identified that this is the critical step from intermediate into advanced player. If you spend the time with this book and literally think about it during your free time to conceptualize and internalize the information, it breaks down most of the barriers in your playing. After this book, many things will make more sense and suddenly lick books, your favorite songs and other additional teachings will mean much more to you. For this reason, I am happy to have read and practiced the teachings of this book and recommend it highly.
Book Review: Absolutely a necessity to learn guitar
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is amazing. I started to "learn" guitar 6 months ago. I thought I had a good understanding of the guitar fretboard. Once I started using this book I realized I was going about it the wrong way. If I had used this book as the first thing I ever learned about guitar I would be 10 times better now. Previously I had learned about 20 chord shapes, the major scale, and the minor pentatonic scale. I could play lot's of songs by reading tab and listening, but now I can create original music. It is so easy now. The easy part of guitar is the technique, to a point. The hard part is understanding theory and applying it to the fretboard quickly without much thought. This book makes that easy. Now I truly "see" the fretboard. I am also starting to "see" patterns from songs and understand exactly where they come from and why. Now, don't think if you buy this book and skim through it you will be a great guitar player. You have to actually use it. Follow their easily laid out directions and you will benefit greatly from it. Simple ideas like reading, speaking, writing, and playing in different combinations truly do work. It is more of a music course than just a book.
I also purchased an ear training book at the same time, "The 12 Notes of Music". It goes perfectly with this book. When you can see, hear, understand, and apply music you will be a great guitar player. These two books can get you there.
I spent literally hundreds of dollars on guitar books previous to these two books, only to use once or twice and collect dust. I am no longer looking for more guitar books. I am finally content, and ready to become a great musician. I hope you are too. Rock on!
Book Review: The fretboard is your friend
Summary: 5 Stars
I have an entire bookcase full of music theory books and how to play the guitar. Not one of them has approached the topic like this book does. I would not recommend this book for beginners who don't have a teacher or mentor. Sort of like trying to visualize driving a car by looking at the mechanical pieces. You need a foundation for it to really start turning the gears (IMHO). But for people like me who have played for 25 years but are tired of memorizing the different scales and chords and feeling "boxed in", now I can 'go anywhere I want', this book was absolutely FREEING for me.
I now can choose any note, make it my root (regardless of the key), know where all the other roots are and create a scale (Major, Minor, Pent etc) on the fly and even alter or bounce between them! I no longer care (or even know) what key I am in, everything is a half or whole step or several combined for interval playing, but everything sounds good and related and I can change direction on any note. This has been the 'lightbulb' for me.
The Fretboard IS laid out with a logic and a purpose that I never fully understood until reading this book. Like the author pointed out, each string is like a keyboard with all the notes laid out. We need to understand how one string relates to the next. I look at the neck very differently and can now see the notes that are related to the one I am playing and make a choice depending on feel and emotion I want to impart, I am not 'limited' to the scale, and everything makes sense! Highly recommended.