SKEPTICAL GUITARIST

Volume One, The Big Picture, lays the groundwork: scales, chords and the Great and Powerful Circle of Fifths. These books offer a steady flow of information, rather than the Hit-and-Run School of Thought. No gaps, no loose spots, no quantum leaps. The pages have been designed to be inviting to the eye, and not clogged with information. Paragraphs are short and the margins are contoured so that the eye is swept along from line to line. Thoughts an...

In the first Scratch book, there is a smattering of theory here and there, but first things first. This is where you'll learn to finger the most common simple chords and to switch back and forth between them in a timely fashion. Along the way, it might be nice to see which chords group together in different keys and how to strum and fingerpick these chords using examples from popular music. These books offer a steady flow of information, rather t...

There is not a guitar student on earth who doesn't want to learn some Blues. This book starts you off in grand style, with easy licks you can play whether you want to sing or not. For the electric blues player, we go on a tour of the fretboard in search of the best pockets of notes for improvising. And you can also try your hand at playing slide guitar. These books offer a steady flow of information, rather than the Hit-and-Run School of Thought....

Volume Two, The Fretboard, places these scales and chords all around the neck and shows you how to construct fancy Chord Qualities all by yourself. These books offer a steady flow of information, rather than the Hit-and-Run School of Thought. No gaps, no loose spots, no quantum leaps. The pages have been designed to be inviting to the eye, and not clogged with information. Paragraphs are short and the margins are contoured so that the eye is swep...

In the Sequel, you'll look at some guitar vernacular (or common speech), work our way toward incorporating single-note playing into chord playing and then examine techniques for playing single note lines and melodies by themselves, touching on Major Scales and improvising on Pentatonic Scales. This book also covers learning to read Standard Music Notation for the guitar. It is the universal language of music and even guitarists can benefit from i...

Jazz for the Skeptical Guitarist goes on to explain the most important jazz chord progressions and gives you a handle on how to start improvising your own solos. These books offer a steady flow of information, rather than the Hit-and-Run School of Thought. No gaps, no loose spots, no quantum leaps. The pages have been designed to be inviting to the eye, and not clogged with information. Paragraphs are short and the margins are contoured so that t...

Travis-Style guitar is a fingerstyle technique where you play a melody line over an independent, alternating bassline. The second half of Fingerstyle Guitar from Scratch to teaching the simpler form of Travis-Picking, using picking patterns to accompany the voice, but here you learn to incorporate the melody itself to create instrumental versions of songs. Think Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke, John Fahey and Mississippi John Hurt, to name ...

This "Streamlined Edition" is a condensed version of the popular "Guitar From Scratch" series, including lessons from the Blues and Fingerstyle books. There is no note reading required, as all lessons are presented in tablature and chord diagrams only. You will learn basic, barre, power, and jazz chords; single note technique, melodies, basslines, major and minor scales (including pentatonics); song examples, chord progression...

This book focuses on fingerpicking, starting with the most basic tools and concepts and working up to full fingerstyle accompaniment parts for some popular songs. The first part gets you playing arpeggios (broken chords) and the second part introduces specialized arpeggios known as Travis-Style picking patterns. These books offer a steady flow of information, rather than the Hit-and-Run School of Thought. No gaps, no loose spots, no quantum leaps...

The Fingerstyle book is presented in Tablature, and there is a 20-page tutorial, called Fingerstyle 101, if you need it. Then each carol is presented at three different levels of difficulty, so no matter what your degree of prowess on the guitar, you'll be able to play something. Level One can even be played using a pick if you have no interest in fingerpicking. Level Two arrangements are more colorful, incorporating basslines, arpeggios and new ...

The Strumalong book has just enough information for you to be able to lead a group of carolers: lyrics, chord symbols (with timing), chord diagrams, starting notes and strumming and fingerstyle patterns. It even has lyric sheets in the back that you are free to copy and distribute. And it has two versions of each carol, the Plain one (bare bones) and the Fancy one, where the chords are more various and the changes more frequent. These books offer...