How would you compare with these 2 series??

[mrkpower]

They are the two complete guitar methods in the book market. Assume student want to learn advanced guitar knowledge systematically after finishing Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1-3, which series would you recommend and why??

1) A Modern Method for Guitar (Volumes 1-3) by William Leavitt
2) Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method (Grade 4-7)

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by mrkpower

They are the two complete guitar methods in the book market. Assume that the student wants to learn advanced guitar knowledge systematically after finishing Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1-3. Which series would you recommend and why??

1) A Modern Method for Guitar (Volumes 1-3) by William Leavitt
2) Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method (Grade 4-7)

Hi mrkpower...

I like the way the Modern Method (Leavitt) displays the staff when teaching. It shows which string to play the note on, and the fingerings.

It is a Berklee College of Music publication, and is the basis for their guitar instruction course.

Given Berklee's reputation and experience as a music teaching institution it gets my nod.

You can even get the first book with an accompanying DVD-rom for the price of about one private lesson. The DVD part is taught by Larry Baione who is the chair of the guitar department at Berklee College of Music.

[DupleMeter]

Have to give a vote for the Berklee books...but, in full disclosure, I'm a Berklee grad., so I used those quite extensively while at Berklee. I like the Modern Method books for several reasons. The exercises are designed very intelligently to get a guitarist deeper into music & at the same time the exercises are quite musical (especially the duets). I can go through 6 or 7 students a day & not be ready to jump off a bridge

I actually start all my new guitar students off with "The Guitar, Phase I", another Berklee Press book that starts even more basic and gets a new student reading notation and playing quite quickly.

I'm a big fan of the Berklee Press books all in all. I even add a couple other books to advanced students lists (Melodic Rhythms For Guitar & Classical Studies for Pick Style Guitar).

HTH

[mrkpower]

Thanks for you guys' inputs.
Anyone has experience with Mel Bay?

[DupleMeter]

Sure - I played through the Mel Bay stuff when I was a kid. Can't say I would choose them over the Berklee books (and I don't).

[mrkpower]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

Sure - I played through the Mel Bay stuff when I was a kid. Can't say I would choose them over the Berklee books (and I don't).

How good or how bad the Mel Bay stuff is?

[AX17609]

When I was a kid, we all made fun of the Mel Bay stuff. It was considered "old fashioned". I have to admit, though, that the company's newer publications are pretty good. Either they have gotten better, or my appreciation has increased with advancing age.

[DupleMeter]

Originally Posted by mrkpower

How good or how bad the Mel Bay stuff is?

It's not that I would say it's bad. But when you put the 2 books side by side the Mel Bay lacks the cohesiveness that the Berklee books have. Bill Leavitt really put a lot of thought into the material and the order. I don't get that with the Mel Bay books. The Modern Method books "trick" you into a more "total musician" type of practice method. He was a crafty guy in the way he made you learn more than you thought you were learning.

[mrkpower]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

It's not that I would say it's bad. But when you put the 2 books side by side the Mel Bay lacks the cohesiveness that the Berklee books have. Bill Leavitt really put a lot of thought into the material and the order. I don't get that with the Mel Bay books. The Modern Method books "trick" you into a more "total musician" type of practice method. He was a crafty guy in the way he made you learn more than you thought you were learning.

Can I say Mel Bay series is relatively simpler than Berklee's which students would feel easier to learn?

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by mrkpower

Can I say Mel Bay series is relatively simpler than Berklee's which students would feel easier to learn?

Hi mark...

I've taught for over 40 years now, and can tell you if you under-challenge students, they underperform.

If I were to choose one of these to bring up a student from scratch to a reasonably knowledgeable student and player, it would be the Berklee series.

They cover the same material, but the Berklee is better presented and more plainly written for the guitarist.

[Geof S.]

I am a big fan of Mel Bay books, so I would vote for them.

I have the Leavitt series but I couldn't get into them. The first volume is very dry, moves too fast in spots, and doesn't have much by way of explanations. It seems like it was intended to be used with a teacher. The content may be very good and it might work for music majors who are getting constant feedback, but I don't think it is nearly as well-designed for the average learner as Mel Bay's material is.

The Mel Bay method books were intended for self study and they tell you everything you need to know. They have been around for a long time and they are still selling because they work. Also, for most people I think their chances of actually completing the material are much higher with Mel Bay than with Leavitt. I don't know what percentage of people who buy the three Leavitt volumes actually complete them all, but I would guess it's very low.

[mrkpower]

Originally Posted by Geof S.

I am a big fan of Mel Bay books, so I would vote for them.

I have the Leavitt series but I couldn't get into them. The first volume is very dry, moves too fast in spots, and doesn't have much by way of explanations. It seems like it was intended to be used with a teacher. The content may be very good and it might work for music majors who are getting constant feedback, but I don't think it is nearly as well-designed for the average learner as Mel Bay's material is.

The Mel Bay method books were intended for self study and they tell you everything you need to know. They have been around for a long time and they are still selling because they work. Also, for most people I think their chances of actually completing the material are much higher with Mel Bay than with Leavitt. I don't know what percentage of people who buy the three Leavitt volumes actually complete them all, but I would guess it's very low.

Do they cover the same things?
Thanks!

[Geof S.]

Originally Posted by mrkpower

Do they cover the same things?
Thanks!

It's very hard to answer this question. Leavitt's books have tables of contents; Mel Bay's don't. And there is a lot of material in both series: Leavitt's three volumes have about 400 pages of material; Mel Bay's seven volumes have maybe 650 pages.

My impression is that Leavitt moves through new concepts rather more quickly than Mel Bay. Whereas Leavitt will give just a couple of exercises/songs and then move on to something else, Mel Bay will have a number of exercises/songs (sometimes as many as a dozen). So I wouldn't be surprised if Leavitt covers considerably more ground in 400 pages than Mel Bay does in 650.

I may have sounded too negative about Leavitt's series in my last post. It didn't work for me, but I do think it would work much better with a teacher, and if you are super-motivated and very ambitious you might be able to do it on your own.

Just one more thought to add. If you do decide to go with Mel Bay, I wouldn't start with Volume Four. The coverage in Mel Bay is a little different than Hal Leonard and more dense. Even in Volume Two of Mel Bay I think there is a significant amount of material that isn't found in Hal Leonard, and some of the flatpicking exercises in the second half of the book are actually pretty challenging. There would obviously be some overlap but you might miss out on some important things if you skipped Mel Bay Volumes Two and Three.

[DupleMeter]

That's funny, I always felt the Mel Bay books jumped around without rhyme or reason & didn't seem to stick with a new concept long enough make it work. I guess it's all in the way you approach it & what you're looking for from the books.

BTW, if you are a beginner jumping into the books alone, Modern Method is not for you. You need to start with The Guitar Phase 1 (and then Phase 2). The Modern Method books were meant for advanced students who already have a solid grasp of basic music concepts & guitar techniques. Consider that 1st year guitar students at Berklee start with Modern Method Vol. 1.

You need to consider all the Leavitt books in the order they were meant to be consumed or else you're comparing apples to oranges. The complete Leavitt method is:
The Guitar, Phase 1 > The Guitar, Phase 2 > A Modern Method for Guitar Vol. 1 > A Modern Method for Guitar Vol. 2 > A Modern Method for Guitar Vol. 3

And you also want to consider the supplemental books: Melodic Rhythms, Reading Studies, Advanced Reading Studies, Classical Studies for Pick-style Guitar. These were meant to go hand in hand with the other books, starting with the Modern Method books.

So, when you put all that together - the Leavitt books have far more material & cover a lot more ground that the Mel Bay. Plus, they cover techniques and material that you'd experience in real world playing scenarios (like pickup gigs, GB bands, theater pit bands, et al).

[mrkpower]

Originally Posted by Geof S.

It's very hard to answer this question. Leavitt's books have tables of contents; Mel Bay's don't. And there is a lot of material in both series: Leavitt's three volumes have about 400 pages of material; Mel Bay's seven volumes have maybe 650 pages.

My impression is that Leavitt moves through new concepts rather more quickly than Mel Bay. Whereas Leavitt will give just a couple of exercises/songs and then move on to something else, Mel Bay will have a number of exercises/songs (sometimes as many as a dozen). So I wouldn't be surprised if Leavitt covers considerably more ground in 400 pages than Mel Bay does in 650.

I may have sounded too negative about Leavitt's series in my last post. It didn't work for me, but I do think it would work much better with a teacher, and if you are super-motivated and very ambitious you might be able to do it on your own.

Just one more thought to add. If you do decide to go with Mel Bay, I wouldn't start with Volume Four. The coverage in Mel Bay is a little different than Hal Leonard and more dense. Even in Volume Two of Mel Bay I think there is a significant amount of material that isn't found in Hal Leonard, and some of the flatpicking exercises in the second half of the book are actually pretty challenging. There would obviously be some overlap but you might miss out on some important things if you skipped Mel Bay Volumes Two and Three.

Thanks for your inputs!!
When you say Mel Bay doesn't have table of content, I go to Amazon to check it out immediately, and I found it has the tables for CD's only.
That's interesting......... they don't have the tables of contents for material even in their new expanded editions.