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#1
02-17-2001, 05:00 PM
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Reading music and rhythm - Good Book/CD's
tbondo....(this is an edit in December, duh)....there is a bunch of jibber jabber blibber blabber down there....
the main points to be found (smile) are: 1) I like the Mastering the Guitar series ALOT...really like it....really really really like it...but I can't stand the way the beginning (just the beginning) of the first book in that series starts...if you really do want to get into reading music, YOU STILL MOST DEFINITELY WANT THAT FIRST BOOK...make sure you get the accompanying CD's 2) I like the Jerry Snyder books despite what I don't like about them...read what I wrote and ask if you've got questions...they start you off with reading music properly...with clapping..... 3) You should have another source for the most basic and beginning level note-reading...and this isn't mentioned below as far as I can tell...and for crying out loud there is nothing wrong with 'basic and beginning' level reading material if that is your current level as far as music reading... !!!!!grab this 'reading thing' by the horns... !!!!!scan and clap out the rhythms before attempting to play any part of any exercise (with 100% confidence - nothing else is even close to ok)...scan and be able to name the notes QUICKLY with 100% confidence...know what fingers you are using before you attempt to play something... !!!!!the mistake people make with reading is that they let themselves flounder on the basic beginning material - and usually right from the very first exercise...the material when you first start must be 'simple' material of course...if you play simple material poorly with no confidence, you will sound like a complete and utter fool...a totally incompetent boob...a fumbling and bumbling doofus...such failure (obviously) does not inspire further study in the slightest - it's a complete turnoff (obviously) - especially if you already know how to play more advanced material without reading (obviously).....success on the other hand just makes you hungrier for more success...think "I am i-pod man...and I have come to practice" from the first open string whole note exercise...foot stomping out the beat, head bobbing out the beat, counting loudly and purposefully....mooooooovin' and groooooooooovin' Grover gyrations (sp?)...not Bert...convince yourself that nobody in the history or future of humankind shoud be able to count to 4 with more ooooomph and pizzazzzz than yourself.... where was I? a completely basic and elementary note reading book you should do is the Book 1 Hal Leonard Guitar Method by Will Schmid (get it with a CD so you can play with accompaniment! and to heck with book 2 or book 3 or book 79...you just want the first for some additional practice with the most basic of material)...the more practice you give yourself on the basic material, the quicker your progress will be...no doubt about it...gobble it up...it is very very very very basic stuff...master it QUICKLY or you will get turned off....bumbling is not mastering... The Mastering the Guitar Series will move you to much more advanced playing and understanding... 4) something else worth pointing out... There is a series of reading materials that I don't suggest for the 'average' Joe or Jane...The Berklee Series...I had it (at least the first 2 books anyways and gave it away) The exact title if I recall is A Modern Method for Guitar by William Leavitt...it's 'the' standard teaching book that a 'serious' instructor (non-classical) will use with his/her 'serious' students.....gonna get 'serious now'... I believe it's actually in fact used at Berklee....it's a perfectly fine set of books...and there are other books that go with it...I still have the Berklee Press' Melodic Rhythm studies book...but they're really geared for someone who is going to eventually be a 'serious jazz cat studio musician type' for lack of a better phrase...they are geared towards developing true sightreading skills in the 'flat keys' for example, etc.... but they're just not what the average person needs...and frankly...I find them as dry as, or drier than, the Sahara....and I'm the type that has no problem (in general) thriving in dry climates...."Daddy, what on earth would possess you to be interested in.......blah blah blah..." If I had anything else to say I have completely forgotten it by now.... one last time...the most well-intentioned of people can bomb out with music reading....get into it right from the beginning...nice, confident, clear tones.....no hesitation, no faltering.... end of edit (smile) For what it's worth, I'll probably blab on and on in this post about why it makes sense to learn basic (at least to some minimal level) music and rhythm reading. In general, blabbing on and on (no matter how good your ideas are, no matter how sincere and well-intentioned you are) is a thoroughly ineffective way of convincing someone to do something (or not do something). If you're ever in a situation where you're trying to teach or instruct someone (or a group of someones) in ANYTHING (any parents out there?) there's really one thing that works (or some variation of): -Clear, sensible, common, and fair rules that are in the best interest of the learner. -Clear and simple definition of what it means to follow the rules. -Clear, positive, and desirable results for following the rules (delivered of course with genuine enthusiasm and smiles - lots of smiles - think you've smiled enough...smile again!) -Clear, swift, unwavering, and ABSOLUTELY EMOTIONLESS application of a SINGULAR pre-set consequence for not following the rules. Easy. Not tough. Easy for everyone involved. People are happy and productive. People don't argue. People don't feel like arguing. Works for all ages. Works for people of all backgrounds. Doesn't allow for failure. Easy. Life is easy if you watch Mr. Rogers! The man with all the answers... Hey, does Handyman Joe Negri lay down some nasty guitar in the Neighborhood or what? Seriously, the guy's a player.,,,makes it look so easy - just like Chet Atkins. Now, as long as someone's vision is OK, and they don't have some true learning disability that prevents it, one rule I have for lessons is we learn to read music. It's not easy to make interesting music reading books for guitar for various reasons. However, there are two different series of books that are worth checking out. Both have different strengths. I don't have the time right now to go into great detail about why I think they're so good....I'll be back tonight if you give a hoot.... One series is "Jerry Snyder's Guitar School" by Alfred Publishing(Books 1 and 2 - both have a CD) The other series is called "Mastering the Guitar" by Mel Bay Publications. It's a six book series (I only have 4 of the 6 - budget problems - you don't make much of a living wage giving guitar lessons quite honestly). This series of books is quite unique. Again, these books have different strengths. I'll give more detail later. I might blab, too. By the way, Mr. Rogers routinely has famous world-class musicians (and artists in general) on his show as guests. If you watch them, they genuinely smile and laugh with excitement as if being on his show is the highlight of their musical career. There's got to be something to be learned from that if you're a person interested in making music. Find something....  Jeepers, I was on a toot this day.... [This message has been edited by mapletrees (edited 02-17-2001).] [This message has been edited by mapletrees (edited 02-17-2001).] [This message has been edited by mapletrees (edited 02-17-2001).] [This message has been edited by mapletrees (edited 02-19-2001).] [ 02-23-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 12-06-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] 
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#3
02-20-2001, 06:03 PM
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Okie - Dokie....
No doubt there a lot of beginner music and rhythm reading books that are not too exciting for various reasons.. I understand no teen or adult wants to use something that looks like it was written for an 8 year old. I also understand that nobody wants to use something that looks like it isn't really going to move them into "real" playing. By the way, a good music reading book can definitely move a beginner into making "real" music quickly and efficiently. It doesn't have to be 5 books of Yankee Doodle (not that there's anything wrong with Yankee Doodle - makes for a good song to turn into a Travis picking solo, slide those sixths, slide those sixths, play it like Johnny Norris would.....). But (and this was my point that I never got to in the previous paragraph) if you already play, learning to read music and rhythm will give you new ways to make your current practice and playing much more productive and.....more MUSICAL. If you get into it, you're overall playing will get much better sounding. There's just no arguing it. You still need to do all those other things that guitarists need to do to improve, of course. But no matter how good you are, music and rhythm reading will make you better. There's two different series that are different from everything else I've seen. I've spent literally hundreds of dollars ($400? 500? more?) of my own money trying to find things that are good - and these are good! By the way, when I first started giving lessons, I was not having people read music. When I realized I was falling into the same foolish ways of most instructors (vague and unstructured lessons that don't really go anywhere), I stopped and rethought things (I also gave quite a few people their money back - 1 or 2 months lessons worth - and told them we had to start over and start doing things in a more sensible way - Mrs. Mapletrees grumped!) Gotta run....I'll get back to this.... [This message has been edited by mapletrees (edited 02-20-2001).]
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#4
02-21-2001, 02:52 AM
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I will check those out Mapletrees. I just got my fingerstyle books and cd today. I hope to start tomorrow. I had to change screen names by the way. I was Sheaman64.
Shea
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#5
02-21-2001, 06:39 PM
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If you are at all interested in learning how to read music and rhythm, I'd highly recommend getting Jerry Snyder's Guitar School (Method Book 1 and 2 - they both come with a CD - make sure you get the CD!) put out by Alfred Publishing. These are made so a teen or adult could very easily work through them without an instructor if so desired. The structure of both books is the same and it is a very sensible structure. Each book consists of two entirely separate halves. One half is devoted to basic music reading. The CD's provide very pleasant accompaniment while you play out your first stuggling notes - it's very motivational - not boring. The other half is concerned with learning how to read basic rhythm as it applies to strumming patterns and basic fingerpicking. It shows you step by step how to read rhythm slash notation (hockey stick notation) for strumming. For fingerpicking excercises it INCLUDES TABLATURE. (you play along with a rhythm section that's on the CD - it is GOOD instructional stuff!) Honestly, these rhythm halves of the books start looking awfully similiar to what you would find in guitar magazines like Guitar World Acoustic or the sort. These books move you right on to being able to read the "real thing". The CD's sound excellent. I'm not going to lie to you and say this would be something you'd put on the stereo for plain old listening enjoyment (actually, in the 2nd book there are such things) - but for instructional material they are excellent. They sound very pleasant, not really beginnerish or corny once you're past the very first and most basic couple of excercises.
I WISH SUCH MATERIALS EXISTED 25 YEARS AGO!!!!!!!! If you go to Alfred's web site you should be able to find a list of distributors for their products....I usually order these from Elderly Music (elderly.com) Jerry Snyder has lots of instructional materials, make sure your getting the right thing (and the CD) if your interested (Jerry Snyder's Guitar School Method Books 1 and 2 - not teacher's books or supplement books) The other series of books is very different - but I LOVE IT! Once you get past the the first half or so of the first book, it moves you on to playing very authentic (and pretty!) solo fingerstyle music via music reading (and tablature, too). I don't know of any other "beginner" series that is at all like this series. There is a HUGE advantage to learning to play fingerstyle pieces by reading music - you start to get a much Much MUCH clearer idea of how one goes about arranging their own fingerstyle music instead of just copying copying copying. You have a much better chance of understanding what the heck you are playing if you can read the music. IT'S A HUGE ADVANTAGE. If I could type bigger letters I would. I'll get back to this later, it's time for "work". And man, I lost the smiley face again in this post.....how do I do that? [This message has been edited by mapletrees (edited 02-21-2001).]
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#6
02-22-2001, 07:35 PM
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Boy, you sure are loaded with a plethora of great information. I can't keep up!
 Your pointers on music instructors paid off for me. I just received my first lesson from Wayne Riker. Most of the lesson was the two of us interviewing each other. Hehe. He spent some time evaluating where I was with my abilities, then wanted to know what my music goals were. He took the time to write everything into his own log book that he will keep on me. I feel very comfortable with his style. Happy me!Shea
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#7
02-23-2001, 12:17 PM
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Techno-doofus testing 1 2 3.......
This is just referring to myself..... [ 02-23-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ]
__________________
Indeed, there is something in the current DC/NY culture that equates a lack of unthinking boosterism with a lack of patriotism. As if not being drunk on the latest Dow gains is somehow un-American. - Arianna Huffington May 11, 2009
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#8
02-23-2001, 03:32 PM
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Good for you...most people go through a lot of instructors before they find a match.
Just out of curiosity , is he going to have you work through the National Guitar Workshop series (Beginning, Intermediate, and Mastering) on the blues? Remember, no matter what you're working on with an instructor, work on other things, too, if you've got the time. If he's not having you read music, go for it on your own at your own pace. Same for the fundamentals of fingerstyle. Master and move on, master and move on.... 
__________________
Indeed, there is something in the current DC/NY culture that equates a lack of unthinking boosterism with a lack of patriotism. As if not being drunk on the latest Dow gains is somehow un-American. - Arianna Huffington May 11, 2009
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#9
02-23-2001, 04:00 PM
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Just continuing on with why I like the Mastering the Guitar series...
By the way, I've edited this...I forgot to explain something...The first book in this series is 144 pages long (that's big, all of the books in this series are big and jammed full of stuff - good value), and in general, excellent - filled with lots of good stuff (the books that come after are just bursting with good stuff). I hope there's no English teachers out there picking my writing apart. However, I don't like its introduction of music reading on the first two strings at all - not a bit. The stuff at the very beginning of the book is all cluttered looking - and not very interesting musically, frankly. Definitely want to get your introduction to music reading on the first couple of strings from the Jerry Snyder books (and possibly other beginner books, too). If you were to base an opinion about the Mastering the Guitar series from just its very beginning sections that deal with the first couple strings, I don't think you'd pick the book up again. Not indicative at all of where this series will take you. These books from Mel Bay Publications (melbay.com) are by William Bay and Michael Christiansen. There's six books in total, they're called 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 2C, and a separate book called Technique Studies. Those first five books each have an accompanying double-CD set - you would absolutely want the CD's. There are actually many things on the CD's (by the later half of the first book and most definitely in all of the following books) that qualify as interesting listening music. The first book starts right at the most basic level - very simple single note reading - with very good accompaniment provided by the CD's. But this series is not like any other beginner's series. When you get past the first half or first 2/3 of the first book, you're not really in beginner territory anymore - you're quickly moving on to quite interesting stuff. There are actually many things (well, more than just a few things - at least) at the end of the first book that I can play in a guitar shop and decent players will say "hey, what was that? - that sounded pretty", or something of that nature. That's unheard of for a beginning level (book 1 !) music reading book. I want to be careful not to exaggerate - the point is the things this series of books moves you on to are much much more sophisticated and much more "guitaristic" than any other "beginnner" series I know of. You do not stay at beginner level. The format of the first book (once you're halfway or so through the first book) and the remainder of the books is one of alternating between flatfpicking and fingerstyle music. You get 5 or 10 pages of one, and then it alternates to the other. Back and forth, back and forth. I like the flatpicking stuff, and I love the fingerstyle stuff. I also like the word 'stuff'. You get bluegrassy stuff, Irish stuff, folky-gospel stuff, etc and the accompaniment is great(at least good) - it makes you feel like you're doing something of substance...and you are, of course. Frankly, the things that are supposed to sound a bit rock and rollish are a bit lame (quite lame? ok, lame.) in my opinion, but that's ok. You also with this series very quickly start getting into jazzy stuff, too. Tunes with lots of suspensions, slash chords, altered chords, etc, by the third book (actually, you see the first altered chord and diminished chord at the the very very end of the first book. That is cool, way way cool. And again, unheard of for a beginner series. Yarghhhhhhhhhh!!!! I had added a whole bunch of stuff on to this message explaining about the books (especially the fingerstyle stuff - so good) and it all got lost. Bad words, bad words, mumbles, and grunts! What the heck is a CGI error? Hmmpph! Jabudi. If you're interested, I'll be back. Much more to say..... Ok, more to say... There's a healthy mix of tablature and regular notation...I like that. I think the graduated presentation of fingerstyle (solo and duet) music in this series is excellent - you just won't find it anywhere else unless you were to take up classical guitar. The fingerstyle music that this series gets into is widely varied - folky, jazzy, gospelish, basic classical type stuff, quite a lot of drop-D examples, etc... It'll all sound very good on your Taylor no matter what style or level! One very good thing about this series of books is the sheer volume of stuff they cram into each book. The books in general have about 150 (150!)songs each (and they're all on the accompanying CD's). In addition, there's an equal number of just basic drill type exercises in each book (not on CD, but that's fine, nobody gets too excited about drill). The good point of having such a large number of things to work on is this: even if you thought something like 3/4 of the material sounded horrible (and you shouldn't) you would still have plenty left to practice and to learn from and feel like you were getting your money's worth. Honestly, I think about 1/6 or so of the songs in the books on average are a bit redundant - perhaps sound too similiar to other things on the CD - gets to be overkill in my opinion. So what. I'd rather have more than less. You're free to pick and choose what tunes you would want to work on from each key (the book is very well organized by major keys and their relative minors) without feeling like your glossing over any musical info. Excellent! One other thing worth pointing out is that a lot of the flatpicking exercises that you encounter as you move on can very easily be turned into little but interesting fingerstyle pieces. For example (there would be lots of examples), in the first book, there is a simple but pretty (based on open position and pretty Em9 chord) flatpicking arrangement of 'Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier". Use your fingers and add just a couple notes and it's a beautiful fingerstyle piece. I want to make it clear that I'm not trying to convince you to go out and start learning to read ryhthm and music if you are not interested. If you're not into it, you're not into it. I decided not to go on and on and on and on endlessly about why I like the fingerstyle sections of this Mastering the Guitar series so much. It'll turn into blabbing, etc... Suffice it to say, if you are interested in learning to read, I definitely think the books I'm suggesting are the best bet. If anyone else has any info about books they like, I'd love to hear it. There are definitely some things about these two series of books that I'm not happy about....I'll get back to those.......again, if you're interested. Back - One grump about the Jerry Snyder books...they've got a good thing going....why do they stop?????? Grrrrrrrrrr.....they could have easily kept on the format they were using and made this a 3 or 4 book series instead of just 2. Another possible grump is that they spend some time going off on topics that maybe would have been better off just left out (they start discussing basic improvisation for example) of the book. They could have used the space in the book to keep introducing the reading of strumming patterns, etc... they really do a good job - a great job - with that. More of that would have been better than trying to address something such as improv (by the way, in terms of rhythm guitar, the books get up to the level of doing things like reading and playing bossa nova variations with jazzy chords up the neck - way beyond typical beginner book stuff - not just a couple of simple patterns on simple chords - all with cool accompaniment on the CD - good, solid, and fun instructional stuff). Overall the Jerry Snyder books are excellent - I'm just trying to give a balanced viewpoint. The Mastering the Guitar series is excellent overall. Please make sure you at the top of this post where I had a little grump about how I think the beginning of the first book starts out poorly. You don't want to let that mistakenly turn you off to this series of books! One other grump - they have sections on playing and reading strumming patterns (very usable patterns) as you move through the books, but they aren't on the CD's. What the heck? If you're trying to teach yourself, it would be helpful to be able to hear examples of those by another guitarist. Of course, hopefully you are actually learning to read the patterns and can make sense of them.... but....Grrrrrrr....doesn't make any sense to me. Again - the books are great in my opinion - just trying to point out what is lacking in them. Another thing - the Technique Studies book is great - lots of interesting exercises - all levels of difficulty - some really pretty fingerstyle stuff - but no CD available for it. Boo hiss. Again, if you're working on your own, hearing another guitarist would help. One last possible thing is that there is a rather abrupt leap in difficulty at some points as you progress through the first book - that's ok though - because you should be working out of other sources, also (you would be if you were my student!) Music reading is one of those things where less is not more. I'll explain that later...working form more than one source speeds up the whole process - it doesn't slow you down... Hopefully you can conclude on your own that if I'm suggesting that you use these booksin spite of the above negatives, the positives must be in fact very postive. I think they are. One more thing needs to be said, and this will probably turn into 10 more.... There's a lot of reasons why someone might fail in their attempt to learn to read music.... Nuts, gotta go......... mapletrees ] [ 02-23-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 02-24-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 02-24-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 02-24-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 02-24-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 02-24-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 02-24-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 02-25-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 02-25-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ]
__________________
Indeed, there is something in the current DC/NY culture that equates a lack of unthinking boosterism with a lack of patriotism. As if not being drunk on the latest Dow gains is somehow un-American. - Arianna Huffington May 11, 2009
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#10
02-24-2001, 07:31 PM
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On to why some might fail with reading music and not really get anywhere....
I'm not going to blab about lack of teacher enthusiasm and belief in what they're doing...oh, I might....mmm... I tell ya, nuts to an instructor who just uses music reading poorly as lesson time "filler" - grrrrrrrr I'm not going to blab about students' attitudes and their misconceptions...mmmmm....my students get straightened out... Where was I? The nuts and bolts of reading music.... What usually happens to people when they attempt music reading with an instructor is something like the following....Lesson is half-hour and the first 20 minutes of the lesson is spent rather unenthusiastically plodding through some basic reading (I'm imagining a mentality of immunizations - "ok, this is unpleasant and not in the least bit fun, but we're going to do it because it's good for you" - something to that effect.). Student has probably spent all of 6 or 7 minutes during the week working on the material - if that...nothing is really learned or mastered, student spends most of the time looking at a clock wondering why they're paying money for this event, the last 10 minutes is spent with student trying to direct the lesson (that's understandable given what was happening - but probably not effective either), topics way Way WAY over the stundent's current level of ability and understanding are briefly and improperly addressed, and good grief, the lesson's over. Wonderful. "Gee whiz Aunt Dorothy, I love it when you mix the meat loaf, squash, and fruitcake all together in one bowl like that. Can I have some more, please? By the way, instead of just coming over to your house on holidays, can I start coming once a week and give you something like $12, $15 or $20 for each bowl of that? Yum, yum." No wonder most people don't get anything out of music reading or guitar lessons....got to be a better way..... I'll be back...... [ 02-24-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 02-25-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 02-25-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ]
__________________
Indeed, there is something in the current DC/NY culture that equates a lack of unthinking boosterism with a lack of patriotism. As if not being drunk on the latest Dow gains is somehow un-American. - Arianna Huffington May 11, 2009
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#11
12-06-2001, 11:15 PM
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by mapletrees:
[QB]tbondo....(this is an edit in December, duh)....there is a bunch of jibber jabber blibber blabber down there.... the main points to be found (smile) are: 1) I like the Mastering the Guitar series ALOT...really like it....really really really like it...but I can't stand the way the beginning (just the beginning) of the first book in that series starts...if you really do want to get into reading music, YOU STILL MOST DEFINITELY WANT THAT FIRST BOOK...make sure you get the accompanying CD's 2) I like the Jerry Snyder books despite what I don't like about them...read what I wrote and ask if you've got questions...they start you off with reading music properly...with clapping..... 3) You should have another source for the most basic and beginning level note-reading...and this isn't mentioned below as far as I can tell...and for crying out loud there is nothing wrong with 'basic and beginning' level reading material if that is your current level as far as music reading... !!!!!grab this 'reading thing' by the horns... !!!!!scan and clap out the rhythms before attempting to play any part of any exercise (with 100% confidence - nothing else is even close to ok)...scan and be able to name the notes QUICKLY with 100% confidence...know what fingers you are using before you attempt to play something... !!!!!the mistake people make with reading is that they let themselves flounder on the basic beginning material - and usually right from the very first exercise...the material when you first start must be 'simple' material of course...if you play simple material poorly with no confidence, you will sound like a complete and utter fool...a totally incompetent boob...a fumbling and bumbling doofus...such failure (obviously) does not inspire further study in the slightest - it's a complete turnoff (obviously) - especially if you already know how to play more advanced material without reading (obviously).....success on the other hand just makes you hungrier for more success...think "I am i-pod man...and I have come to practice" from the first open string whole note exercise...foot stomping out the beat, head bobbing out the beat, counting loudly and purposefully....mooooooovin' and groooooooooovin' Grover gyrations (sp?)...not Bert...convince yourself that nobody in the history or future of humankind shoud be able to count to 4 with more ooooomph and pizzazzzz than yourself.... where was I? a completely basic and elementary note reading book you should do is the Book 1 Hal Leonard Guitar Method by Will Schmid (get it with a CD so you can play with accompaniment! and to heck with book 2 or book 3 or book 79...you just want the first for some additional practice with the most basic of material)...the more practice you give yourself on the basic material, the quicker your progress will be...no doubt about it...gobble it up...it is very very very very basic stuff...master it QUICKLY or you will get turned off....bumbling is not mastering... The Mastering the Guitar Series will move you to much more advanced playing and understanding... 4) something else worth pointing out... There is a series of reading materials that I don't suggest for the 'average' Joe or Jane...The Berklee Series...I had it (at least the first 2 books anyways and gave it away) The exact title if I recall is A Modern Method for Guitar by William Leavitt...it's 'the' standard teaching book that a 'serious' instructor (non-classical) will use with his/her 'serious' students.....gonna get 'serious now'... I believe it's actually in fact used at Berklee....it's a perfectly fine set of books...and there are other books that go with it...I still have the Berklee Press' Melodic Rhythm studies book...but they're really geared for someone who is going to eventually be a 'serious jazz cat studio musician type' for lack of a better phrase...they are geared towards developing true sightreading skills in the 'flat keys' for example, etc.... but they're just not what the average person needs...and frankly...I find them as dry as, or drier than, the Sahara....and I'm the type that has no problem (in general) thriving in dry climates...."Daddy, what on earth would possess you to be interested in.......blah blah blah..." If I had anything else to say I have completely forgotten it by now.... one last time...the most well-intentioned of people can bomb out with music reading....get into it right from the beginning...nice, confident, clear tones.....no hesitation, no faltering.... end of edit (smile) tbondo, just thought I'd add this down here again to make sure you didn't miss it... Curious if anyone started working through any of these books or if JeffM is going to come on and say "the books rot, and if I ever see you in person, I'll give you a wedgie..."
__________________
Indeed, there is something in the current DC/NY culture that equates a lack of unthinking boosterism with a lack of patriotism. As if not being drunk on the latest Dow gains is somehow un-American. - Arianna Huffington May 11, 2009
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#13
12-10-2001, 05:11 PM
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Mapletrees:
Any suggestions for people who can read music / rhythm but want to apply their knowlege to the guitar? I played the violin for 14 years and the alto sax for 8 before starting the guitar, and fell into the trap of just memorizing hand positions for chords, rather than figuring out the fretboard...
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#14
12-11-2001, 07:55 PM
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alchu....
kind of a repeat of what I asked in the other post... where are you going with your playing? Are you looking towards classical? Towards serious jazz? To more of the plain old some fingerstyle/some rock/some blues/some folk etc... where do you stand as far as theory goes? have you done ANY reading ON THE GUITAR? I'm asking because I don't consider myself a classical guitarist (though I can certainly play some and fully understand what I'm playing) I'm asking because I don't consider myself a jazz guitarist (though I can certainly play jazzyish stuff and certainly understand what I'm playing...know what I mean?...just being able to play/create some fingerstyle jazz, being able to lay down cool altered, melodic minor, and diminished licks does not make one a jazz guitarist...Pat Metheney is a jazz guiarist....."Senator Mapletrees I've jammed with Jack Metheney....you're no Jack Metheney" something like that anyways...how many years ago was that now?) what I was getting at...if you were leaning to those two areas of playing (classical and jazz), and you are from the NYC area, and were looking for very 'academic' and very 'serious' looking texts, and were looking to take advice from some guy over the internet who writes run-on sentences, and who can only play some classical and jazzy stuff I'd suggest going to the music departments of the numerous institutions of higher learning there and checking out what they use and what they have in their libraries.... argghhhhhh...gotta run... this thought is not done.... the phrase 'reads music well' can take on very different meanings... [ 12-11-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ] [ 12-11-2001: Message edited by: mapletrees ]
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#15
12-12-2001, 12:03 AM
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mapletrees,
basically I did classical music with the violin, and jazz with the saxophone. My theory is okay. I was never disciplined enough to learn the changes correctly for serious jazz playing on the sax, so I ended up playing by ear. Basically I can read music, (treble clef) and I can figure out rhythms without needing to think about it. The problem is learning where on the fretboard the particular note i'm reading is, as well as figuring out correct fingerings and shifts. (left hand technique!.. i bought those books at www.muse-eek.com... i'll let you know. but if you have any suggestions...) I'm headed towards plain old fingerstyle/folk/blues/rock for now. If I can read music decently I might try to tackle a few classical pieces, but that will never be my push. Can't say about jazz. if I'm more disciplined now (which i think i am) i might learn the changes and try a hand at jazz guitar. but for now it's just technical fundamentals of guitar playing that i'm aiming for. .. i hope that makes it a bit more clear.. [ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: alchu ]
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