Customer Reviews

Fretboard Logic SE - Special Edition The Reasoning Behind the Guitar's Unique Tuning + Chords Scales and Arpeggios Complete (Volumes I and II Combined) (Fretboard Logic Guitar Method Ser)

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Learning guitar is an odd process. You're supposed to practice, practice, practice. You learn chord shapes. You have lessons. You dissect solos note by note. There appears to be no master plan. Somehow, through a variety of methods, you're supposed to learn. Eventually, you're assured, by some means you're not aware of yet (osmosis?), you'll "get it."

This book is the "it" you're supposed to get.

Far too many books assume that the common methods work. Many an aspiring student has put the guitar in the closet in frustration at something that doesn't address the basic question - What note do I play next?

Bill Edwards has taken the idea of positional relationships to its highest point. If I play a C chord with a barre at the eighth fret, where will I find a convenient F and G position? What shape will I need to play, and what fret should I start from?

This seems to me to be a basic question yet it hardly gets a mention in most books. It seems that if you practice long enough and don't get bored to death, you'll know this.

Bill Edwards shows that the five major chord shapes (C, A, G, E, and D) follow as you move up the fretboard, so you quickly learn that if you're playing a certain shape at a certain fret, the chords you're going to need will be in a specific other shape a specific number of frets away.

This is independent of what key you're playing in, so if you start a 12-bar blues with a A-shape, you can drop down a couple of frets and play an E-shape for the next chord.

I've made it sound far more complex than it is. You'll need the book - make no mistake - and in just a few hours you'll have learned a huge amount of useful stuff.

But this is just the first seventeen of over a hundred pages. The idea of positional relationships is used to describe scales and then the pentatonic blues scale, so you can build solos and know immediately where the next notes are.

Fretboard Logic pulls all the useful stuff from other learning methods together. It shows you *why* you play the notes you do.

I was suspicious of the other reviews here (mainly reprinted from the book's cover), because they sounded so good they couldn't be true. Then I saw the book recommended on the Fender Forum, so I decided to take a chance.

Yeah, you still have to practice. Your fingers won't get supple until you do. But imagine practicing where you're constantly trying something new, and where the musical inspiration flows. That's what you'll get if you study Fretboard Logic.

Fretboard Logic SE is a great book that manages to distill a vast amount of information into a very concise and usable form. In a way, it's like a Rosetta Stone for the guitar. As I read the book, I "felt the light go on" over and over as bits and pieces I'd picked up over the years clicked into place and I began to understand how they related together.

It covers a method called the CAGED system, which uses barre forms of the C, A, G, E, and D chords (thus the name). These chords are movable as a block to anywhere on the neck, the benefit being that you always know how to find a chord near where your hand is currently on the neck.

Building on the CAGED system are various major and pentatonic scale forms, so that you can easily play runs - which are the basis for solo, riffs and improvising.

It gives sensible explanations of music theory and how it pertains to playing the guitar. Building upon this he shows how to form the common chord types - (major, minor, sevenths, etc) in any key.

It's opened up the guitar for me. I've only been playing my acoustic guitar a couple months, and I can sit and watch a guitarist on TV now and understand what I see him doing. I may see his hand on the fretboard and notice that his hand is making an E form, moved to the 8th fret. Sometimes I can make out that it's a 7th by hearing it. That's something I can reproduce immediately or later. Or I can (slowly) improvise along with a song I hear by using the pentatonic scales I've learned. I can hear and see the chord progressions from I to IV to V and back.

You'll still need lots of practice to toughen and strengthen your fingers and hands and to make them quick and limber, but Fretboard Logic SE is a great book to start with or to brush up with if your more advanced. It will save you a great deal of frustration and make your learning quicker and more productive.

I have been playing the guitar for two years now and thought I was making good progress until I tried to play with other experienced guitar players. I realized that I had a long way to go about mastering the guitar. Rather than really learning the guitar, I was just practicing songs and thinking real progress was being made. Promptly after my failed attempt of playing with my experienced friends, I bought this book and the light came on. I mean, it was like an explosion that lifted me to an entirely different level. I have never learned so much from any book Ive ever read - and Ive read a lot of books. All of the others are difficult to follow and assume that the reader is familiar with profound guitar theory knowledge. Edwards, on the other hand, takes all of the confusion and hones in on the most fundamental aspects of the guitar. The CAGED method is absolutely the best way to learn the guitar. If you follow this book from page one and really work on it, you will begin to notice drastic improvements and everything will begin to make sense - I mean, you will have an epiphany one day and say, "I've got it!" I have never written a review for a book until now - this is how strongly I feel about the knowledge you will take away from this book. Best guitar book ever published.

There are a lot of positive reviews for this book. Here's another one.
I've been playing on and off for 16 years. Took lessons a long time ago and have read countless books on the subject. Nothing comes close to accomplishing what this book did for me in 2 days.

I am familiar with music theory but on a very basic level. I never commmited certain things to memory (modes, circle of 5ths) but I can name the notes on the fretboard.

I had never heard of the CAGED method but was quite used to viewing chords as patterns on the neck as opposed to individual notes. This book took that fact and explained it in a way that had me playing all over the neck after ONE night studying it.

It will show you how there are only a few basic chord SHAPES that when played in a certain order will repeat themselves moving up the neck. For me, seeing this fact instantly opened my eyes to the layout of the fretboard and has given me the knowledge to greatly improve my playing because I can now move all over the neck and hit the right chords in ways that allow for easier soloing around them.

Some comment that this book is no substitute for conventional theory education. I'll agree to that (especially if you will be playing with assorted musicians) but firmly believe that there is also no substitute to this book and the method it lays out.

Everyone learns at a different pace and some things 'click' better for some people. For me, the CAGED method in two nights completely changed how I view the instrument, and has allowed my playing to open up considerably.

Let me start off by saying that this book is unique, and because of that, it will probably always have detractors. I am writing to advise you not to pay any attention to them. There are thousands of books out there which teach guitar as if it is no different from a piano and I've bought an awful lot of them and wasted a lot of time.

The nay sayers seem to be attacking it in part because it gets rave reviews from readers. They seem to want to elevate themselves by putting down others, which is sad, but all too common. If I could, I'd ask them to produce credentials first, and then I'd ask how much effort they actually put into it. I'm pretty sure they are not household names in the field of guitar. A good example is the guy who felt slighted because Fretboard Logic didn't make him "master his guitar." Heh. That's funny and sad at the same time. To me that sounds like some kind of cart and horse situation where the horse is sitting back on his haunches waiting for a ride from the cart.

Let ME be clear - Fretboard Logic is the first book I have read which treats this unique instrument with the respect and detailed analysis it deserves. I am eternally grateful to the guy for taking the time and effort to put it together for the people like me who always wondered if there wasn't something missing from what my own teachers were teaching. After reading the Special Edition, I bought the entire series including the videos, and I'm glad I did. I will admit to having had to reread certain things a few times before it sunk in, but I usually have to do that anyway with any new stuff I'm learning - like with my pilots license, for example. And a lot of those books weren't even as well-written as Fretboard Logic.

Some of these Amazon flamers apparently don't understand what they are reading very well. One guy asks "How long can you fake being a musician without reading music?" Disregarding the tortured grammar, the implication is that Fretboard Logic is "anti-reading" or something. I guess maybe his copy was missing the introductions in the back, including "Introduction to Music Theory" where the author introduces various notation formats including -you guessed it - standard music notation which is continued in the next book.

But aside from gross misrepresentation, there is an even more important issue at stake here, and that relates to personal choice. If I understand him correctly, Mr. Edwards is trying to let each player decide for themselves the direction in which to take their musical efforts after the basics are covered. Here is an example: say you want to learn to improvise blues - just to jam away to your hearts content and make it up as you go along. What does that have to do with reading music? Answer: NOTHING. Reading something previously written isn't relevant when you are improvising. Same goes for things like, say, using a pick. If you are studying classical music, it isn't likely that you will have much use for a flat pick - but you probably would if you chose to study bluegrass. Each player's choices create a range of relevant subject matter. To my knowledge Fretboard Logic is the only series to even attempt to give the student so much freedom of choice. Only when I got to the third book did I start to fully understand why he put things in the order he did. It's all about building on solid foundations and allowing us to make our own choices about what we want to play. In book III I found some of the material very useful, but frankly, some of it didn't pertain to me. Since the chapters on notation - including tab - were so helpful to me personally, it is ironic that the guy is getting slammed for not having it in the first two sections. The people criticizing Logic apparently have a form of tunnel vision and can only see things in terms of their own narrow field of experience.

Bottom line - the author is trying to get us away from what he calls the "put this finger here, that finger there," type of thinking. Why? Because it creates a rote mindset that stifles creative thinking and keeps people stuck in the beginner stages of playing. (I'm just glad I don't have to have to carry around a giant chord book with me anymore.) To the guys who can only think in terms of one dot/note/finger at a time I would just remind them that when you arrange those dot/notes/fingers on the page into tonal groupings and meaningful wholes - what do you start to see on the fretboard? PATTERNS. It just takes a lot longer the old way.

The problem these people are having with Fretboard Logic is not because of the material or the organization - it is too clearly written and illustrated. Some people just don't engage in things that are not terribly easy, and playing guitar is not an easy endeavor. Also, I suspect it has to do with something the author mentions in the end of the first book: resistance to learning. Bill says - I'm paraphrasing - that learning new things is somewhat akin to "breaking eggs to make an omelet" and that there will always be a natural resistance to changing the status quo in our brains. I guess the smart people out there who do learn new things easily get used to this, and those who don't, prefer not having new ideas disrupt their intellectual comfort zones. Since Fretboard Logic is so different, I guess it will always have its detractors. Not me. I wish I'd ignored them in the first place. I'd have bought it sooner and saved a lot of time and money. THANK YOU BILL EDWARDS.

If your attempts at learning the guitar have been frustrating and you always thought, "there has to be a better way," then this is your book. Most books treat the guitar like it's no different than a keyboard...and never unlock the basic secret every guitarist must understand: the brilliant organization behind the guitar's tuning. Bill Edwards changes all of that. He shows it doesn't have to be that hard to understand the guitar. Fretboard Logic doesn't try to teach standard music theory, per se. You can learn that anywhere (and you should). Instead, it teaches you how to use that theory and apply it to the guitar and its unique tuning. It's not the "only" guitar or music book you'll ever need. It's just the most important! And yes, you will still have to practice. But it's a lot easier when you can see what you're doing, rather than just using what the author calls the "bootstrap" method (rote memorization of scales & chords) or the "academic" method (trying to understand the guitar using basic building blocks of music theory without ever seeing the "big picture"). I can't recommend it highly enough.

Fretboard Logic SE is a valuable book and you'll understand a great deal more about the logic of the guitar's tuning and fret system within the first few pages but if you have small hands and/or short fingers you may find some of the alternate fingerings and barres required in this system to literally be beyond your reach. People with long fingers and/or average to larger than average hands will no doubt have an easier time of it.

Example: The standard way of learning an open G chord requires playing it with the index, middle and ring fingers (think 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers) with the fourth finger (pinkie) along for the ride and possibly available to change the voicing within the chord or to maybe add a ninth ("A" above G). In the Fretboard Logic way of doing things the standard open G chord is played with the middle, ring and pinkie fingers (2-3-4) so as to leave the index available to "barre" in the moveable form as you go up the fretboard. This requires spanning the space of a full open fret with your index finger at the same time you are using fingers 2-3-4 to fret the E, A and E strings. I can't draw a picture here so it's best to pick up a guitar if you have one or draw yourself a picture of a fretboard to help visualize. Basically, if you can make that reach back with your index finger across a full fret while fingering with 2, 3 and 4 then this system should be fully workable for you. If you can't do it (and I can only manage it with difficulty), you'll still get a lot out of the book and increase your knowledge but portions of the system may well be "literally out of reach".

The CAGED system of moveable chords/positions really is rather brilliant. Even if you don't buy the book, borrow a copy from your local library or from a friend. There's nothing wrong with adding to your knowledge. If the system was totally workable for everyone I'd have rated it five stars. As it is, with limits on people (most women, children, young teens and some men) with smaller than average hands, I can only go three. (Too bad Amazon doesn't have a way to go three and half.)

I came to this book as a 20-something with her first guitar as a recent birthday gift. I had experience playing the piano, but nothing too impressive, got into some intermediate theory. My experience with the violin was equally unimpressive (and far more punishing for anyone in earshot). After a while of playing around, and after the fun of songbooks by my favourite artists had worn off, I wanted to get started for real. My main problem was that I was sure the guitar must make *sense* somehow--I'm no good at math or physics, but even I knew the spacing of the strings had to lead to a system. But what was it?

Thank goodness I found this book before things got so infuriating I quit. I wonder for how many people that's happened. Bill Edwards presents the fretboard as something that, purposely or miraculously, makes sense. Understanding the system prevents you from getting lost or feeling that everything you do right is luck; it allows you to manipulate the guitar. I bought the Special Edition (Fretboard Logic SE), and I would definitely recommend anyone else doing the same. The first book is good, but you'll want more, and I think that on it's own its not enough. I am now on the third book, which is also very helpful.

Make no mistakes, this book isn't a gimmick. You won't be a singer/songwriter by the end, you won't have a catalogue of songs, you won't speak french in 30 days, shed 90% of your body fat, lose 10 years of wrinkles and blemishes... This book just shows you how to make sense of the fretboard, and it is the most effective way I've experienced or heard of (I had two other popular guitar books, and have put up with endless stories of friends' failed guitar lessons). It will help you in leaps and bounds, but nothing can *make* you a guitar player.

The book is surprisingly user-friendly, though I did have to go back and re-read things, or give it a day and try again later. I do have issues with how he presented augmented forms and some of the sevenths in Book Two (I've noticed misprints and he could've been clearer about where the point of reference--not always the barre--is located in relation to the "full forms"). Don't get too discouraged if it gets laborious or temporarily beyond you. It's a lot to absorb and understand! It does take work, but you'll be rewarded infinitely, because the guitar begins to open up instead of being a sterile tool upon which you can whip out some memorised cords or riffs. I wholeheartedly recommend this book, and maybe some songbooks so you can experience the pleasure of playing "actual songs" that you will recognise and enjoy.

Before you can do anything you dream of, or anything meaningful at all, you have to understand the guitar. This helps. Now go practise.

Just a quick note. I have been playing the guitar 15 odd years on a casual level and was getting frustrated that no bigger picture was coming to me about where what notes were and so forth. I was consistently scared of any fret higher than the 5th and when I tried to practice scales in an attempt to get to play more advanced stuff I always gave it up. The task just seemed too big. The result was that I never really practiced as such, I just played what I knew.

I have owned Mr. Edwards' book for a little over a year now and my life has changed. I now practice every day and have a renewed interest in the instrument which I have come to realize is really very logical after all. I can actually play a solo now, something that was unthinkable before! I had bought a number of books before that but either they were too simple or boring or I didn't have the basics down so I couldn't benefit from them. That, too, has changed. If the description above fits you and especially if the CAGED system is foreign to you then give it a try and, if you can, cancel all appointments a week ahead. You'll be glad you did! Peace,

Casper

Bill Edwards had me impressed very much with his philosophical thought before I ever read any of his Fretboard Logic series. His approach of appealing to both sides of the brain, as well as the study of human intelligence, learning, and everything else involved in the developing stages of one's guitar playing, plays into this series very well.

When I finally decided to give this book a shot, I was still quite skeptical. The reviews seemed impossible, and the elusive yet highly praised simplicity of approach was, at the very least, dubitable. However, I was not disappointed in the end.

FL is not a book, unlike the title might suggest, with enourmous amounts of text in really fine print, explaining Platonic origins of music and guitar. Rather, it is an approach to the system around which all of guitar is organized. It made me wonder, in the same way I wonder about chess, whether, whoever it was that invented the now-standard tuning for the guitar, planned out all of the possibilities that guitarists have explored over the years and still continue to explore.

The approach of the first two volumes, surprisingly enough, is not very musical. It focuses strictly on the guitar, and the elements which the guitar tuning produces. A patient individual willing to learn the guitar, with no musical background, would benefit the most from this section. It asks you to let go of all preconceptions of what music is, of what guitar playing is, and instead, to focus on the instrument itself, and the possibilities that its uniqueness creates.

The second part (volume II) builds on the information acquired in the first part, and re-invents basic musical elements, but approaches them from the standpoint of playing them on guitar! A good analogy of this would be learning language before ever discovering a need to speak it: wouldn't it be great not to have to learn it while having to use it, but rather to have learned it beforehand? Guitar is no more than a tool for music expression, and a very well designed one at that - so let us learn the tool first, and then use the tool to create music, without having to think how to apply the tool for the music itself. I find it brilliant.

Be forewarned, however: this approach is only for the patient. It is holistic, not reductionist. It's not something that will happen overnight, it is something that needs constant work and dedication. On the bright side of that, very little memorization is required, once some essential elements of music are understood - Mr. Edwards goes through these at the beginning of part II.

I also stated that the book is a little repetitive. Perhaps it only seemed that way to me, since I had very significant musical background before taking on this method. It works well to reinforce what has already been shown, and to make sure that the reader understands how what he read before ties into what he will be reading next. It works, and everything is there for a reason.

In short, buy this book, learn, and enjoy.