Guitar Fretboard Workbook [Paperback]

Barrett Tagliarino (Composer)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2003 | Series: Musicians Institute: Essential Concepts

Navigate the guitar neck better than ever before with this easy-to-use book! Designed from Musicians Institute core curriculum programs, it covers essential concepts for players of every level, acoustic or electric. A hands-on guide to theory, it will help you learn to build any scale or chord on your own and unleash creativity. No music reading is required.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A progressive teaching method that offers a clear roadmap through the tangles of the fretboard maze. —Gary Joyner, Acoustic Guitar -- Acoustic Guitar Magazine, July 2004

From the Author

This book clearly relates the fretboard to the same musical principles all professionals on any instrument use, teaching the practical hands-on basics without glossing over the theory every guitarist should know. It does not invent its own terminology or pattern numbering system, a problem that has lessened the value of many books like this in the past. The CAGED-based fretboard system used has world-wide recognition and a long historic basis, refined and tweaked in Musicians Institute curricula since 1977 by hundreds of instructors after its introduction by Howard Roberts in the early 1970s.

You'll cover everything you need for a rock-solid foundation, including modes and slash chords. You'll understand and play (anywhere on the neck!) any scale or chord you encounter or imagine. Besides offering you a chance to completely grasp the guitar, this method assures you will be able to communicate with other trained musicians no matter what their instrument.

The book was designed for use in three arenas: private lessons, classroom instruction, and personal study by the motivated individual. There are 22 short chapters of very gradually increasing difficulty, suitable for teaching in 20-30 minute time frames. Each chapter has modest written and playing assignments, with all the answers in the back of the book. The text was written specifically to be concise, informative, and fun, yet easily understood by non-native English speakers.

After over a year of intense work, I'm happy to present this book. Please use and enjoy it.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Musicians Institute Press; Workbook edition (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0634049011
• ISBN-13: 978-0634049019
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 8.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (131 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Instruments & Performers
  • #21 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance

More About the Author

Barrett Tagliarino's newest book is the MP3 Edition of the ground-breaking "Rhythmic Lead Guitar: Solo Phrasing, Groove and Timing for all Styles." With this book you progress from beginner to master of the rhythmic aspect of soloing and riff creation, learning to count beat divisions and subdivisions at every level to contribute the right feel to songs in any style. You'll apply exact timing to bends, slides, legato articulations and grace notes to get your soloing under your complete rhythmic control. No prior music reading knowledge is required, but you will learn a bit about correct rhythmic notation as you go. Over 150 examples are tabbed and notated, and demonstrated at slow tempos in 192 kB MP3s. Later chapters cover motific development; setting up audience expectations with form signaling; odd meters; creating syncopation with displacements, additive rhythms, pedal tones, polyrhythms, and metric modulation.

Barrett has been a full-time instructor at Musicians Institute in Hollywood since 1989. His "Guitar Reading Workbook" and "Guitar Fretboard Workbook" are based on MI's curriculum requirements. These and his other books are also popular choices for course syllabi at other universities, vocational, and high schools. Barrett's books are designed to get you playing the music you want with a clear understanding and no time wasted.

The same engaging and lucid teaching style that Barrett uses in his books makes his classes at MI often fill to capacity with a waiting list. His current schedule includes Blues Level II, Guitar Heroes of the 60s and 70s, and Reading Level I. Barrett was Rock department head at Hohner MusikSchule in Vienna in 1995. His traveling work as a performer and clinician has taken him around the world.

Barrett has two CDs showcasing his rock guitar style with blues and jazz influences: "Throttle Twister" and "Moe's Art," both available here on amazon.com, and has made numerous guest recording contributions as an LA session guitarist.

Guitar magazines such as Guitar Edge, Guitar Player, and Guitar World have featured Barrett's full-length article contributions on technique, styles, and phrasing. He also works as an editor for the Hal Leonard Corporation, adding his knowledge and insight to books like "Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory," and Tom Kolb's "Music Theory for Guitarists: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask."

You can find his latest works, video clips, free lessons, and blog posts at his website, www.monsterguitars.com, which he started in 1996.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A complete, highly comprehensive approach to the fretboard., December 8, 2003

By 

"wm_burke" (Pasadena, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guitar Fretboard Workbook (Paperback)

I have been using this book with my students since Barrett started putting together the opening chapters. I first used it with my advanced students, those who already had some experience with the 5 patterns of major scales. Immediately they returned saying that it helped them understand the scales and visualize the fretboard more easily.

Having my students walk in with diagrams of scales and intervals for me to check has been an incredible reversal of roles. Normally I would draw diagrams for them to study and play. Going over a chapter and sending them home to complete and play the exercises gets the student involved in a way that the normal draw, demonstrate, "see ya' next week" cycle never really reaches. It gives the student an opportunity to take home and digest the information that was normally only available during the lesson.

Teaching people to operate a guitar and teaching music on a guitar are almost completely different tasks. I found the first six chapters to be very helpful when initiating beginner and intermediate students into the world beyond the 3rd fret and power chords. There is something in this book for nearly anyone interested in knowing how to play the guitar.

If you are an instructor you will find the comprehensive, organized approach very thorough and focused. If you are self-studying the instrument or a student seeking more than just another tabbed-out solo this is a book you can keep coming back to throughout your journey. I highly recommend it.

Billy Burke

238 of 247 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a gold mine!, January 18, 2004

By 

Steven Stathatos (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guitar Fretboard Workbook (Paperback)

I have read countless testimonials about guitar books that guarantee results I never was able to achieve. This book actually delivered for me, and it has done so in a big way. My ambition, which previously eluded me entirely, has been to become fluent on the fretboard--to be able to improvise, follow changes, structure complex chords on the fly and the like. I tried so long in vain I decided I must just lack the necessary ability.

This book changed all that for me. I am doing things now I only dreamed of before. I don't know how the author figured it out, but he has come up with a way to communicate an understanding of music and the fretboard to both your head and, probably more important, your hands. Simple things like combining diagram exercises and playing, reinforced by having you speak the information out loud, really work to imprint the material on your fingers. The book walks you one step at a time, fairly painlessly, from simple to very complex. This thing is a gold mine. No kidding.

109 of 114 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fretboard Magik, January 13, 2004

By 

E Scott - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guitar Fretboard Workbook (Paperback)

This is one of the best books I've ever read for guitar. I have always had trouble finding my way around the fretbaord, but after working with this book I have no trouble at all. There are so many helpful tips and exercises that you can't help but become ultra fluent on guitar. And unlike most books, the material in this book is presented in a manner that is easy to understand. It's all connected perfectly, instead of YOU having to piece things together. I would recomend this book to anyone.