Customer Reviews

Jerry Snyder's Guitar School Method Book 1

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I've been teaching private guitar and group lessons using Jerry Snyder's books since 1974. "Guitar School" is his main guitar method book these days.

This book is divided into two sections, with the front half devoted to learning chords and various strum and picking patterns and the back half is devoted to learning single notes using standard music notation. Snyder now tosses in a bit of TAB, which is helpful since so many songs are learned on the Internet via TAB.

What I appreciate about his approach is that he introduces the student to various styles of guitar playing, using either (or both) picks or fingerstyle. The styles include folk, rock, jazz and classical. Since some of the songs in this book are a bit dated, I always supplement my lessons with additional songs from other sources to keep the students interested.

I always stress to my students that learning standard notation is important if one wants to have a career in music. One of my former students worked as a studio musician in L.A. for a few years and I know that his ability to read notation made a big difference.

I've used this book with students down to the 3rd and 4th grade. I used the previous edition of this book in guitar classes with both adults and elementary students. It works at all levels.

I recently picked this book up for a group guitar class (Middle and High School Level). I found that the amount of material covered is very nice and the sequential presentation of concepts is quite good as well. My two critiques of the Guitar School Method concern its visual layout and its reliance on tablature in later sections. While there are several foundational concepts coevered (open-string chords, notes in the first position, basic rhythmic and accompaniment skills) these concepts are burdened by too much text. Often, it seems that the author tried to fill as much information as possible at the expense of ease of comprehension and playability. I also dislike the authors reliance of tablature in the accompaniment sections of the book. By this point in the text the students will know the notes in the first position so why show them arpeggios in tablature? Again, this is the authors mistake of trying to introduce too many concepts at the cost of readability and comprehension.

I have found that the High School students tend to do much better with this book than the Middle school students, although by spending more time and with repetition the Middle schoolers do understand and retain the material quite well.

I would highly recommend getting the Teacher's edition of this book as well if you will be using it in a group setting. The teacher's edition contains several reproducible handouts as well as lesson plans.

I have used this book to teach guitar in both group and private settings, and found it to be very comprehensive for beginners. I appreciate the fact that it presents a variety of styles while allowing students the repetition needed to actually read music notation. Be sure to check out the companion Teacher's Guide w/ CD, where you'll find reproducible theory worksheets and tests as well as additional song sheets, fingerstyle/classical tablature, and some scales (pentatonic) and improvisation sheets.

this book is great my husband is using the book in collage taking a guitar class and learning to read music he has been playing for 30 years by ear and now this book is teaching him to read music the book is super thank you.............

I'm using this book to teach a student how to play the guitar. I love the CD.

My son just switched to a new guitar teacher. The teacher uses this book to teach theory and beginning notation. It has made a huge difference in his understanding of music and he is enjoying playing the short drills. Great foundational start for guitarists.

This was the wrong book I needed for class but I can use it at home. He is a great teacher and his books are easy to follow.