Customer Reviews

Music Reading for Guitar (The Complete Method)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is an incredible tool for the guitarist that can play but not read. There are tons of exercises and explanations that are all really helpful, and then before you know it, you can competently sightread. I love this book. It rocks. I'd tried tons of "learn to read" books but they're all written for other instruments, or they're written for people that haven't played the instrument before, which bites for people who can play but can't read. Buy it if you can't read music but have played guitar for a while (14 years in my case). Keep on rockin'.

I agree with other reviewers that this book has excellent examples and pacing. It is very good in terms of starting you off slowly and eventually working up to very complex rhythmic lines. One thing that should be pointed out to those interested in this book is that the reading examples cover single-note melody lines only. There is no information on triads or extended chords, so if you want to learn to sight read chords for classical or jazz guitar you will probably need to invest in some additional materials.

I've been teaching guitar since shortly after I recieved my BA in classical guitar performance in 2001, and I've used a few different methods. This one is great for anyone wanting to learn to read music on guitar. It starts off with basic rhythms, which too many methods overlook in order to hurry off to playing 150 year old folk songs that no one cares about anymore. It also starts off teaching you notes in the 5th position (which is more useful and better intonated than open position). Imcludes music theory and builds progressively from lesson to lesson, reviewing things you have just learned and putting them in the context of popular classical songs. For those of you who want modern popular songs written in a method book, keep in mind that hit songs get outdated very quickly and with classical songs, authors don't have to pay royalties to use them (keeping the books cheaper for you).

The two points where it could use improvement are: 1. An accompanying cd would make the rhythms easier to understand for beginners 2. chords written out in notes. It does do a good job of introducing chords in the context of lead sheets which are largely ignored by the likes of Hal Leonard, Mel Bay, Alfred, et. al.

I recommend it with "The songwriters workshop:Harmony" book (for theory info), www.guitargrid.com for scales and "contemporary chord khancepts" for more advanced chords.

This book covers rhythms and counting in a very detailed way. Very steady progress. Starts with the 5th position, which is a nice surprise. It talks about song forms, and how to handle weird notations like "coda" as well. It has nice mostly classical tunes to learn (like Pachabel's Cannon).

The things that lack are enough attention to key signatures, and any treatment of chords. This book has exercises in different keys but it jumps all over the place, without ample attention given to each key. And, every single exercise is a single note exercise.

If you are looking for a more serious study on reading and guitar (pick style with chords), I suggest Leavitt's modern method. If you are OK with single notes, and do not have the time to go thru Leavitt, then I definitely suggest this book.

This book deals with learning how to read music on many levels. It starts with basic concepts and ends with advanced sightreading.

It is not written for casual reading, you will need to spend time with guitar in hand. Bring along a metronome as well.

This book assumes that you have been playing the guitar for a while (2 years) and that you have never given serious thought to learning to read music.

The music presented is mostly classical and not familiar to most players.
It would really benefit from an accompanying CD which it does not have.

Good luck.

I don't want to repeat what the good reviewers have said but I would like to add my opinions on this book. This is my favorite guitar book thus far because it teaches you the "anatomy" of the guitar music in which many guitarists today don't know. Just because you can play chords and strum the strings doesn't mean you can play guitar any way you want. After over a year of playing the guitar, I'm still learning from this book. With what you pay for, this book is worth it. Get a book of guitar scales and you'll be all set in your guitar grooves. I have many guitar books/DVD that's just sitting there because it's useless. With this one, I'm consistantly improving.

i'll first say that i'm 33 and am an experienced guitarist - i'm also a good chord chart reader and alright rhythm chart reader. i bought three books all at the same time to help me with my sheet music reading insecurities: Guitar Fretboard Workbook by Barrett Tagliarino, Guitar Reading Workbook by Barrett Tagliarino and this one. And actually I lucked out! Each of them progressively lead you into the next (sort of). The Guitar Fretboard Workbook was good for identifying note names on the fretboard, then the Guitar Reading Workbook was more of a beginner's guide to the world of reading music (for the guitarist), lastly this one give's you the more in-depth exercises without going overboard too fast. I know some music theory/reading books start off at a slow pace in the first 5 pages then slam with you with things above and beyond what you even want to learn. I would recommend this book as it starts off easy for beginners and moves slowly forward with good exercises and "real" musical excerpts/arrangements to play.

For guitar I see reading music split into two different disciplines: Knowing to read the notes on the staff, and knowing where the notes are on the strings of the guitar. My point is, on say the piano, there's only one key on the keyboard that'll play the note you're looking at on the sheet music, while on the guitar you could possibly have 4 different options to play the same note (of course you'd have to take into consideration the technical feasibility of playing the note). So, as someone who's *very* proficient playing guitar (20 years in fact), I'd recommend even to get a supplementary book like the Guitar Fretboard Workbook to help you with being able to identify where the notes are on the strings, and this book here to help you put the two disciplines together.

Hope this helps!

This is an excellent "boot camp" for learning to read. It's rigorgous, but if you complete the exercises, you *will* learn to read. It's generally very easy to understand and is chock full of exercises. This isn't one of those "pay 20 bucks for a 40 page book that you'll be done with in a week." It's thorough and very economical. I've been consistantly working in this one for 3 months and it's greatly sharpened my skills. The only thing I think that could make it better would be an accompaniment CD. But this one gets 5 stars easily.

If you want to learn to read, buy this book and be prepared to work.

An excellent method for learning how to read guitar music. Mr. Oakes is an excellent teacher and guitarist giving his informative insight and knowledge into reading guitar music. Buy it if you want to be able to read music for the guitar!

First of all, guitar is one of the most difficult instruments to learn to read music on. It has so many positions to choose from and so many different ways to play the exact same melody. I've studied all the method books, Alfred, Mel Bay, Berklee, etc. The problem with every reading method for guitar is that they start you in the first, or open, position. This isn't a practical way of doing it because, one, you don't generally play guitar in that range, and two, by the time they move on to a practical, useful position, the student has either lost interest or is completely confused.

The MI book starts right off in the fifth position. What a breakthrough. The fifth position can cover all keys, (with a few finger stretches and a few exceptions), and it has the range to cover most melodies. You quickly establish good reading skills, then they move on to the open position, and more. By the time you finish this book you'll be able to read on a professional level.

I combined my studies with other reading material and I was amazed at how quickly my reading skills progressed. It doesn't matter what level of musicianship you're at, reading music is a skill. Much like learning Morse Code it's a repetitive study that with the right method anyone can learn. In all my years as a professional musician this is the best book I've come across.