Customer Reviews

Progressive Classical Guitar Method: For Beginner to Intermediate Students [Book 1]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been playing guitar for nearly 40 years, rock & roll, blues and C&W. I would say that my playing was very average. Self taught, etc. I have always loved classical guitar music and in fact, that is what originally brought me to the guitar. Everytime that I considered playing classical music I was stopped by how difficult the music appeared and by the fact that I couldn't sight read music. At the age of 58, I sold my electric guitars, bought a nice Larrivee classical guitar and purchased Jason Waldron's book. I am totally hooked. I am playing much better, I am reading music and I have started to realize a lifelong dream. I wish that there would have been opportunities like this book when I was younger. This book takes you from the very beginning and has you playing early intermediate pieces at the end. I have finished this book and wish that there was a good second volume. Anyone can do this, if you have interest in this type of music, buy this book. It could be the beginning of an entirely new musical interest for you.

This is the first in a comprehensive series of classical guitar instruction texts by Jason Waldron. Each book comes with a CD which contains every example in the book. The left track contains the student's part and the right track contains the instructor's accompaniment, where applicable. The texts are written clearly and are well-illustrated. This book starts at the most fundamental level and progresses rapidly, but consistently. It is ideal for dedicated beginners who do not have ready access to formal in-person instruction. (Probably written with the populace of the Australian Outback in mind.) The music used in the text is comprised of some of the best classical music written for the guitar or suitably transcribed and is certain to inspire even the tyro.

I never thought I would be able to read music, much less play some of the classical pieces which are contained in this book. The author, Jason Waldron does a wonderful job by progressing through single string exercise, chords, arpeggios, and melody playing. I was reading music and playing classical guitar within three months! Forget Aaron Shearer, this book is outstanding!

If you are a serious student looking for a comprehensive method book that encompasses all aspects of the classical guitar, then books by Noad, Shearer or Duncan may be more appropriate.

However, if you are looking for a quick start on the guitar, and if you would like to play some interesting pieces relatively quickly, then this book is for you.

I think of it as an appropriate second book that complements the book I use (Noad's Solo Guitar Playing) since its organization (by the different keys as opposed to the positions) makes it a useful complement to that book.

We cannot afford tuition, but have an extensive collection of second-hand Methods: Noad, Shearer, Segovia, and many others, all bought at flea-markets. In short, Jason Waldron's Progressive Classic Guitar Method has the best, that is, most detailed, and easily understandable sections on basic posture, and left and right arm and hand positions and adjustment. The resulting positions are relaxed, natural and efficient. They are systematically presented, clearly stating what to look for and how to adjust the positions. That is why we gladly paid the full purchase price for a new copy of the book plus CD. For the student learning on your own who is keen to get the basics right from the start, I recommend this book.
- a fellow beginner.

I took classical guitar from grade 8 to grade 12 because it seemed like a good way of not having to take piano (my parents insisted on me learning to play a musical instrument). From those four years I managed to get four pieces under my belt and kept working on Classical Gas by Mason Williams. I was horrible.

I am now 27 and decided to start learning it again because there is more to life than work. I don't have time for lessons but knew I needed to start from scratch and this book seemed to meet the requirements. I got it in the mail today, tuned the guitar for the first time in ten years after coming home from work and was playing along with the CD (badly) having gone through correct posture and finger position for the right hand. I had a lot of fun. I had to force myself to stop at the recommended half hour mark.

Pull out your guitar from mothballs or go buy one. Jason Waldron delivers.

I've been playing the guitar for about a year on a steel string string acoustic when I decided to start playing classical so I bought a classical nylon guitar along with this method book from progressive.I had other progressive series books and primer but for the classical guitar this was the best.This book has about a hundred pages or so of quality lessons and excercises.The book is all musical notations and fingerstyle lessons.It doesn't contain any TAB lines.It also contains a fretboard guitar notes diagram and a music glossary at the end of the book.If you have a passion to learn classical guitar this is the book for you.

This is an amazing book. I have been playing the guitar for over a year now, but when I got this book I just understood that I had been wasting a lot of precious time and energy. It is the best deal you can get on CLASSICAL guitar. This book starts at the very beginning and lead you to an intermediate level of skill. YOu do not need to know anything at all to use this book. Just get a calssical guitar and this book and you are ready to be the next Segovia. I personally am going to buy any books by this auther.

I highly recommend this book. I purchased a lot of the wrong books for learning fingerstyle and other methods. This book takes you from beginner and beyond. I'm not a rank beginner but this covered all the basics quickly and clearly to impart an excellent review. The charming and progressively challenging etudes was what I was looking for to develop my skills for playing brazilian jazz. I like this book so much, I plan on purchasing the next level book. An excellent book.

I have purchased other classical guitar methods books including Pumping Nylon, Parkening and one of the Romeros and I can say that this is the most user friendly, practical and genuinely educational one of them all. I found that you can put the information to use right away and noticed that my knowledge and even my practice has moved forward following the material in this well thought out book. The CD is a great plus giving you a model of what your practice should sound like. The illustration of the fretboard alone has been a great learning tool. The book demystifies much of what can confuse you and intimidate a beginning to intermediate student. I highly recommend this one.