Customer Reviews

Rhythmic Lead Guitar: Solo Phrasing, Groove and Timing for All Styles

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If you're familiar with some of Barrett Tagliarino's other works(Guitar Fretboard Workbook, Chord Tone soloing, etc.) you know that he is one of the finest writers on the guitar instruction book scene. There are tons of books out there with endless transcriptions and diagrams but most lack clear and concise explanations of the thinking, the theory, and the practical application to your own playing and creativity. There's not much use in learning a note for note solo if you have no idea how to create your own.

Barrett is a writer who not only cuts through all of that, he offers up precise and practical explanations of the concepts and their application. In short he teaches you to fish and doesn't just hand you one.

"Rhythmic Lead Guitar" is no exception to his already well-established reputation for writing great guitar books. What is completely different about this book is that it delves into areas virtually untouched by any other author. It starts simple, but ends up in very complex territory. For example, if you are into "math" rock you will find detailed explanations on how to work and count odd meter rhythms (7/4, 5/8/ 7/8, etc.) When first learning these, I was lucky enough to stumble on a you tube video for drummers. Barret's book offers practical and hip examples and CD tracks demonstrating the techniques.

There's enough material to keep even advanced players busy for a long time. It starts simple, but quickly progresses into new territory. If you want to move your playing to the next level and start leveraging rhythmic concepts along with scale/chord tone soloing concepts, this is the book for you. Highly recommended!

If you want to take your improvisation and rhythm awareness to a higher level than this is a must have book for you. This book takes you from the total beginning of rhythm, tapping your foot while playing and counting to a really advanced metric modulation, displacements and polyrhythms.

The beginning exercises may be simple but I took them seriously and really did every assignment at the end of the chapters and my improvising and over all sense for phrasing, phrase length is growing rapidly. There are lots of efficient exercises that are easy enough to understand. They really helped me with my soloing, they showed me how to really start feeling the rhythm and what's going on around you in music. This book definitely helped me with a lot of issues I had regarding rhythm and playing, I'm starting to feel what's happening around me in music in more detailed way as I did before. This book also comes with the CD with all recorded exercises played by the author so you really get the whole picture and you have a good comparison and instructions how the exercises should be done.

Even if you don't like learning thru books, this book will convince you the opposite, and it will give a you a much wider, new look and perspective on music itself.

After reading Rhythmic Lead guitar, I am twice the lead player I was this time last week. I must confess, I am not painstakingly going through the book and doing all of the exercises, but let me briefly tell about the insight this book has given me.

I am a pretty good chord-tone guy (check out Barrett's Chord-Tone Soloing book), and unlike most pretenders, I do reasonably well over diatonic progressions, especially major key stuff. My problem was really the opposite of most players--my theory is rock solid and my fretboard mastery is good--but for some reason unknown to me, my phrasing was always a choppy train wreck when it came to everyday minor pentatonic wanking. Well, no more.

Rhythmic Lead Guitar made me really sit down and analyze the different available beat subdivisions, and it also helped me realize the differences between a shuffle (my band plays a lot of three-chord boogies) and a straight feel, and more specifically, between straight and swung 8th notes. I have a Fender G-Dec amp and first practiced all of these subdivisions with a metronome at different tempos and then practiced soloing over a looped shuffle for hours. Like a lightbulb coming on after 15 years of frustration, I literally and figuratively found my groove like a seasoned pro. I think I had been trying to play straight eighth notes over shuffles, and my use of triplets was underutilized.

From there, I moved on to songs with a straight feel, which too have always given me fits. My main problem with these songs is that my 8th-note phrasing stunk because I tried to use too many notes. I thought great players just "played faster" than the rest of us. Well, they do, but I realize now that it is all about fitting those faster notes into each beat in a rhythmically even way.

Another side effect of analyzing different beat subdivisions is that when playing fast triplets or sixteenth notes (still very difficult) that could only be accomplished with hammer-ons and pull-offs, I was forced to examine all of my pentatonic boxes for different options, and within a day, I was seeing and connecting all of the shapes like never before. Unbelievable!

Some of the material in this book is beyond my scope and my interest, but by just focusing on the beat subdivisions (and hearing examples of them) and by learning the difference between a swung eighth note and a regular one, I have started on the fast track to becoming the lead guitar player I have always wanted to be. Thank you very much, Barrett.

I am an amateur guitarist who has been transcribing / playing solos off CD's for the last nine years.
When I play live, I have the choice of playing the solo exactly as written (and sounding like I know how to play) or improvising a solo (and sounding like a floundering amateur).
Mr. Tagliarino's book has been a great help in solving that problem by changing my focus while practicing from:
what licks do I know that I could play over this chord to
1) setting up rhythmic and melodic motifs and
2) learning to vary and develop them.
The first 40 pages are about learning details about rhythms in music, but the last 80 pages contain extremely helpful tips on how to build your solos.
If you are at a point where you are taking solos, I highly recommend this book.

Just finishing up with Barrett's "Chord-tone Soloing" book and starting on "Rhythmic Lead Guitar". I gotta say, I got this book because I felt like I was at a plateau and just not happy where I was musically. I know that if you're reading reviews for books like this, you are in the exact spot I was in. This is my first review for anything I've ever purchased and these books were enough for me to get up and actually do so. Barrett explains things in a very clear manner, and what I like to call "optimistic candor." In reading these books, I discovered things about my playing that were really weak on a foundational level. It's been about four weeks now working with the schedule he suggests and I feel like that plateau is already long gone. I really feel like Barrett just continues to hit the nail on the head in every single chapter. It's like he provides different angles to view the guitar from... I love these two books and will be looking for more from Mr. Tagliarino soon!

Rhythmic Lead Guitar is a very practical book dealing with rhythm and timing and can be used by anyone at any level, starter to professional. Even if you know nothing about rhythm or how to count beats in a measure, this book will help you out. If you are like me and are a bit more advanced, there are still many concepts that are yet to be mastered. (Can you play a 16th note shuffle?)

The book walks you through different rhythms, one by one, with examples that are written out and recorded so that you can play along with them. He starts you out by simply tapping your foot to a metronome and then moves you through different rhythms that become increasingly complex and advanced. The approach is very effective.

I strongly recommend this book, no matter what level you are at (or perceive yourself to be at). Without a good sense of timing, you are wasting your time. This book will definitely help you to build the proper foundation and to build the proper habits when playing.

This is a great book for learning how to count rythmns frequently used in lead guitar as well as being very informative with information I never understood before regarding grooves, phrasing and motifs as well as other important information not mentioned in many other books on lead guitar. The examples are very good!!! by praticing each exercise it will help you get beyond technical hurdles to playing with expression and clear articulation. I also have Barretts book on chord tone soloing a very good book also I am glad somebody expressed the importance of counting and targedting concepts to keep me from getting lost during soloing. thank you Barrett.

I recently purchase this book and happy I did. I've seen many books and purchased books on lead playing, soloing/improvising and what not in guitar playing. This books gets into the nuts and bolts of playing lead guitar consciously dealing with rhythm....not just playing a lot of fast notes, as in, writing sentences with a lot of run-ons no punctuations.
It's a study that will help one improve, in my opinion, not a reference book necessarily but can be.
As my first guitar teacher said to me if you do not have rhythm in your playing...you have nothing. Rhythm is everything he said. Reminds me a quote that Jimi Hendrix said EARLY ON when he heard Eric Clapton play live (which is hard for me to believe. I hope the quote is true) that Hendrix was going to burn Clapton because Clapton didn't have any "rhythm" in his guitar playing! Hard to believe that quote, but that is the quote I read.
I believe a lot of regular guitarist need to focus on rhythm and phrasing to improve our playing and it certainly looks like this books offers excellent instructional guidance in that department of guitar playing and more.
Thank you very much for Mr. Tagliarino in sharing his knowledge by taking the time and effort in writing this book. I don't believe I've seen a book written this well and comprehensive in it's nature.

Lester Young once said "No matter what note you play as long as you play it with the right timing". This book is all about rhythm: something that can make a real difference in developing your solo phrasing and groove. I have been working with this book for a month now and I must say it is a great tool. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning how to be in the center of your own musical idea!

This is not a book you will finish in a month. To complete the book will take a year maybe two but you will be a better guitar player. Want to learn different phrasing,different timeing this is the right book. Have working from the book for about two weeks and first two chapters had made a different in my both reading music and rhythms I can play.

Get and work it. If you want easy don't buy this book. If you want to get better buy it. Little talent of lots of sweat equals lots of progress.