Customer Reviews

Scales and Modes in the Beginning

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

 

 

On the first day of the first lesson, my instructor gave me a photocopied page with the "CAGED" system on it. When I asked where this came from, he showed me this book. I went out and bought it and never looked back. It isn't a book for absolute beginners BUT the CAGED system is by far - in my not-so-humble opinon - the BEST way to learn scales and modes as they focus on the way the guitar is laid out as well as giving you a complete set of fingering patterns. I started playing in 1988 and all of the books at that time were like Mel Bay oriented which required you to read notation. This was more tablature oriented with a solid understanding of the fundamentals of patterns. My instructor would say, "Learn the pattern and you've learned all of the scales". Because all you do is start at the root not and play the pattern to the next root note and you're there.

I was able to fly solo (with about 4 hours of practice each day) within about six months and played with my first band. There are other books I bought after this such as The Heavy Guitar Bible, Be Dangerous On Rock Guitar, some fake books, a couple of tablature magazines, and even a Mel Bay Jazz Scales book (the latter I didn't need since I had picked up on all of the scale patterns from this book) and that all helped to round out my education.

Years later when I took lessons again, I discovered from my new teacher (in another state) that he too had an affection for this book and loved the CAGED system.

If you want a simple, easy way to solo, learn the patterns in this book. You'll learn about Arpeggios and after you've mastered the Major scale patterns, the Whole Tone, Dimished, Augmented, Pentatonic, BeBop, etc., is simple - less notes and a minor variation of the pattern.

What's more, you can learn a simple, quick, and easy way to play the Modes with using just one pattern as an example. You're just starting on a different note.

Why sit and bash your skull against a wall trying memorize W-W-H-W-W-W-H (and it's variations)??? You can learn all of the scales & modes you want by simply learning some patterns. After that, to go into a new key, just shift the pattern either upwards or downwards on the neck of the guitar!

Yeah it' THAT simple!

There are countless numbers of scale books out there, and some are much more informative than others. For example, a scale book might boast "Learn 36 scales" on the front cover, but when you open it, it's just the same major, minor or pentatonic scale pattern transcribed to each of the 12 keys! That's really only THREE scales, not 36. Ron Middlebrook's book, however, does in fact show you the patterns for many, many different scales. Additionally, it has sections on arpeggios and studying the fretboard. The book was written for guitar players, but as a bass player I still found it very informative. Three features I especially love, and which seem to set this book apart from the rest, are 1) the list of 12-bar blues progressions, listed in increasing complexity. These are excellent for improvised jamming, soloing, creating walking bass lines, or just coming up with better progression ideas 2) A handy table showing every type of chord, the chord's symbol, how it's constructed, and which scales "fit" 3) a listing of "Foreign and Exotic Scales" from all different cultures. I am not giving it a full 5 stars because some of the layout is just plain strange. There are a number of typos, fragmented sentences, randomly placed advice quotes, and poorly worded descriptions. I find it ridiculous that these were never corrected after so many editions. Never the less, scales are such a fundamental part of music theory and learning how to jam along with others. I'm a total scale enthusiast, and this is the most complete book of its kind that I've ever found.

Lucky for the reader, all the new modes and minors were based off the C scale. Everything started with C, so I had a good time transcibing the patterns for each new mode and minor scale into digestable patterns that I could play up and down the neck. I usually start off with the first note on my fret board on the top string - usually F or F#. Then I start a pattern. From there, I create a new pattern - usually three or four frets down from F. I usually end off with four patterns that can be looped around and can be played up and down the neck. This book helped me see all my Harmonic minors and melodic minors from the C scale postion. C became I interval, D became II, E became III, F becmae IV . . . and so on. Then, if a sharp or a flat came up - say in the melodic minor scale - there's only one flat on the III or 3rd. So all I did was apply the flat 3rd interval to all my scales. On the guitar, all you need is a pattern and you're set. You move the pattern up and down the fret board depending on what scale you'd like to play.

So, this book has more to it than just modes and scales. They give you arpeggios and blues patterns. Good stuff. Was it worth the money? Yes. The Grimoire was pretty good, but I bought this book instead, and applied my own patterns. It's up to you. I'm starting a jazz guitar book collection, so this book is the start of something good. 4 Stars!!!!!

This book is a reference/exercise book covering musical theory relating to modes and scales, written for upper-intermediate to advanced guitar players. It is divided into 3 main sections: fretboard visualization (summarizing different systems for visualizing/fingering the fret board); scale terminology; and scales and modes. At the end of the book is a guide for matching scales to chords.

The tone of the book is ironically summed up at the beginning of the text in a list entitled "General Notes," where we read: "2. The words scale and mode mean the same thing. 3. Accuracy not speed is important." For a book that starts out by emphasizing the importance of accuracy, it's too bad there are so many problems in accurate presentation of the material. It's not that the material itself is inaccurate, but that the presentation is quite careless, so inaccuracies such as "scale and mode mean the same thing" are very common. The intended meanings of such statements may make sense on some level, but the copy-editing is often so poor that it's hard to decipher the intended meaning from what's written on the page.

Although the title of the book contains the word "Beginning," this book is by no means a beginner's book. The second exercise of the book asks the reader to improvise over a chord progression that includes such chords as A7+5, while providing no chord diagrams. If your chord repertoire doesn't already include such chords, you'll need to do some more study elsewhere before you'd be ready to tackle this book. I would venture that this book might be useful for first or second college music majors interested in jazz guitar, or perhaps for some advanced home-schoolers who are fascinated with music theory on guitar.

I found the comparison of fret board visualization systems quite interesting. The information provided in this book is not enough to really make use of the different systems, but it does provide some ideas of varying ways to use the fret board and where to look for more information. I was particularly interested in learning more about the "Greek" modes covered in this book. I had played a simple tune in the Carnatic (South Indian) raga of Kalyani for a friend. After listening to the piece, the friend told me that it was in Lydian mode. "Lydia who?" I asked, and that was the beginning of my search for more information about modes and how they correspond to ragas. I was quite excited to find this book, since it was the first one I saw that implied it was for beginners and covered the "Greek" modes. However, the definitions given for "mode" in this book are quite disappointing in their lack of accuracy (see the description give above, or on another page, we read "A mode is formed simply by taking a scale, such as the `C' Major scale, and instead of starting on the note C, you start from anv [sic] other note in the scale and play up to the SAME note an octave higher.") All the common "Greek" modes are included in this book, together with their interval patterns, scales, and fingering. In application notes, the author lists which chords tend to go with each mode, and provides some chord progressions for improvisation practice with the mode. I was also curious about what types of music might make use of the "Greek" modes, and any affective notions associated with the modes, but such information was not mentioned.

The book covers pentatonic scales in some detail, as well as seven-tone scales. While the author makes admirable references to the modes used in other cultures, with the level of detail presented here, he can really only touch on some of the possibilities. For instance, in his list of foreign scales, he lists just one scale as "Hindu", (corresponding to Keeravani in the Carnatic system), without mentioning the other 71 commonly used foundation modes of South Indian music. Implicit in the text (although befuddled in the presentation) is the notion that modes are characterized by interval patterns, and that each mode can be played out in each of the different keys. The text includes spell-outs of each mode in all 12 keys, leaving me very glad that I first approached this material from Indian music theory, in which the interval patterns themselves are primary and their spell-out in specific keys is trivial. In sum, this book contains some interesting material about scales and modes for guitar players, but it's a less than ideal introduction to the topic.

This is a book my husband has had for years...he lost it a while ago so I bought him a replacement. It's not only great for beginning guitarists but also nice to have on hand for "old pros" who like to bone up on basics periodically.

I'm still giving this book a five in spite the title of the book being a little bit deceiving; this book is probably not the best books to understand scales in the, "beginning," of your study of scales and modes.

First, this book is a Theory Book. What I mean by that is that the book's greatest strength is in the ability to explain how and why certain scales and their modes are related together and when to use each one. Having used a previous book on Scales, which I will critique at some other time, and having used a pure reference book on scales, which I will also review at some other time, I had plenty of, "Aha! So that is why this works and this does not!" That alone makes this book way more valuable than the price--even the normal retail price.

I would not recommend beginning Scale study with this book because while the books is amazing in relating various scales and when to use them, the book does not do enough to explain how scales, modes, chords, arpeggios are created in the first place. The book also does not explain the difference between a C, Cmajor and Cmajor7 and how each is constructed from the prior. Also while the first pages gives a visual of the fret board, that is the last of the fret board you will see in this book--for the most part. A book on Fret Board theory would also be something to know before approaching this books; the scale theory effects the Fret Board and the Fret Board effects the scale theory.

Second, this book is a Reference Book. With each Scale comes an explanation of how best to use the scale. Best in terms of musical genre, respective chord harmony and respective transitioning. While I have just finished working through this book, I know I will keep coming back to it as I learn to write music to better understand what I should be thinking about when I want to achieve a certain tone and style.

Lastly, this book is an Exercise Book. When I write, "lastly," I mean, "last." Such as this book is probably a better coffee table decoration than it is an Exercise Book. There are few exercises, too few to disrupt learning the theory to tinker with the exercise. Also, the exercises that are in the book are not that great; they are not explained well and what is explained is still unclear.

Conclusion:

1. Buy this book after you have: 1)worked through any basic book on Scales and Modes 2) worked through a book on Fret Board Theory 3) have played with a Reference book for Scales and Modes. The last one is the most important one. After the first two, you can get a reference book and just play within the Key detailed in the reference. You can get some free background music written in a Key and then with the Key detailed in reference book begin improvising.

2. If all the above have been met, this book is the best I have read so far which brings all of the above together. Again while not covering the above sufficiently, if you know the above this book will be that last piece of the puzzle to pull everything together.

3. This book will be a reference tool for a long time in your study of music.

4. The exercises in the book are pointless. But, again, the theory is amazing. So, this book is not meant to be an exercise book. Instead, it is meant to be a Theory and Reference Book.

I had this book years ago, it's one of the greatest music books I had ever owned. It's all about music theory, the scales lessons are endless, the play along and jam over the chords sections really teach you a lot, and it's just an all around great book for guitar players. I lost my first copy when my home burnt several years back. I didn't think I'd ever replace that book. I looked for many years and finally found an even better copy in mint condition, shipping was fast and accurate, the binding on this one is way better than the paperback version I had the first time, and it was just a great shopping experience and product. Will do business here again with no worries.