Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Scale Book

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a great scale book for guitarist and one that I refer to often. I still haven't found the ONE perfect scale book (hence only four stars), but this one comes close. It is one of three scale books that I use, and because of its compact size, it is usually the one that I have handy when I need it. Troy does a great job of explaining the scales and giving some exercises for practice. What I like best about this book is that it shows the scales in all positions across 22 frets with the root notes highlighted. Also, many scale books only show fretboard diagrams of the scales in one key, usually C or E and then explain how to move them around. This book includes diagrams of several keys (including G and A, which are favorites of mine). The only other thing I wish about this book is that it was spiral bound so it would lay flat when open, but I would rather have this book than any of the other gig bag sized ones that are spiral bound. All in all a great little scale reference and cheap too!

By far it contains a wide diverse set of scales, fingerings, and even a few exotic scales at the end. It is small enough to fit in any gig bag or guitar case, making it very conveninet. Unlike other scale/method books that present one scale and make a few variaitions on it, this one uses entirely different scales in different keys.....another great book by Troy Stetina

I love this book. I just read the 1st couple of pages and "click", I am starting to see the relationship between notes on the fret board. He shows the shapes and explains how to move them on the fretboard. This was something I was trying to get my guitar teacher to show me and all I got was "memorize the circle of fifths." Stetina's explanations about scales, how they are used, and his exmamples are clear and concise. I highly reccomend this book to anyone trying to learn guitar.

Wow, I have been playing guitar for over 25 years. I have seen a lot of books on scales. This one is hands down the best. This little $5.95 book has more info on scales than any of the books that cost 3 times that amount. Troy is a very good teacher. This book really helps you understand the scales and the relationships between them. The only critisism I can give is that I wish it would relate the chords to the scales better or at least give the basic chords that go along with each scale. I like how Troy starts simple by starting with the Minor Pentatonic scales and building from there. This book is great as a reference book or as a method book. It is nice that he also give the scales in different case to help contrast them. I can not say enough for this book. Oh and the explanation on modes is brilliant. I never was able to really grasp the concept even after having two different guitar teachers try to explain them. With this book I really get it now. This book Rocks!

This is a great book at a great value. For only $6, almost anyone can buy this book. Don't be mislead however, in this little book there is a wealth of information about scales. This book practically taught me to improvise. It may be small but it will take many months and almost guarantee years for the beginners to master the material. Also works great at building left and right hand technique if you have been playing guitar for a while.

I bought the ultimate scale book and the guitar scale bible at the same time and the ultimate scale book was much better. It was much more systematic, or if you just want the book for a reference guide then it will work as well. If not then go through the book page by page. It will walk you through it in terms a human being with not alot of guitar playing expirence can understand.

okay, so the photo looks like a shiny eyed kind of long hair heavy metal kind of guy. Check out his list of other books, including Black Sabbath licks. Also see the college music departments he has run, and programs he has designed. Visit his eponymous website, and build your trust. You too will believe that you can one day play.

The scales in this book are just right and just enough, are just what you need, and only what you need, with enough theory underneath to understand the hows and whys. And its format fits right in the neck of your guitar case. What more could you ask for?

I could ask for a few basic chord progressions to run each scale form over, but that you can find in other music and "fake" books, and would make this few-frills presentation more weighty and unwieldly. I like it just as it is. The writer does provide genres in which each scale is often heard (such as the long list under Major Pentatonic, including country, pop, rock, blues-rock, and jazz), and that should be enough of an indication for any student of music, for further study and application, for improvising and general grooving and noodling around while your fingers build their bones and find the notes and intervals (the sounds and the silence) and the chops start coming like rain, like on the records, in the clubs.

In fact the author recommends near the end of the introductory theory section:" . . .it is important to realize that for scales to ultimately be learned effectively, you must see them at work in real life situations. Then, you will really know them! All theoretical knowledge, including scales, is useless without application. So it is recommended that as you progress through this book, you learn enough music, songs, and/or solos to see some application of these patterns. (p. 5)"

That brief quote may display some of the common stylistic tendencies of nonwriters, such as the heavy use of the passive voice and split infinitives, and exclamations for declaratory sentences, etc., but do not let such niceties discourage you. Please know that this book is in fact surprisingly well written, very evocatively yet concisely and clearly, despite frequent usage of higher level vocabulary. Do not let that frighten you, but inform you. Within this small book lies a surprisingly large amount of good information and advice along with the well-ordered and arranged scales clearly displayed across the entire guitar fretboard.

The author in fact makes a point of arranging the order of presentation and practice in a logical pattern, beginning (after the extensive and useful introductory section) with the Minor and Major Pentatonic (or five note) and blues scales. You'll be playing Hendrix after this first section alone, and stretching it out into your own cathartic improvisations. Part II then presents the Natural Minor, the Major scale and the modes. Each of the seven modes is well displayed along the fretboard, with discussion of their interrelation and with separate sections for five of the seven modes, including the well-known "odd, mysterious" Lydian mode. I would have liked to have seen the Aeolian mode discussed separately in this way as well, but already enough information is presented here for you to be playing John Coltrane sheets of sound.

In fact Part III handles the jazz scales, with among others the neo-classical or Mohammedan Harmonic Minor and jazz minor modes, including the super-Locrian. The Phrygian-Dominant or Spanish Flamenco scale also comes through here. Miles Davis will resurrect from your guitar fretboard. Hear him cry in a minor mode.

Part IV discusses and teaches atonal scales, beginning with the Chromatic scale with twelve notes to the octave, and the Whole Tone scale with six tones to the octave and "an odd sort of 'lost' quality." A third atonal scale is the Diminished. This Part IV ends with "exotic and ethnic scales" such as one called the enigmatic and the double harmonic or "gypsy" scale, which are basically hybrids of earlier scales. The ethnic scales include the Hungarian, Persian, Arabian (or major Locrian), Egyptian (said to "tend to lack resolution, and sound odd") and a few Japanese scales.

This excellent and very comprehensive and instructive scale book closes with a double appendix. The first appendix is an excellent table for constructing each of the scales, very clear and concise. The second is the always useful display of the note names a guitar fretboard over nearly two octaves (more than you will ever reach or see!)

All in all this is a great guitar scale book, with plenty of theory and all of the scales explained and shown in guitar tabluture format, which is most easily understood by any guitarist rather than "reading" standard notation. An example of standard notation is included nevertheless for each of the scales in order to see clearly in another way the steps between the notes in each of the scales (e.g., whole or half steps). This thin and long book of Hal Leonard's Pocket Guide series (which does slide as easily into any pocket as into your guitar's case as cushion) deserves a place in any practicing and professional guitar player's heart. It makes a great back-up while getting ready for any cutting jam. Stetina's got your back. At this price how can you turn his help away?

This book is better than a guitar teacher. It shows you the scales, but more importantly it illustrates how they fit together. If you're a guitar player wondering how some players can shred up and down the neck, its because they understand how scales work, exactly what this book teaches you. This book has made it possible for me to improvise solos. If you don't understand how the positions of scales fit together, and major and minor relativity, this book is for you. I have a scale and arpeggio book, the Yngwie Malmsteen DVD, Rock Discipline with (John Petrucci), and this book has been most beneficial to my playing.

When they used the word "Ultimate" in the title I didn't know they meant Ultimate headache your going to experience while trying to view the MICRO images they used for the Fretboard diagrams. Trust me, I think they are trying for the next Guinness Book of World Records. Category: the tiniest, microscopic diagrams ever used in print, in the history of publishing.

I literally suffered eye-strain attempting to view this silly nonsense. Either no-one proof read this book, or no-one made the slightest effort at quality control. It is possible that the person who worked on the illustrations suffers from a severe eye impediment and was simply wearing triple thick, coke bottle eye-glasses that gave them the mistaken impression of normality. But I have my doubts. I just think someone was too lazy to bother with the details and simply copied diagrams from some other book and failed to notice he was working with Postage Stamps. In either case, save your money there are plenty of better material covering the subject of Guitar Scales online and most are free.

BTW, this is the Kindle version. I'm not certain if the Paperback has the same issue. And incase your wondering my vision is a perfect 20/20 in both eyes.

Overall this is a very helpful book. However, on nearly every page there are diagrams of fretboards. As you may or may not know, you cannot zoom in on images using a Kindle Reader. This makes seeing the small diagrams troublesome. Buy the print book.