Jazz Piano Vocabulary Volume 3 The Phrygian Mode
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
| Q | I already own a copy of your 1st Steps for the Beginning Guitarist. Wonderful book for breaking down chords and chord progressions. I have been using this in collaboration with an Alfred book by the name of Teach Yourself to Play Guitar (mainly for strumming techniques). My first problem is that I have difficulty remembering the positions of the chords. Secondly, I have no idea of what notes are where on the fretboard. I read your Recommendations for Study pdf and decided that the Music Theory Workbook for Guitar Volume One might be a great start and maybe later complimented with Single String Studies for Guitar Volume One. Am I headed in the right direction? Also, do any of your books cover strumming?
But, beyond that. The main purpose of this e-mail is to ask you about my piano studies. I don't know what you're experience is with the instrument, but you seem like my last recourse in a long journey. I started out using Alfred's Teach Yourself to Play Piano, which was cool for awhile but I soon found out that it didn't teach me anything about fingering or improvisation, which are two very important issues for any burgeoning pianist (I think or at least have learned since receiving no training on those topics). Anyway, I've sort of given up on that book and am in the market for something new. But then that creates an even worse situation because there is so much crap out there.I'm currently looking at purchasing the Piano Handbook by Carl Humphries. I guess my question is: Are there any books that you could recommend for an autodidact like myself? I'm really stumped right now and ready to throw in the towel. |
| A | There are two problems that most students have when starting the guitar. Remembering where the notes and chords are on the instrument and coordinating their strumming. For the open chords I would recommend learning the chord progressions in 1st Steps and other songs you like to help you memorize the open chords. For the barre chords you could use the cycle 5 progression found on page 28 of 1st steps. By moving the chords cycle 5 it will help you to memorize and play the various barre chords. Over time this will help you memorize the notes on the low E and A strings and then you can just plug in whatever barre chord you need.
Music Theory Workbook for Guitar Volume One is also excellent for building your knowledge of notes and their corresponding shapes on the guitar. This book isn't much fun but will make a major difference if you work through it a little at a time. Single String Studies is also good. Once again a hard book and you shouldn't expect it to get any easier for quite some time. But once you get the hang of it you will have a real deep knowledge of the guitar fretboard. For strumming there is quite a bit of information in various places. You will find really basic help files for strumming in the member's area under Help files for First Steps. Of course the 1st Steps book gives you 3 strumming patterns per chord progression so that helps to build ability. I would also recommend the Rhythm books for strumming. Each page of these books gives you various rhythms. I would randomly pick a chord and strum through the exercises rather than just playing them with one note which is what the book recommends. I'd start with Rhythm Primer. For Piano I would check out Roberta Piket's books on various modes. See muse-eek.com or amazon.com She gives you the background for each scale, fingerings for playing the scale and associated chords, improvisational concepts with written out melodies so you can see typical melodies and she gives email support so you can stay on the right track. |
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