Beginner Guitarist E-book Tips

Q: I just purchased your 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist e-book. The following reference is quoted on page 4 but the website doesn’t exist. Is there another url to get to this information? More specifically for both left and right hand technique I recommend downloading the major scales, arpeggios and sweeps from the “Music Workshop” at www.arnoldjazz.com, following the directions on each page. Also, the book mentions files that do not appear to be in the downloaded material or are mislabeled (e.g. photos 15 and 16 mentioned on page 4 – I can’t find these)

So far (very early) I like the book, but the confusing or missing reference material is frustrating for me and, most likely, other beginner guitarist.

A: Nice to hear from you. We totally changed the delivery of the 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist book with our new website. Beginner guitarists will now get one huge download with all currently available material. All of that extra material use to have to be downloaded separately. (It still does if you buy a physical edition of the book.) Some of included material in the download is mentioned in the book and some of it isn’t because we continue to add things. I’ll gladly walk you through anything you are not sure about as you work through the book. Sorry to say arnoldjazz.com does not exist anymore. The downloads from that sight included:

1. The major scale which are now part of the digital download of the book and we have also added the modes of C major as a bonus. You will find all of those in the back of the 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist book.
2. No arpeggios are available for free download they have been incorporated into New York Guitar Method Volume Two. You will also find a group of arpeggios in the Beginning Jazz Guitar DVD that truefire.com puts out.
3. Sweeps have been expanded from a 2 page download into a 50 some page book. There is now a DVD from truefire called “50 Sweeps you must know” that just came out last month.
4. You can find examples of the truefire DVDs on youtube if you want to take a look.

The Photos 15 and 16 are on page 52 of the 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist book.

There is also a lot of additional files not mentioned in the book that are available in the member’s area of the muse-eek.com website. Some that would be very useful to you would be the jam file MP3s which you can use to work on the scales.

Since that book was released I also put a Guitar Physiology from truefire.com which I would highly recommend to check your technique before you go too far in the 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist book. 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist book explains a lot about technique and does give you pictures but the Guitar Physiology gives you a DVD with multiple angles so you really can see exactly how you should be playing. If you get that DVD you should send me a video of you playing a “C” scale from a low “F” on the “E” string to the “B” on the high “E” string (3 notes per string) see the 1st scale on page 54 of the 1st steps book for the fingering. You could upload the example to youtube or send via email if it’s small enough. That’s my major concern when students start out is to get their technique correct so please consider this free conciliation it could really help you to get started on the right foot with your playing.

We had planned on updating many things on our site and in some of our books to reflect recent changes. Unfortunately we lost our complete production facility to Hurricane Sandy so it’s going to be a long time before we can get back on our feet.

But please keep in touch and let me know if you have questions. I’m always concerned about students when they are first getting started because it’s so easy to misunderstand things. So keep the questions coming :)

We also should talk about an overall approach to improving your entire musicianship over time so you see the bigger picture. i.e. ear training, music theory etc… With these new abilities you will discover that you improve from beginner guitarist to advanced guitarist.

Hope that helps.

Speak to you soon,

Bruce

It is also recommended that you read Bruce Arnold’s Blog at his artist site. It contains more discussion of the musical topics found in these FAQs as well as other subjects of interest. You will also find the “Music Education Genealogy Chart” located here which shows you the historic significance of the music education products found on the Muse Eek Publishing Company Website.

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