Reddit reviews Solo Guitar Playing, Third Edition Book 1 - with CD (Classical Guitar)

Purchase the book Frederick Noad's Solo Guitar Playing. It will take you from step one.

http://www.amazon.com/Solo-Guitar-Playing-Book-Classical/dp/0825694000

Solo Guitar Playing by Frederick Noad

Ok, I'll stay out of it then. I just didn't think there was such a grey area regarding illegal stuff. It's available on amazon used for $2.50..

EDIT: This is a good book for learning to read music and basic fingerpicking/ sight reading

http://www.amazon.com/Solo-Guitar-Playing-Book-Classical/dp/0825694000




Ok I'm stoned and a giving person so I will impart to you the knowledge of basic theory. Read this comment carefully and you will learn everything you need to know to learn the guitar. Ok, you have a six stringed instrument, in E standard that means you should have the notes starting from the lowest (thickest) string: E A D G B E. Each fret on the guitar is a semi-tone or a half-step. A step is an interval, the distance between two tones. There are names for these intervals, half steps (1 fret) and whole steps (2 frets). The major scale is how you will learn this. A scale is just a pattern of intervals. If you pick a note, E in this case to build its major scale without thinking about notes just use this formula WWHWWWH (whole, half). You can do this for any note on the guitar, it's easy to see the pattern using the notes on the open strings. Master this. There's a lot to cover, but I promise I can explain it faster and more coherently than any book I've read, I had a great teacher lay this out for me in an hour.

Once you have become familiar with the sound of the major scale (do re mi fa so la ti do) it's time to name the intervals of the notes you're playing. Play the first then second note of the major scale. That interval is a major second. Play the root, or first note of the major scale and the third note in the scale and this interval is called a major third. The third is a key note, this is special but I will explain why later. The fourth and fifth notes are called perfect fourths and fifths. The sixth is minor, major seventh and the octave. So why do these intervals have these names? Play them and hear the way they sound...they have a specific number of steps in regards to the root, this is true for all keys. Ok mull that over but here's the cool part. If you take the third note of the major scale and play it a half-step lower you will make a minor third. Do you know the open A major chord and the open A minor cord? See if you can find the third and hear how it sounds when you play those two chords...notice that the fifth is the other interval played in those two chords. A chord is constructed from the first third and fifth notes of a scale. (and a seventh sometimes, but we'll talk about that later). This applies to all scales, so let's go back to that major scale. Let's use C for this example. What if I were to play the notes that are in the C major scale, but instead of starting and ending on C, I start and end on the second note D? Well I've created a different pattern of intervals. The major scale is WWHWWWH remember? This new scale is WHWWWHW and now the third interval of this scale is minor, making it a minor scale. For any major scale, I can do this using any of the 7 other notes in the scale, each with its own pattern of intervals. These scales are what are referred to as the "modes" of the major scale. Guitar books teach this concept retardedly.

Let's construct the third mode of the E major scale, so you can see it on the open string. The pattern is HWWWHWW, this mode has a name it's called phrygian. You can hear it sounds dark and spanish. Every mode has a name, the major scale is the Ionian mode, the next is a minor mode Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. memorize them gradually, but more importantly work out the steps of each scale and play them on the guitar. If I take the first third and fifth notes of each mode of a major scale, I will have each chord that belongs in that key. You can play the seventh note on every chord if you want to, you can experiment adding the 4th, 10th (the major second and octave higher) and other intervals into your chords later. Chords are thrown together in progressions, we label them in roman numerals and they are repeated often. The l chord is the major root the ll is minor the lll is minor the lV is major the lV is major the Vl is minor the Vll is odd as you may have discovered, it has a major third and a flat fifth. This is called a "half" diminished chord. A whole diminished chord would be a chord with a minor third and double flatted fifth. (flatting is lowering a note semi-tone, sharp is a semitone above the note) There you go. ask me questions I'll answer I can probably make videos. I can get you going on the guitar.