(Part 2) Best guitar books according to redditors
We found 2,078 Reddit comments discussing the best guitar books. We ranked the 627 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Alright, let me give you a rundown of my personal library.
Beginner:
Intermediate:
Advanced:
I'm sure others will disagree with my ranking, and obviously my library is rather genre specific. But it's a lot of quality material that will definitely improve your playing no matter the style.
So many people seem to have this idea that they're just going to "learn theory." Like that's it.
Like there will be this AHA I NOW KNOW THE MUSICAL THEORY I CAN NOW WRITE THE MUSIC.
But in all seriousness. Yeah you will learn theory. If music is going to be a life long pursuit you will never STOP learning theory. Unless you're not serious about it. Then you might just learn what I IV V means write some pop songs and stop there. I digress..
First thing. Learn to read music. DO NOT READ TAB. Learn all the notes on the fret board. Not like you can count up to it and realize that something is a C. Like you KNOW IT. Point to it and you know what note it is. Start reading music here.
Another good way to learn the notes on the fretboard is to pick 4 triads of different qualities. One major, one minor, one diminished, and one augmented triad and play them in all inversions in all positions on the neck while saying the note names. And then pick 4 new triads the next day. Do not just learn the shapes. This will probably take you 2 hours on your first day if you're as thorough as you should be.
If you don't know what any of that means that's fine for now. Those are some pretty basic concepts that you'll learn pretty soon if you're serious about this.
This guy knows his shit. Learn from him. Take it slow. Don't just watch the video and go "Yeah that makes sense." You need to KNOW IT. Drill the concepts a few hours a day.
You could buy a music text book.
Or get an actual guitar teacher. I'd recommend learning jazz because unlike a lot of rock or pop players they actual know their shit about theory and their instrument. You kinda have to know your shit to play jazz. Either that or classical. But jazz theory is more in line with modern music.
Segway: Buy a Real Book
Start off in there with Autumn Leaves or something else easy.
If you're really beginner-y start here.
While that guy's course is good it really focuses on technique. You learn basically no theory from that guy. Just shapes and tabs. Doesn't even use standard notation. His jazz course is ok. It's on his side bar.
This guy's stuff is good for a beginner in jazz. But a beginner in jazz is not exactly beginner level for some other genres. I think you need a pretty solid level of understanding to understand what he's talking about.
That should get you started..
[Edit] Some people have this disconnect. They think that learning theory is somehow separate from song writing. Learning theory will open so many doors to you and show you why and how things work. So that you can actually understand what you're doing.
If I wanted to build a house I could just jump in and start building a house. I'd probably come across a lot of problems. My first house might suck and have a leaky roof or bad plumbing or something. But I could probably learn a long the way. Maybe after I build a ton of crappy houses I could figure out for myself why things work.
Or.. I could look through the writings of the millions of house builders that came before me and see what they found out works and what doesn't. Then maybe my first house will have some issues and it might not be so easy to pull off but I'd be better off learning from the people who came before me than trying to figure it out myself. By doing this I have just saved myself the time of trying to rediscover the wheel so to speak.
That's what learning theory will do for you.
If you're in Denver drop by, I'll give you my spare Kay.
That said, getting one is a good start. There's a balance though, if you pay a lot you'll get one that works well and you'll know that the times when it sounds bad are because you're just learning. If you get a crappy one, rebuild it and then play it and it sounds bad then it MIGHT be the instrument and it MIGHT be you which can add some stress. Personally I went with the cheapest I had access to, rebuilt it and the I've played it for a couple of years and only recently discovered that the high frets are in the wrong places making it impossible to stay in tune above, say the 14th fret.
I started with the "complete ignoramus" book https://www.amazon.com/Bluegrass-Banjo-Complete-Ignoramus-Book/dp/1883206448 , learning some tunes and then took actual lessons from a human. You'll need finger picks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhLInd4ZhjE (if you aren't going to learn clawhammer https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=AMv0rT4CYPg) and a tuner https://www.amazon.com/Snark-Super-Tight-Instrument-Tuner/dp/B00646MZHK.
Then get on banjohangout and try
Funny, I've all but completely started playing and I've been trying to learn theory because I'm very much afraid of being stuck in a rut for years on end. So a few months ago I purchased Desi Serna's Guitar Theory For Dummies and have read through about half of it. I bought the book, but maybe, perhaps, a PDF of the book is floating around somewhere. With a small amount of generic music theory knowledge already at hand, the book does well to explain some useful and interesting scales and chords in music, as well as how to apply them specifically to guitar. What I have read thus far has certainly enhanced my understanding of music, and it may help you as well, if you are willing to go this route. Also, I have acquired some great theory knowledge from one of my favorite YouTube instructor channels, Swiftlessons, if you want to check his stuff out. Rob, the channel owner, has recently covered the basics of jazz style, BTW. I really enjoy his videos. For some more obscure/advanced stuff, I watch videos from Eric Haugen, a professionally trained guitarist who likes to share interesting theory tips and apply them to the music he likes. Good luck!
In terms of overcoming "block", my recommendation is to write deliberately bad songs. If you set out to write something bad, you don't feel inhibited by the fear of failure. Eventually, you inoculate yourself against embarrassment and just get on with writing.
In terms of music, I'd suggest learning some theory. It doesn't have to be anything particularly complicated, but learning the major and minor scales, the diatonic chords and some basic modulation will get you a long way. A basic book on music theory might be a smart choice.
In terms of lyric writing, check out this course that starts next week. It's completely free, or you can pay a small fee to take part in graded assignments and get a certificate.
ChuckEye's right, you really should be thinking more about chord tones. Practicing scales in a non-musical way makes your solos sound like you're playing scales.
But that said, when thinking about metal: 1) locrian 2) harmonic minor or maybe even the 3) altered (superlocrian) scale. Throw in a dash of 4) whole-tone scale, and some 5) symmetrical diminished scale too. 6) Lydian Dominant sounds weird too.
(You really should learn how most scales are just modes of the Major and Jazz Melodic Minor scales, but if you just want weird sounding stuff try those above to start.)
The real trick is HOW you practice them. You shouldn't be thinking of them as boxes in one position, you should practice them across your fretboard, from lowest note to highest note.
Check out Alex Webster's Extreme Metal Bass book too.
Better uke setup, still cheap:
I'll also assume that, since you are a Redditor and know what's up, that you don't need to be told to get a metronome like the Korg MA-30.
So borrow a couple of textbooks instead of buying and set that money aside; that should be about enough to get all of this. Or save money some other way... A friend of mine had a serious Starbuck's habit. I don't think he even realized it, but he was dropping $5-$10 every day at Starbuck's and whining about how he had no money. Coffee at home and two months later, his first uke.
Last, strumming... practice the living crap out of your strums. Count out loud. Use a metronome. Write down the patterns. Speaking and writing the strum patterns is important, drumming them out with your hand (off the uke) is also important. You need to think of the strum as a rhythm that's independent of your uke, like this magical, ideal, Platonic rhythm, and you with your poor wooden uke and your sad meat fingers have to try to mimic it; anything you can do to understand the rhythm better -- whether or not you do that thing on your uke -- will help improve your strum.
You should check out the YouTube channel Let's Talk About Math Rock. It's a pretty good resource on learning the fundamentals of math rock.
Also, check out the book Creative Guitar 1.
Wilfried Welti has put together some excellent ebooks of fingerstyle classical music - some of the text is in German, but the music is understandable even if you only speak English:
http://ukulelehunt.com/2008/11/12/wilfried-weltis-ukulele-tabs/
http://www.dsp-arts.com/publishing/shop/en/Ukulele-E-books/
If you want a physical book, this one is quite good:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-Play-Fingerstyle-Solos-Ukulele/dp/0786673427
Make sure they have a smaller size guitar. Most seven-year-olds can't comfortably play a 4/4 size guitar. a 2/3 or 3/4 might suit them better.
There's plenty of books aimed at young guitarists. It would be a good idea to grab one or more of those and look at the material. They basically start you off with single-note lines and open chords.
You should also get them started with reading sheet music. Kids will learn it just as easily as they would learn reading tabs, but learning to read sheet music will come in handy throughout their life.
Mel Bay's Guitar Method is a classic. It also includes teacher/student duets that are appropriate for beginners.
Other than that teaching kids just requires a lot of patience.
Try 'Sight Reading For Classical Guitar' by Robert Benedict -
Level I-III and
Level IV-V
Also, Trinity College's 'Sound At Sight' books are very useful for practice -
Grade Initial-3
Grade 4-8
I also find Julio Sagreras's First, Second and Third Lessons In The Guitar very useful for both sight reading and developing my right hand technique.
a good sight reading book will do you much better than an app. most sight reading apps will only work on identifying notes and clapping out rhythms, rarely the two as one.
here's a good book i've used:
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Reading-Guitar-Complete-Method/dp/0793581885/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1453592823&sr=8-4&keywords=sight+reading+for+guitar
if you're into jazz: get a book of standards and start working with the tunes that are very simple. as a beginner, you should mainly stick to whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes.
This book starts at zero and takes you through learning finger style blues:
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Fingerstyle-Blues-Guitar-Books/dp/0825625564
Here is a PDF of that book, but of course without the CD:
http://tommyemmanuel.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/beginning-fingerstyle-blues-guitar.pdf
Edit: In fact, that same site has a whack of PDF books on the topic here:
http://tommyemmanuel.wordpress.com/fingerstyle/
I suggest you take a look at "The Art of Contemporary Travis Picking: How to Play the Alternating Bass Fingerpicking Style" and consider picking up "Beginning Fingerstyle Blues Guitar" if that's what you're interested in. I have both of them and they helped me get a footing in the style - The former has a lot of great songs for you to learn that you can spin your own variations on and play around with, and there's a followup to it for when you get more advanced. Good luck!
I highly recommend this Mel Bay's book to begin with. Once you get a fair way into that book, begin to look at A Modern Method of Guitar and the Carcassi book if you can find it. If you get through these books, you will be a monster at sightreading guitar sheet music!
I came up learning before the internet was big (like pre high speed where video wasn't a super viable option, and content wasn't so much in regular people's hands) and spent a lot of time reading books, articles, and message boards.
Dan Erlewine became my biggest teacher in books and This book was my bible for a while.
I originally started getting into it after getting the third degree by a mom-and-pop shop when I brought a bass in for repair that I didn't buy there, but when my friends in school would see the things I was doing, they'd ask me to work on their stuff too.
Been a while since I've actually had to wrench on anything guitar wise, but I still keep up with some of the new stuff coming out and browse new catalogs when I get them in the mail.
Edit: I also had the first edition of this book and it seemed to be more related to guys who play and are just getting into working on their own stuff.
A few things that have helped me with my songwriting that might also help you:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/5f/d3/ff/5fd3ffb8940285beca8a39c744fad7d4.jpg
https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Songs-Guitar-Expanded/dp/0879309423/ref=la_B001K87RIO_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502982573&sr=1-1
Probably not the answer you're looking for, but Alex Webster's book, "Extreme Metal Bass", has helped me more than you could imagine. It's not really metal stuff (even though the scales and intervals are common in extreme metal), but the exercises in the book are absolutely amazing at building speed and precision. Not even exagerating, but in only two months of practicing just tje first few exercises, I am able to play songs that I thought I would not ever be able to play.
It goes over fingering patterns, crazy scales, stretching exercises, tapping exercises, string skipping, and many combinations of those. If you don't mind the fact that it is a an metal-based book, I would absolutely recommend this book. 15$ on amazon and extremely high quality, and comes with an access code to hear the exercises online.
edit: link
https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Metal-Bass-Techniques-Applications/dp/1423497155
Well, I've played trumpet for more than twice as long as I've played piano (25ish years). It was my primary instrument in college majoring in music. But piano is basically my primary instrument now. It's where I make most of my money. There are definitely times I've put the horn aside and just try to get my chops back in shape for gigs. There were definitely times I thought about it shelving it due to the effort (similar to maintaining callouses for for acoustic guitar, but by a magnitude of 10 in terms of maintenance).
But I'm glad I didn't, though I never really had the choice. People still called me for gigs on it. But now I've just worked it into more of my work and I'm glad.
You can absolutely learn piano and maintain guitar. I'd recommend picking up the Hal Leonard Guitar Method. It may seem frustrating since you've already got a lot of experience, but try to force yourself to read on guitar and actually learn it well. It's very worthwhile and will take a lot of your already developed technical knowledge and put it into a more practical use. You'll probably find a lot of fun being able to do that along side your piano stuff.
I'd also recommend looking into some of the style books for guitar and doing the same. Make yourself read and make yourself learn to put theory into the context of guitar.
Theory and reading will always be easier on piano. It's just laid out better for it. But if you apply what you learn on piano back to guitar and make yourself learn what you've missed over the years on guitar, you'll get so much more out of guitar.
I'm always surprised at how many people recommend pumping nylon and nobody ever recommends Kitharologos from Ricardo Iznaola. That book covers the entirety of modern technique.
http://www.amazon.com/Kitharologus-Path-Virtuosity-Ricardo-Iznaola/dp/0786617748
(Though I do admit that I've never seen PN)
This is one of the most useful books I've come across. Lots of great tips to make your life easier and very easy to read and follow. I use it as a quick reference all the time.
Guitar Player Repair Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/0879302917/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_VF3fzb9TE2BB0
Nice! I got Bass Fitness and Serious Electric Bass a few weeks ago and have been slowly working through them.
I got Serious Electric Bass without realizing the exercises aren't tabbed out. I've been meaning to learn how to read music for a while now so I guess there's no better time than now!
Bass Fitness is a little tedious and you've got to be really dedicated to work through it, but the payoff is totally worth it.
I highly recommend both books. It'll be a while before I'm through with both of these, but I'll check out the book you mentioned too.
One important thing is to relax, and especially relax your fretting hand. If you've got the strings in a death claw, it's going to sound bad and you might eventually wind up with carpal tunnel.
Instead of trying to do hammer-ons right away, force yourself to go back to fundamentals. Set the metronome (you must have a metronome) to 40 beats per minute and play one finger per fret. Your fingers should fall immediately behind each fret. Whole notes, half notes, quarters, eighths triplets and 16ths...make sure you're playing in time with the clicks. Try to relax completely and use only the minimum amount of pressure it takes to sound each note without buzzing. The idea behind this exercise is to teach your muscle memory the exact amount of pressure you need to play a given note. Forcing yourself to play slow will give your muscles time to readjust in order to sound the notes accurately. Your fingers, wrists, body posture, etc. should be completely relaxed and comfortable throughout. If you start tensing up or feel pain or burning in your fingers, make yourself relax and loosen up.
Couple other popular hand exercises.
For books, there's a big difference between a good one and a bad one. I can personally recommend Serious Electric Bass, Bass Logic, Bass Grooves, and Standing in the Shadows of Motown (this last book is less of a beginner's guide and more of a project you could spend a lifetime on: i.e. learning from the great James Jamerson). Also highly recommended is Ed Friedland's Building Walking Bass Lines. I also have and recommend The Bass Grimoire, but it is more a reference book for advanced scale and chord building, as opposed to a beginner's guide. Bass Guitar for Dummies is actually pretty good and comprehensive.
And there are some good online resources as well: studybass.com is great and starts from a beginner level. Scott Devine is an amazing teacher especially with more advanced techniques, but also for fundamentals. Paul from How To Play Bass Dot Com just steps you through a bunch of popular rock & r&b tunes...not bad for picking up new songs, but it's far better to learn the theory & structure behind a song than just memorizing the finger patterns. MarloweDK is a great player with hundreds of videos, but he's highly advanced.
Finally, musictheory.net has some great ear training exercises you can do any time, in addition to a wealth of info about basic theory that applies to all instruments.
Are you already 'musical'? I personally wasn't really when I started (some would argue I'm still not), and I am pretty happy with Wayne Erbsen's Bluegrass Banjo for the Complete Ignoramus, along with the stuff in the sidebar here.
If you don't know how to sightread, this is a good time to get good at that. Pack a metronome and a replacement AA battery or two and you're set for 6 months no problem. For books, try:
Jay Weik's Daily Sight-Reading Studies for the Guitarist, Large Print Edition:
http://www.amazon.com/Daily-Guitar-Reading-Technique-Studies/dp/0786682809
Make sure you get the large-print edition, because the "normal" edition is actually a pocket-sized "Quick Guide" that is tiny.
This has 30 daily studies that will have you sight reading full chords in 1 month if you work on it every day.
Another great resource for sight reading is this one from Berklee:
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-Positions-Multi-Position/dp/0634013351
I also recommend a theory book, for example Berklee's Music Theory 101 books 1 & 2 as used at Berklee College of Music:
http://www.amazon.com/Berklee-Music-Theory-Book-Edition/dp/0876391102
Get these, a Real Book for jazz standards, and some note-for-note transcriptions of albums you want to learn for the metal stuff. Books are available for lots of major label albums if you search for them. Make sure you use a metronome to practice. You don't need anything fancy; something like this will work just fine:
http://www.amazon.com/Qwiktime-QT3-Qwik-Time-Metronome/dp/B0002F75EM/ref=zg_bs_11965901_9
Hope this helps! Have fun.
The Modern Method books are good but Leavitt's Sight Reading Studies For Guitar are great for practicing positional sight reading.
I use this book to teach all of my students how to read. Then I supplement with some basic sheet music I create of a popular song that they like that they use to help them sightread the melody. :)
Once I felt I had hit the wall of what I could figure out by ear, I picked up (and had a lot of luck with) this book. It's the one that Earl Scruggs wrote, and it's very well paced. I might even suggest starting out with it, because I ended up having to do a lot of right hand reprogramming.
In my opinion, it's better to spend your money on music rather than books.
There are some banjo books that are important. I used to own these. I really should build my library back up. Currently I only have the "Hot Licks," "Banjo Styles by Bela Fleck" and "Masters of the Five String" as I've leant out the other ones and never got them back.
Earl Scruggs and the 5-string banjo has already been mentioned. I would recommend trying to find an older version, simply because I'm a nerd.
Masters of the Five String Banjo. A very cool, very informative piece on bluegrass banjo players, their set-up, and some tablature. Obviously dated, but an incredibly insightful book.
Melodic Banjo: by Tony Trishka. Again, I like the older cover
Hot Licks for Bluegrass Banjo, another book by Tony Trishka, is pretty good.
Banjo Picking Styles: Bela Fleck is also a pretty interesting book. And not just for the 80s shirt that Bela is wearing on the front.
If you're looking for specific bluegrass songbooks.
Bluegrass Songbook, by Pete Wernick. Seriously, this is a great book.
Bluegrass Fakebook. This covers most of the standards.
And though you didn't ask, here are some other books that may be of interest to bluegrass/banjo nerds:
Bluegrass: A History Neil Rosenberg's very thorough history of Bluegrass music
Spann's Guide to Gibson 1902-1941. If you're interested in prewar Gibson banjo, this is an incredible resource.
Gibson Mastertone: Flathead Five-string Banjos of the 1930s and 40s. For the prewar nuts.
Can't You Hear Me Calling: The Life of Bill Monroe Father of Bluegrass Music. An interested read.
What I Know 'Bout What I Know: The Musical Life of An Itinerant Banjo Player. This is an autobiography of Butch Robins. It's... interesting.
Jody Fisher’s Complete Method for Jazz Guitar
I own around 20 guitar books. This one is the best for getting a comprehensive overview of what you should know to start and grow with jazz guitar IMHO. then other books are good for supplementing specific concepts that you find along the way.
This Book is absolutely the bomb and will take you from zero knowledge to advanced by simply following it (Jody Fisher Complete Jazz Method)
Don't try and speed up the process, it takes a long time and steady practice.
Get this book;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769209742/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375442256&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=sight+read+classical+guitar
And then when you have finished that one, get this one;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769212859/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1375442279&sr=8-2-fkmr1&keywords=sight+read+classical+guitar
And then you should feel confident to play most things.
After those books, I'd recommend folk and bluegrass sheet music as the timings are quite simple (mostly triplets or 16ths throughout).
Jazz and the like will be much harder to read but you'll get there IF you practice.
Not specific to Flamenco, but this is a pretty good book of classical guitar exercises that will help develop your right hand technique.
I like this book. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786673427/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have played for over 40 years... I am learning to sight read right now... I wish I would have started there... imagine if you could only get stories by having someone else read them for you... it really helps become an 'adult' in music... some of the things I found helpful are :
I play a dirt cheap guitar and amp (squire tele I spent a week working on the frets and a blackstar 1 watt combo... love this setup)
I put my effort not in what gear I should have, but in how to be the best player I can be.
I would have learned my scales AFTER learning to sight read. I would have learned at least 10 songs like the back of my hand before I ever learned a single scale. I would have taken Mel Bay a lot more seriously.
This was a lifesaver for me. I taught guitar for many years and recommended this to all my students wanting to learn to read. It breaks it down very well and covers just about everything you'll need. Teaches chord chart as well as teaching you to read notes in open, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 12th position. Simple enough to go through it by yourself, but I'd recommend having someone else go through it with you. Even if you didn't necessarily get a guitar tutor, you could have a friend or family member with a good knowledge in theory (even if they play a different instrument) just check in with you every now and then to make sure you're on the right track. Anyway, that's my 2 cents :)
This is such an important (and IMO urgent) question for so many.
Sadly, the vast majority of guitar instructional material is either a) written for the unserious learner or b) written to not scare away the up-until-now-unserious learner.
That's why you see so many books and blogs on understanding theory (or playing jazz) that are full of TABs––in order to get the now-serious student to buy the book (or sign up for the course, etc) you first have to reassure them that everything is tabbed out and they won't have to read music, as if TAB and theory weren't at odds with each other.
Kudos to /u/igotthejack for this:
> While doing this focus on the note names while you play so by the time you're done you've also memorised all the notes on the fretboard.
And Ben Levin's youtube series is one of the few instructional pieces that doesn't make me want to stab myself in the face with one of the many pointy ends on a shredder's guitar.
Other quality standouts include:
First, Learn To Practice by Tom Heany
Music Reading For Guitar By David Oakes
Modern Method For Guitar Vols 1, 2, & 3 by William Leavitt
The Real Easy Ear Training Book by Roberta Radley
But there's good news in this too:
Because the vast majority of talented guitarists are so busy chasing their tails trying to figure out how to sweep pick faster or two-handed tap in the LandoCalrissian mode, even reasonably talented players with mediocre reading skills and a halfway decent knowledge of practical music theory get hired to play really great gigs.
That's my experience anyway. And getting hired for those gigs put me in contact with so many world-class players, which a) did as much as anything else to make me a "real" player, and b) helped me realize how so many of the things in the guitar-teacher-circle-jerk-echo-chamber are unimportant.
I think if you can get your practicing organized, fall in love with the metronome, record yourself (and listen back) often, and train your ear, you will be one badass player in a reasonably short time.
And if you learn the instrument in a way that lets you communicate with other non-guitarist musicians, you set yourself up to get actual paying work (and music theory gets waaaaaay easier).
My suggested order is:
Shameless plug, but I built a system that teaches these in a tiny daily lesson delivered by email. 1-4 are done, 5 & 6 are on their way soon. Free for now, just sign up for the first one (Note Names) and it'll walk you through all 6 in order (I'll be done with 5 & 6 by the time you finish 4).
After that, read through the David Oakes & William Leavitt books mentioned above and you'll be 80% of the way to professional musicianship. A dedicated student (who already has a fair amount of technical proficiency) could pull that off in 6 months.
TL:DR - The fact that you are even asking a question like this leads me to believe that you'll do just fine. Good luck!
It is a bit like the RL Burnside type of style?
On the song I listened he uses a finger style drone note and plays repeating riffs on the high strings... on electric. Some songs are a type of "trance blues" staying on one chord.
If you work through a book like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Fingerstyle-Blues-Guitar-Books/dp/0825625564
He is basically playing traditional fingerstyle blues on an electric with bit of overdrive (not alternating the bass note, keeping it on one string). Lightning Hopkins RL Burnside etc. If you know 12 bar blues and blues scales then you can make this stuff up pretty easily and develop your own riffs... important is to practice with a tapping foot/metronome. Mix chords and lead parts without losing track or rhythm.
>Is it important to know how to read music or understand music theory?
Yes. This book is will teach you to read music. It's a pretty common beginner book.
https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bays-Modern-Guitar-Method/dp/0871663546
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-Erlewine/dp/0879302917
Dan Erlewine is one of the all time great guitar technicians and his book is a priceless tome of guitar knowledge.
I don't want to make any enemies here, so don't take this the wrong way CactaurJack, but please don't buy an Ibanez. They are never worth shit resale, they are ugly as sin and I've never liked any that I played.
I would recommend a Mexican Strat. They will be in your price range and you will always be able to resell easily for about $250-$275.
They will sometimes not be set up real well, but that is when you take the time and learn how to do basic setups on your guitar. You can find out a ton of great stuff from books like this, that, or Dan Erlewine's....or sites like Project Guitar and/or Fret Not.
I would say check out some guitars in the used section on guitar center's website...you can find pretty good deals on there. Check your local store, and last resort check local pawn shops, they'll sometimes have something for a good price, but most of the time are fucking jip joints, so be careful.
Used is good because it comes with built in mojo. Give this a shot as well as maybe just using the above resources to re-setup your squire...that may be all it needs and you'll be good to go.
Webster's book is kinda awesome.
Other than that, just take it as slow as you absolutely need to with a metronome and slowly up the speed over time. No magic to it, just work.
This one is pretty good if you want to work on your metal chops:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Alex-Webster-Extreme-Metal-Bass/1423497155/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502821320&sr=8-1&keywords=extreme+metal+bass
If you want to work on some actual songs from different artists/bands, the "bass recorded versions"-series from Hal Leonard is pretty nice:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=bass+recorded+versions
This book is an extremely useful tool for reading proficiency, obviously a lot of it comes down to practice but the exercises and approaches outlined in that book are incredibly helpful.
As for theory, I don't know what you know and what you don't know: MusicTheory has a lot of lessons that covers a broad range of topics including the fundamentals, Joel Di Bartolo's Serious Electric Bass has a lot of scales and arpeggios and while it does give a little bit of explanation and the theory behind it it's not really in depth but it's a very good tool and lastly I would go over to /r/musictheory and check out their sidebar it's loaded with good resources. Also feel free to ask anything over there, it's one of the most knowledgable communities on the site.
The CAGED system is HOW you integrate those two, which explains your 2nd question. As for the first one, chord shapes are just open chords moved around the fretboard. You'll have to look up the pentatonic scale chart on the internet for the scale, and it's comprised of 5 different shapes. One book I'd recommend is Guthrie Govan's Creative Guitar I. There are other ways to obtain it too, if that's what you want.
I'm not asking you to NOT study the CAGED system. What I was trying to say in my previous post is that CAGED requires a lot of time to understand let alone execute it because it requires you to know the fretboard considerably well AND dexterity of your finger. I've seen a lot of people setting their bars too high only to abandon them altogether. You said you were fairly new, right? You can try it if you want and I wish you all the best.
my grandpa has built acoustics for a long time so he's always been a resource, i also had this book which is a great source of info on the entire process: http://www.amazon.com/Building-Electric-Guitars-Hollow-Body-Semi-Acoustic/dp/3901314075
One thing I tried doing was learning every chord in every position and every inversion. I'm not done writing them up, but I have charts for dominant, major, minor, and half-diminished chords I could scan for you. I also have the arpeggios to be played over the chords.
Another thing is to learn are your scale modes. I'll pick either 4 modes in 1 position or 1 mode in 4 positions and practice each scale for 5 minutes.
You could improve your sight reading with this. It's not meant to be studied, but to be opened up to a random page and played.
I'm also a fan of speed and dexterity exercises. You don't have to shred, but sometimes you need to get from point A to point B in a hurry. After playing these for a while, you'll also feel less fatigue. My favorite books for this are John Petrucci's Wild Stringdom and Frank Gambale's Technique Books
Also, if you really get into jazz, I highly recommend The Jazz Theory Book. It will help with your improvisation and teach you how songs are structured, which will help you with other genres. A more classic theory book that's good is The Complete Musician.
After you get technique stuff down, it all comes down to where you want to be as a player. What do you want to play? Do you want to write? Do you want to do covers? Maybe you want to teach.
Sorry this was so long. I love teaching music myself, so if you want to learn anything specific, PM me and I should be able to help you out and send you some materials.
(http://www.amazon.ca/Beatles-Complete-Chord-Songbook/dp/0634022296)
THIS BOOK.
https://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Complete-Chord-Songbook/dp/0634022296
No other purchase ever did more for my budding hobby/obsession.
You figure you can just get chords on-line, but no. These chords are deadly accurate and it matters.
If it's anything like this , it can be so helpful. I use this Beatles book almost daily, and I like having to determine on my own what melodic notes fit into simplified chords, adding my own scribbles to the shortened pages.. Get's the job down, listeners seem happy enough with the summarized song.
Get yourself this book.
The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634022296/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_4b6UAb59XFX6N
Imo it's the best beatles book for guitar. Every day open it up and learn a new song. Some of their compositions are just genius. You will be exposed to brilliant progressions, strange new chords, and a new insight into songwriting.
I guarantee it will change the way you write and play.
I got The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook and just played through a bunch of stuff. The book is great -- has the chords for all their songs. I'm not sure I could play any of their songs from memory, but flipping through this book and just playing whatever is a lot of fun. Probably the only song by any of the Beatles that I have memorized is "Working Class Hero."
Ah man, I wanna go to Burning Man soooo badly...
Hm. Looks like you like books, and I always think that books make the best gifts, so...What about [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Vonnegut-volumes-Rosewater-Welcome-Slaughterhouse/dp/B000BVFV48/ref=sr_1_18?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373428804&sr=1-18&keywords=kurt+vonnegut+collection) It has some of my favorite Vonnegut, although no Breakfast of Champions. Not sure if it's actually cheaper to get the boxed set, but it's an easy way to show all of them at once ;)
Or how about some lighter fare. Terry Pratchett is funny and easy to get into from any book in the series.
Or, I know that people sit around and sing songs sometimes...and that's my favorite part of any get-together! As lots of people know the Beatles, what about this great songbook? It's one of my favorites, and it's got all the chords and lyrics to tons of songs, many that people forget about but still like! (You'll need a good camp guitar to go with it...)(now I'm just thinking of things I brought on my recent camping trip...I just got back so it's fresh in my mind...)
I think the Hal Leonard Guitar Method book is really good. I was in the same boat... took several years off and wanted to pick it up again. I thought the book was great for helping me get back into sight-reading and remembering my notes/frets/scales. Definitely simple at the beginning if you've played before, but it's a solid review.
Lines are: EGBDF
Spaces are: FACE
BOOM!
Something like Hal Leonard Guitar method may be useful because even though it is their beginning guitar book, everything is in standard notation. No tab to fall back on. So even if you've been playing a while, you'll start right off with this dot on the staff = this string/fret. I have the epub version that has the audio embedded in the file, so I can click on the staff on my ipad and it will play. The printed version I think all the audio tracks are online.
You would try taking some online courses from Berklee.
I'd also recommend getting Guitar Pro and dloading plenty of tabs from Ultimate-Guitar.com, since it's much easier than looking for old copies of Guitar for the Practicing Musician and such.
Lessons are good, but beware that you'll be made to concentrate on the fundamentals of music, which many pupils think is not related to playing guitar.
Finally, if you're learning to sight-read, probably good to start at the beginning, such as with the Hal Leonard Guitar Method set of books. If you're interested, I wrote a small python app that writes randomized music based on which notes you choose, so that you can get around the problem of having memorized the notes on the exercises (so that you are actually forced to sight-read). It works quite well, since it creates notation for only the notes you want, and coupled with the method books, is very useful for getting a good sense of sight-reading.
This is the banjo bible for complete beginners. I highly recommend getting this book.
this is a great book. helped me learn a lot of different techniques.
I bought this book and have been slowly going through it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0739066374/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/177-1392342-1784740
It really gives you focus for practicing. It's not always fun and it seems like a lot of information to digest at a time but it's definitely worth it.
The latest incarnation of the Royal Conservatory Guitar Series are published by Fredrick Harris. Look for the Bridges series in the guitar section. They are the graded repertoire books for those doing their RCM examinations (here in Canada). The books are great. I use them with my students regardless if i have them doing the exams. They are not specifically devised for learning to sight read, just good broad ranging repertiore arranged by difficulty. For sight reading, Robert Benedict's books are good. For technique and nail advice check out Scott Tennant's, Pumping Nylon... cheesy title... great book!
I recommend reading basic exercises in higher positions. That's the best way I've found. That said - I do like these two sight reading books:
Sight Reading Classical Guitar Levels I-III
Sight Reading Classical Guitar Levels IV-V
They appear really basic but there is more to them than meets the eye as far as phrasing, musicality and rhythms go. I read the first volume all in higher positions for the challenge. The second volume has upper position playing and covers a lot of common classical guitar styles in short snippets. I have them both and they are both worth checking out.
David Oakes' book on Sight Reading for Guitar is a decent one for learning how to sight-read if you're a beginner:
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Reading-Guitar-Complete-Method/dp/0793581885/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466625720&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=David+Oates+sight+reading
If you get through that one, try out William Leavitt's Melodic Rhythms for Guitar. This one is really solid:
https://www.amazon.com/Melodic-Rhythms-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013327/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466625895&sr=1-5&keywords=William+Leavitt
I've not looked through this one, but if you're interested in combining classical guitar and sight reading, it might be worth a shot:
https://www.amazon.com/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769209742/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_15?ie=UTF8&dpID=514XaC6KshL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_SL500_SR103%2C135_&psc=1&refRID=0E43T3ND9D1TG4KDPZVE
Good luck!
You're not going to get a lot of people in r/classicalGuitar that are going to answer this without some kind of recommendation that you just improve your regular score reading skills instead. Tab can be a great tool at times, but more often it seems to be used as crutch.
My advice is to start sight reading as much as you can whenever you find tab-free scores because it is skill that you can only develop with dedicated and focused practice. Whenever you go to the effort to transcribe a score to Tab, you are still leaning on a crutch because when you start playing, you aren't using the music, you're using your Tab instead and not actually getting any score reading practice in. In your mind, you are probably translating your scores to Tab instead of actually reading the score. Tab and score notation are similar in that respect. In fact, I suspect that if you just force yourself to give up tab you'll see an amazing and very rapid increase in your ability to process standard scores.
Here is a personal example: When I read Spanish I am not actually reading Spanish... I'm translating it into something I am familiar with. I still have to learn to transform my thought process into Spanish before I am truly reading Spanish. Once I stop communicating by saying buenos noches to mean "good afternoon/night" and I just start saying buenos noches when I mean "buenos noches", I am actually speaking Spanish. Until then, I am just translating words. That won't change until I immerse myself in Spanish without clinging to English as my crutch. The same thing applies to changing from Tab notation to score notation.
http://www.amazon.com/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769209742/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333574358&sr=8-1
I have this book and it is great practice in sight reading and you may want to check it out. It is nothing more than a bunch of short sight reading exercises. Teach yourself one or two of them a day without transcribing them to tab first and I am absolutely confident that your reading skills will improve noticeably.
If you are really insistent on using Tab though, classtab.org is decent.
This book has some decent stuff in it as well: http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Spanish-Guitar-Solos-Book/dp/1603780599/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333575720&sr=1-1
My personnal recommandations (which is what I work with currently):
Kitharologus: The Path to Virtuosity by Ricardo Iznaola
Pumping Nylon by Scott Tennant
I also recommend reading Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music by Glenn Kurtz, it's all about the author's life as a disillusioned professional guitarist who gives up on music only to return to it later in life for his own enjoyment. Essential reading, especially if you ever think about quitting.
OK. This is a beyond a beginner level, but hear me out -
If you are serious about learning the classical guitar, you should really look into picking up Kitharologus: The Path to Virtuosity, by Ricardo Iznaola. It can challenge even a seasoned player, but if you begin now and are serious about your practice, the drills in this book will have you playing better and more confidently without a doubt.
I like this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-Play-Fingerstyle-Solos-Ukulele/dp/0786673427/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1398340927&sr=8-7&keywords=hawaiian+ukulele
This - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ukulele-Ensemble-Hawaiian-Songs-Various/dp/1480342203/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1398340968&sr=8-8&keywords=hawaiian+ukulele+books
This is OK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jumpin-JimS-Gone-Hawaiian-Uke/dp/0634009346/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1398341025&sr=8-17&keywords=hawaiian+ukulele+books
This is the best thing ever - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Famous-Solos-Duets-Ukulele-Presents/dp/0786669152/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1398341037&sr=8-22&keywords=hawaiian+ukulele+books
And this is good too - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hawaiian-Uke-Tunebook-Ken-Eidson/dp/0871668424/ref=sr_1_52?ie=UTF8&qid=1398341078&sr=8-52&keywords=hawaiian+ukulele+books
I'm playing through Mel Bay Learn To Play Fingerstyle Solos for Ukulele right now. Has some great songs that progress in difficulty as you go. It comes with a CD, which is helpful for me.
mel bay fingerstyle for ukulele http://www.amazon.com/Learn-Play-Fingerstyle-Solos-Ukulele/dp/0786673427
Here's a book that will help with finger picking!
It's definitely worth it. It'll make you a more versatile musician able to communicate with other musicians better. I haven't read this book, but it looks like a good introduction to reading on guitar: http://www.amazon.com/Music-Reading-Guitar-Complete-Method/dp/0793581885/
I'm in the same situation as you. 39 and been playing since I was 11 and now want to learn some real theory and how to read music. I decided to get some resources and created a practice routine 1-2 hours a day. Here are the simple things I have been using the last 6 months and noticed real improvement.
Chord wheel app for my phone
Chord Chemistry by Ted Greene
Book of scales
MI Music Theory For Guitar
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0793581885/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474086489&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=reading+music+for+guitar&dpPl=1&dpID=61KkYuMxBZL&ref=plSrch
The book, "Beginning Fingerstyle Blues Guitar" provides a decent intro to travis picking and blues. I'd recommend checking that out.
sounds like you're half way there. def check the key sig before first, then find one of the 'caged' chord scale positions that suits the range. if the melody gets high or goes below the reach or your position, choose another or get comfortable switching to another one for extra range.
pay attention to the hard keys for guitar, ie = Eb, Ab, Db etc
check out the book; [modern guitar method book 1], (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Modern-Guitar-Method-Grade-1/dp/0871663546/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451826120&sr=8-1&keywords=mel+bay+modern+guitar+method)
there's a play along dvd that's really handy also.
I started back up after a ~10 year hiatus and I went back to the book my old teacher had me working out of - William Leavitt's "A Modern Method for Guitar".
I'm putting more time in that when I was taking lessons, also I am being much more attentive to playing exactly what is written (letting notes ring out to their full value, not hitting other strings by accident, etc). It was slow going in the beginning, but I am making way better progress.
I did have a setback because when I got the DVD I was introduced to the "rest stroke" and decided to use it. I had to go back to the beginning and work on my technique because the picking style felt so different and I was so slow with it. Now I'm happy I did it because I feel like I have much better pick control than before.
One final last recommendation. Don't drop 90$ on a rewire, drop 90$ on an epi valve junior (Tone for days) and learn to wire and setup your own guitar. There are many, many books available for this.
And you'll know your own guitar inside and out plus save $$ - which if you decide to be a fulltime musician will be a much much bigger deal.
I have a few Squier Stratocasters, and one has the trem 'working', one is blocked, and one is decked with 5 springs pulled tight. I like both the blocked and decked ones, as they stay in tune fairly well.
The block I made from a piece of cedar wood. It was one that you would buy to put in with your clothing to keep moths away. I shaped it with a rotary tool using the specs from this book plus my own measurements... It works well and I left all five of the springs in for mass and jangle.
Dan Erlewine's book comes pretty highly regarded and it recommends against a straight neck in favor of a slight relief. I'm surprised to find this so controversial here.
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-Erlewine/dp/0879302917
It's a great book. Here's the amazon version, it's updated, but essentially it's the same thing. Once you learn keys/modes it's like a language that unfolds. You won't be "memorizing" anymore, as much as learning how the language is constructed.
If you're looking for help writing songs and coming up with riffs, I would highly recommend How to Write Songs on Guitar by Rikky Rooksby. It covers so much more than other songwriting books, and I haven't been able to find anything that even comes close to it.
http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Write-Songs-Guitar/dp/0879309423
Also, take a look at the musician's institute books. IMO, they have been consistently putting out the best books.
http://www.halleonard.com/promo/promo.do?promotion=230001&subsiteid=7
Not free, but you might find How to Write Songs on Guitar by Rikky Roosky interesting.
You don't need to know theory to write music. It's certainly useful, but it is by no means a necessity. You probably know more theory than you realize. There are likely various patterns and things that you recognize as common, you just don't have a name for it. A lot of music theory is just giving names to those things.
If you're looking for a good resource to get you going, I recommend Tom Kolb's Music Theory for Guitarists book. It's basically a crash course on A LOT of theory subjects. It's far from the most in depth look at any of the topics involved, but it does a great job of immediately relating everything to the guitar.
I also recommend Rikky Rooksby's How to Write Songs On Guitar. This book is a flat out classic of guitar and songwriting instruction.
You want this:
http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Write-Songs-Guitar/dp/0879309423
It's shows you all the formulas with none of the bullshit. If you spend six months working through the chapters you will be able to write songs.
It's the best beginners music book I've come across in 25 years of music.
When I was first getting started with theory and things like that, it was Guitar Theory for Dummies. I’ve read a lot of books since then, and it’s still the best approach to theory that I’ve seen.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118646770/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_RR8lDbNDS54ES
I like Edly's Music Theory for Practical People and Guitar Theory for Dummies
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0966161661/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118646770/sr=1-1/qid=1488093877/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1488093877&sr=1-1
Here it is: https://www.amazon.com/Serious-Electric-Bass-Complete-Contemporary/dp/1576238830. BTW, you can preview the beginning of the book - it's actually Chapter 2 where the playing part starts.
Guthrie Govan's books are great. I'd suggest book 1 for theory, book 2 for application of fretboard theory for advanced techniques.
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Guitar-Cutting-Edge-Tech/dp/1860744621
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Guitar-Advanced-Techniques-Vol/dp/1860744672
Here's an excerpt from Guthrie Govan's Creative Guitar 1: Cutting Edge Techniques.
"In guitar-playing terms, bad postural habits might be the result of lots of playing while slumped in front of the TV, staring too intently at your fretting hand or studying a piece of written music when its pages are strewn across the floor, forcing your neck into an awkward angle. In general, you should aim to keep your spine and wrists as straight as possible.
At one time, I had a teaching job that required me to sit in a tiny practice room for nine hours on the trot, and after a few weeks I started to feel an unpleasant, dull pain at the back of my shoulder blade which made playing a lot more of a chore than it used to be. I finally figured out that the cause of the problem wasn't the guitar playing itself; it was leaning over a stumpy table in a particularly inaccessible part of the room, writing out licks and solos or students with my guitar still strapped on. As soon as I realized this, I moved the table nearer (to) my picking/writing hand, added a pile of books underneath my manuscript paper to elevate it to a more convenient level and the pain went away. Remember that playing should feel as effortless as possible. Try to design your practice environment with this in mind."
TLDR: Playing the guitar shouldn't be uncomfortable. If it is you're doing something wrong.
There's instrument-specific books and websites for that. A lot of people on /r/guitarlessons talk about justinguitar.com Some stress fretboard knowledge, the CAGED system and connecting pentatonics and other scales up the neck more than traditional theory. Ultiately it's about visualizing pentatonic blocks and tetrachord boxes running up the neck and having the LH hit them. I recommend Tom Kolb's theory book, and Guthrie Govan's books (which i remember seeing for $4 in Half Price books), you can read reviews on amazon. THE MI books by Clement and Capuzzo are pretty good. The popular jazz guitar books by Fewell, Fisher, Baker, etc contain crash courses on essential chord shapes and typical sequences
http://justinguitar.com/en/SC-000-Scales.php
http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Knowledge-Contemporary-Guitarist-Clement/dp/0739031570/
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Guitar-Cutting-Edge-Tech/dp/1860744621
> but there's no equivalence there
Not sure what you're saying. The assertion is that CAGED, for reasons the author fails to articulate, produces "limited, amateurish, boring" playing. Govan is a counter example. Use knows CAGED, he teaches CAGED, he is neither limited creatively, amateurish, nor boring.
On the other hand, the guy dissing CAGED, who is selling an alternative commercially, is limited creatively, amateurish and boring, at least in all the public media I could find of the guy.
> I'm interested in hearing Guthrie's take. [..] I don't know of anything with him actually teaching it. Do you happen to have a link?
It's in his book Creative Guitar 1 - Cutting-Edge Techniques. It's used throughout the book, described early on, then referred to periodically as a bit of scaffolding to attach other things to. It's clear that it's part of his mental model of the fretboard.
I like Wayne Erbsen's books. Depending on the style you want to play, he has two:
http://www.amazon.com/Bluegrass-Banjo-Complete-Ignoramus-Book/dp/1883206448
http://www.amazon.com/Clawhammer-Complete-Ignoramus-Anniversary-Edition/dp/188320643X
My wife is learning the fiddle. I got her the Erbsen fiddle book. She and her teacher both like it a lot.
I've been learning bluegrass. I have found the Erbsen Bluegrass banjo book along with Earl Scruggs book to be somewhat complimentary to each other and I go back and forth between the two.
I'm in the same boat. I picked up this book from amazon, and it includes a CD of various tunes played at the most basic level as well as with some more advanced techniques. It's basically 10 pages of intro/how to and then tabs for ~23 songs with ideas on how to spice 'em up.
http://www.amazon.com/Bluegrass-Banjo-Complete-Ignoramus-Book/dp/1883206448/
I've found that the best way to play a popular song with distinct melodies with with the Scruggs style.
Basically, just learn to play the simple melody of the song on the banjo. Then, using the Scruggs style, you can add filler notes with different rolls to accompany the melody. This way you can clearly hear the melody of the song and also have that full banjo sound.
The way I learned this method is through this book and I highly recommend it, since it essentially teaches exactly what you are asking:
https://www.amazon.com/Bluegrass-Banjo-Complete-Ignoramus-Book/dp/1883206448
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883206448/ref=pe_385040_30332190_pd_te_s_gc_ti/181-8103069-0668343
This book is incredible. It teaches you how to improvise rolls and the tabs only have the bare bones melody. I've learned from this book so freakin much
Hello fellow aspiring luthier! I decided a few months back that I wanted to learn how to build guitars too (get away from the computer, learn a skill, etc.). The fact that you have your dad's tools and expertise is a huge booster. I'm starting completely from scratch and it's slowing things down.
A few resources:
Martin Koch's Building Electric Guitars - You'll see this book mentioned often as one of the staple reads. It's cheap and a quick read. Highly recommend giving it a look.
Crimson Guitars - I stumbled upon their kit building series where Ben and his apprentice take a cheap kit and make it an expensive custom guitar. From there, I fell in love. Their YouTube channel is packed with videos meticulously documenting every step of guitar building. Check out the Clarity build series. Their latest bit is a 12 hour guitar build. Crimson also operates a store and produces their own tools and products. I've purchased their fret-leveling kit and am super happy with it. Finally, there is the guild. I haven't joined, yet but intend to eventually.
Pitbull Guitars - In searching around, these were the only guys I could find a PRS-style kit from. Turns out they've got a pretty good resource in their forums (and it's open to anyone). Lots of information throughout the forums (though poorly organized) and helpful folks who have finished many builds.
My recommendation is Building Electric Guitars by Martin Koch
As someone who's actually hand cut/measured a fret-board once, I will never do it again. I used the standard Fender scale length for reference. The problem with it is the required degree of accuracy needed to successfully produce a properly tuned fret board. It's painstakingly slow. I used this particular book and it's fantastically well written. It covers how to literally build a guitar from scratch, including winding pickups, making a fret board, and even how to make a truss rod (that bit that runs down the middle of the inside of the neck). I built one for a school science project out of only things readily available from a hardware store (save the strings, also not an electric for the sake of time) and it was surprisingly good, but hard to tune.
The most challenging thing for me to learn I think was always sight reading. However, my guitar teacher showed me a good methodology for this, basically he split it up into the different skills you needed to sight read. One skill was reading the rhythms, which was covered by http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Reading-Text-All-Instruments/dp/0769233775 this book, Modern Reading text in 4/4 time. Which is basically a book full to the brim with rhythms. The idea is then that you tap your feet in 4/4 time on the floor and clap and vocalise what ever rhythms are written down. I used to do this for hours, and the rhythms contained in that book went from simple to just insane.
Actual note reading was covered by reading studies for guitar...
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013351/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311235782&sr=1-3
and advanced reading studies for guitar
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013351/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311235782&sr=1-3
The methodology for learning was to start ridiculously slowly, with a click at about 30bpm, and to do one note per click. This may seem insanely slow, but it helps you to become relaxed about sight reading, and also trains you to read ahead because you get bored.
This was part of the sight reading task, then after a while of doing this we moved onto sight reading notation from tunes from real books. I learned a few tips from doing this, I'll list the ones I can remember here.
2.Work out the structure for the piece, AABA ABAB etc, this will help you to minimize the amount of other analysis you need to do.
If you follow these tips, then sight reading will eventually become easy for you, but it takes quite a lot of work to achieve this.
Guitarists read from treble clef, so you can transcribe as you would for any other instrument that reads from treble clef (like a violin, for example). The guitar sounds an octave lower than written, however, so you will often see guitar music transcribed using tenor clef (treble with an 8 at the bottom).
I would start by taking a look at scores that have been composed with the guitar (or lute) in mind.
Here's a short piece by Carulli
We see the melody with beamed 16th notes and sustained bass notes are notated with the stems down to distinguish them from the melody. The last two bars of the piece are examples of voiced chords. Assuming that the piece is written for guitar using a standard E tuning, the last 3 sororities are G major (open G string, open B String, and 3rd fret of the high E string), and another G major voicing (3rd fret of the low E string, 2nd fret of the A string, open D string and open G string).
If you are looking into transcribing a second where only block chords are being played, and the guitar doesn't have any melodic responsibility at the same time, you might want to notate using lead sheet style notation with the chord above the staff and one measure of the notated strum pattern followed by subsequent measures of slash notation.
Are you familiar with how to read as a guitar player? Those who don't come from the classical tradition (me included) often don't have the best reading capability. As a jazz player, I'm seldom asked to read anything more than the occasional diad. That being said, learn how to read in a few positions is a worthwhile skill. Here is a good book to start with
I recommend William Leavitt's Reading Studies for Guitar. I've been reading two pages a day and it's been really helping me to improve. The key is to read through them with a metronome and don't stop at all to correct your mistakes- that's how you really get better at sight reading.
Now when it comes to reading in big band, you've got the right idea. I always check, in order: key, time signature, road map (repeats/coda), highest/lowest note you'll be playing in the part, then determine best caged position(s). If you still have time left after doing those, try to learn the trickiest parts (difficult rhythms, lines with accidentals). If you can do all that while the band director is still talking to the horn section or whatever, you'll be set when he counts you in! Hope this helps!
Here's the book I mentioned:
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-Positions-Multi-Position/dp/0634013351
Man - that's a rather tough Beatles song actually. I have a feeling if you buy that one song book of their's, and a capo you could likely play most of their other songs. There's only a few that stick out in my mind that are near the amount of dexterity required to play Norwegian Wood.
I have this one, which is chords with lyrics.
http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Complete-Chord-Songbook/dp/0634022296
If you want a version you can carry around, most of this content looks like it was taken from this book:
http://www.amazon.ca/The-Beatles-Complete-Chord-Songbook/dp/0634022296
It's a solid book that includes the covers The Beatles did. I have found a few inaccuracies though.
Moved onto The Complete Scores after starting with The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook.
For a complete beginner I recommend Hal Leonard Guitar Method, Complete Edition: Books & CD's 1, 2 and 3 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634047019/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_pmbkub0RHR583
My instructor had me get this book for learning how to read. It's a great resource in my opinion as it goes through the notes of each string in open position step by step (literally lol).
As an older employed guy, he charges me $40 for 40 minutes. The is the basic going rate in town for professional lessons. But I have heard from others that he will work with some on a sliding scale. But, if you truly only have a couple hours playing so far, the very first thing to figure out is how serious you are. In the beginning, you have to devote a least several hours a week practicing both scales and chords. Both finger strength and dexterity are the key to getting anywhere, and there really are no shortcuts, other then practice, and practice some more. Consider getting this book set: https://www.amazon.com/Hal-Leonard-Guitar-Method-Complete/dp/0634047019/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485995196&sr=8-1&keywords=learn+guitar
It will both teach you how the very basics of reading music, and make you practice putting your fingers on the right frets. Do you have to know how to read music? Well, not if you are only looking to sing around the campfire.. but if you ever want to play music with others, and not be totally lost, it is pretty much a must that you know some level of chord structure. Speaking of, here is one of the cheapest chord books you can buy:https://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Guitar-Chord-Chart/dp/0739048953/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485995714&sr=8-1&keywords=basic+guitar+chords
Learn the following chords C,D,E,F,G, Em, Am, Dm. Most songs can be played in the key of C, (which is C, dm,em,F,g,am). There are an mind numbing ways to play each and every chord, so learn the ones that you can play in the first 3 frets to start with. Then learn the E, em and A barre chords, again practice will give you strength and you will start to build up finger callus's too. Once you can jump from chord to chord somewhat comfortably, then go see Ron (or a taskmaster of your choice) Consider finding others that want to start, and meet once a week. OK, enough babble... ( you can tell I love playing....)
Have you considered buying a book? When I was taking guitar lessons I used this to learn and it helped quite a bit. I've since stopped but I'm thinking of going through the books again to improve my playing.
It's always a good idea to try them out in person to see how they sit with you as if it's uncomfortable you won't want to practice with it. Since you said you can't, the MS model you're looking at looks like a good option. From what I can tell, the only difference is that it's matte finished which shouldn't be much of a difference at all compared to the S model. Yamaha makes some great instruments so I think you're safe with whichever you choose.
A tuner and picks are a must (in my opinion) but it's also nice to have a strap so you can practice standing up. A good beginners book that teaches you chords and some basic notation is also good to have around when starting out. This is a good one that will give you some structure when you practice.
Good luck!
I mean, you can always buy one of the many many instructional books that are out there. Hal Leonard is a pretty well-known company, and it's probably good to have some kind of reference or learning books around for looking things up.
The other thing I'd suggest is basing it around the types of music or songs you want to learn. There's some super basic stuff that you should learn like keeping in tune, knowing the strings, basic open chords, etc; but beyond that it might be worth making a list of decently easy songs you want to learn and what techniques or concepts you'd need to learn to be able to play them.
When I started out (back in 2003 or so) I found a website that had a bunch of beatles tabs, and I learned chords and various types of playing styles to go with the songs I wanted to learn.
Earl Scruggs and the 5 String Banjo is 160 pages. Perhaps you're thinking of Tony Trischka's The Complete 5 String Banjo?
Earl Scruggs and the 5 String Banjo indeed. The master of 3-finger picking or Scruggs style. I bought it, it's terrific for learning.
http://www.amazon.com/Earl-Scruggs-5-String-Banjo-Enhanced/dp/0634060430
Some complaints are it gets complicated quite fast but there's only way to get good at the banjo: practice. But you have to make sure your form is good. Good form will help tremendously.
https://www.amazon.ca/Earl-Scruggs-5-String-Banjo-Enhanced/dp/0634060430 Good resource for learning the banjo.
Try this! I'm still a beginner with the bluegrass style as well, and Earl Scruggs knows his shit and teaches it really well. It's like a little banjo bible :)
The Mickey Baker books are terrible without rooting around on the internet for supplemental material in the way of explanation. Shelve it and getting something that’s actually useful. Like this: Jazz Guitar, Complete Edition (Book & CD) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739066374/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_jpuWAbXE3WE7X
Is it this one?
The Complete Jazz Guitarist
Even if you aren't a jazz person, this is a great set of books to expand your musical knowledge and forces you to actually read notation. It actually forces you to learn from the ground up, instead of just teaching you enough to get by. It might not be the most entertaining to a beginner, but it helped me immensely after I'd been playing for some time
Two other method books to look into are Jazz Guitar - Jody Fisher and A Modern Method for Guitar - William Leavitt
I'm working through this now. Take a couple pages a day and in no time your brain will automatically match sheet music notation to finger positions.
It'll be hard to develop by looking at complicated, long pieces. You need to practice the underlying structure. (Just like it's hard to get better at figure drawing just by learning how to draw shadows and texture or slowly tracing finished pieces.)
I've been using this series, and it's been going pretty well:
http://www.amazon.com/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769209742
Is it Progressive Guitar Method Book 1 possibly? I haven't done much book-based learning, other than for my forays into classical method, so I can't comment on that book specifically. I can say that if you are interested in learning not only the fretboard but also standard notation, check out Sight Reading for the Classical Guitar, Level I-II. Going through the exercises will definitely help imprint in your mind the notes of the fretboard in various positions.
A lot of practice...
This book has tons of exercises for all your needs (fingerpicking, scales, finger strengthening, etc)
I recommend trying a technique book. I use Kitharologus: The Path to Virtuosity by Ricardo Iznaola because I think it covers a lot of the really in-depth skills needed for playing. And it's good for discovering your individual flaws, as you seem to have already noticed, so you can use the exercises to improve those flaws.
I know this doesn't address your specific question, but I believe Kitharologus is one of the best technique books out there.
Here is the mobile version of your link
this book of classical duets is a fantastic way to learn.
https://www.amazon.com/Carulli-Progressive-Student-Teacher-Classical-Guitar/dp/1530036623
get yourself a cheap nylon string guitar and find a player who can read the teacher parts. there is no way around that first task of memorizing all the names of the notes in open/first position. get your c major scale together, then start playing these duets. I've studied reading in a few different ways and I really think this is the best way to start. Once youre well into this book, also start looking at this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Reading-Guitar-Complete-Method/dp/0793581885
those two together will make you a pretty solid reader. good luck.
This is the classic book on fingerstyle blues for beginners:
https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Fingerstyle-Blues-Guitar-Books/dp/0825625564/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480794244&sr=8-1&keywords=fingerstyle+blues
It helped me a ton when I was starting. Great technical advice too
Start with these two books:
http://www.amazon.com/Hal-Leonard-Blues-You-Book/dp/B000FH4OFU
and
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Fingerstyle-Blues-Guitar-Audio/dp/0825625564
I love this book... if you enjoy blues....https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Fingerstyle-Blues-Guitar-Books/dp/0825625564
A couple of good books that I have are the Maran Guitar book and Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method: Grade 1. The first book shows you the absolute basics of playing the guitar along with choosing a guitar, taking care of a guitar. sitting properly with a guitar, tuning different guitars, stringing different guitars, and stuff like that. Of course, this is in addition to a standard lesson plan and chapters for specific styles like rock, jazz or blues.
The second book is great when you're already familiar with what it means to be comfortable holding a guitar and playing a few notes correctly. If you want to learn how to play for real and read music, this book is great. It's very straightforward and has nice pictures for reference.
Also, use this online metronome when you practice. Set the beats-per-minute to something really low and try to play in-time with the sheet music. When you are able to play the piece at this low tempo 100% without any mistakes, move up a few BPM and do it again.
Eventually you'll be able to play the song perfectly at the song's real tempo better than you ever could just starting to play at its standard tempo. Trust me. This is the best way to learn songs and avoid really bad guitar-playing habits.
Take it slow. Speed and skill come with time, sometimes seemingly without reason.
The rhythm: It's very common for old jazz tunes to be played with a bit of swing rather than exactly as written. That's what you're hearing on the recordings.
It's also very common to play in different keys other than the original, you can probably find recordings in many different keys. You have to either find a chart in the key you want to play with or transpose the chart.
You wrote "the second bar" but I think you meant the first bar of the second system. Each little block is a measure or bar, each new line of bars on the paper is a system. The parenthesis ( ) around the natural sign are not necessary and don't really do anything, I would say they are a courtesy to point at that this change isn't happening a lot, unlike the B-natural which happens almost every time.
I know it sounds boring, but really the best way for you to learn to read sheet music is to start from the beginning, otherwise you are going to have LOTS of these kind of questions. I'd suggest a book like http://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bays-Modern-Guitar-Method/dp/0871663546 or there are probably some websites that will teach you.
I would say it depends why you want to learn sheet music. If you are interested in getting into classical guitar than get than get one that focuses on that because it will include teaching you proper technique and the notation for the right hand. This is one I used before and it was helpful.
https://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Classical-Guitar-Method-Intermediate/dp/0947183124
If you want to play acoustic/electric and especially if using a pick, then Mel Bay's books worked for me although there are others that work as well.
https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bays-Modern-Guitar-Method/dp/0871663546
Also I'm assuming you are new to sheet music in general. If you already play another instrument and can read music on it then you can probably just teach yourself but looking up online the notes of the guitar and figuring it out yourself by learning easy melodies.
Hope that helps!
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-DVD-ROM-Berklee/dp/0876390696/
Is this the one you're referring to?
In addition to a tuner get "A Modern Method For Guitar Volume 1" by William Leavitt. Its written by the guy who founded the guitar department in Berklee College of Music. The book teaches you all of the basics of guitar in volume 1 and moves at a fast, yet manageable pace.
Here's a link to the combined 3 volumes for $22 http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114
But you get a DVD if you just buy Vol 1 that has a guitar professer at Berklee (the current head of the department) teaching the book to you. http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-DVD-ROM-Berklee/dp/0876390696/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370752061&sr=1-2&keywords=a+modern+method+for+guitar
The book gives you an amazing foundation for playing guitar.
Get William Leavitt's Modern Method for Guitar Volume One go through all of it then, if your up for it, you can move on to book 2 and then 3. It is THE book that most guitar curriculums are based off of. This series will not only make you a better sight reader and guitarist, but a knowledgeable and diverse musician.
Thanks, This is what I currently have. It isn't quite what you described as a typical guitar teaching book but it also doesn't have a lot of music theory. Would this work?
Oh, and buy a Dan Erelwine book.
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-Erlewine/dp/0879302917/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372861196&sr=1-6&keywords=dan+erlewine
No, the saddles won't be even except under very rare circumstances. The saddles are individual adjustments for individual strings, and thus will have different set distances when everything is intonated correctly.
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I hope this doesn't come across as rude, but if you aren't willing to take your guitar to a shop that's 22 miles away to be setup, and you aren't willing to live with the buzz, then you're going to have to learn to do it yourself. There are some great resources online, but intonation can be confusing and it will take some time, some trial and error, and some effort to get down. Basically, each string saddle can be moved vertically (towards/away from the guitar body) to adjust string height, but can also be moved horizontally (closer/further from the neck) in order to change the effective length of the string (between the saddle and the nut at the other end of the neck). The length of the string is directly proportional to its fundamental frequency as it vibrates, so if the string is in tune at one part of the neck, but not at other parts of the neck you can reduce this problem by changing the effective string length (again, distance between the saddle and the nut) by adjusting the saddle towards/away from the neck. It is HIGHLY unlikely that you will have a situation where all of the saddles are lined up at the same distance and each string is also intonated correctly.
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The Guitar Player Repair Guide is a very inexpensive book that thoroughly covers proper guitar setup techniques and I highly recommend getting it if you are hoping to learn this skill on your own. It helped me a TON when I was learning guitar setups and you can usually pick up a copy for less than $10 if you are in the USA.
How to Write Songs on Guitar by Rikky Rooksby
I don’t know if that’s what you’re looking for, but it’s mostly about chord progressions. I have the keyboard one and it’s pretty good basics. I thinking some practical application (songwriting) will help you understand theory learning on your instrument.
Try books. They tend to be more focused on sequence and scope of information. While you may get some of the same info online, the manner in which a text will present it adds significant value.
here're two i've liked: http://www.amazon.com/Guitarists-Chords-The-Foundation-Melodic-Soloing/dp/1423483219/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1P4KMJPFH2RW2XY8WK6K
http://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Songs-Guitar-Revised/dp/0879309423/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411569974&sr=1-1&keywords=write+songs+on+guitar
have fun.
Well...point being don't overcomplicate it I guess. There are many good books about writing lyrics, definitely read one. It will at least give you all the mechanics of writing and good tips on writing in general.
This is one of the ones I have read that I found really helpful: http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Write-Songs-Guitar/dp/0879309423
Second if you are writing in a group it's exponentially more difficult than alone. For one thing it's hard to communicate a full vision for lyrics or a song until some sort of tipping point. Actually this is true of anything creative, so it might be better, if you are in a group to get at least a bit written ahead of time before collaborating. Also you absolutely need to just say upfront, this is gonna be corny and awkward as hell. In fact writing parody or joke songs is so easy cause you are detached from the emotion of it a bit. In real lyrics I suppose this isn't the case and so if you think of something you think is great others may not agree and feelings get hurt. Gotta get over this quick or you will get nowhere fast.
Disclaimer: I am not a professional musician, I have no songs written that are even worth sharing but I do collaborate with people creatively a lot. I have done a lot of improvised jams with lyrics and stuff to try and write but I should say that probably any professionals opinion would be better than mine.
http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Write-Songs-Guitar/dp/0879309423
I think this may be what you are looking for. Just started going through it myself but it already has all the different kind of chords and small examples of songs and artists that use each chord type and the type of mood for each chord chord type. Also has a progression chord chart as well.
Edit: I would check out the reviews for his other books about songwriting as well and determine from there which one is most suited for what you are looking for.
If I may suggest a book along these lines, I have gotten way more use from this book than I ever expected to. It's not really about how to write songs (or even on guitar), it's more about how all these notes and chords fit together, and work together. Goes over dozens of different chord progressions (and lists popular songs so you can easily identify it in your head), chord substitutions, that kind of thing. Highly, highly recommended.
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Theory-For-Dummies-Instruction/dp/1118646770
It's hard to give recommendations unless we know what you're capable of.
You could pick up Alex Webster's book as a nice place to start.
That would be Extreme Metal Bass.
I haven't read it myself, but I'd heard a lot of very good things about it if you're playing within the style.
As an addition to all the tips, I highly recommend picking up Alex Webster's Extreme Metal Bass. Helped me a lot in developing my 3 finger playing technique, and a must read for all extreme metal bass players.
While nothing beats at least some lessons when starting out, just to get the right approach on your technique going early on, you can learn a lot on your own.
I personally went through the free lessons over at StudyBass.com, and picked up a few books: Serious Electric Bass by Joel Di Bartolo and Improvisor's Bass Method by Chuck Sher. There are of course other books that are well received and would benefit you.
For a more generic advice, try to get a practice routine going, and keep it consistent. Start out slow, with a metronome, and really focus on how your notes sound, how long they last.
If you have any more specific questions, ask away!
Depends on what you want to get out of it.
Are you wanting to write your own tunes? Then start with a little bit of music theory and apply that to playing (i.e.: play the A note everywhere on the board).
Are you wanting to join a band? Start looking at songs on sites like Ultimate-Guitar or Songsterr.
In the mean time, try to understand what you're doing. I bought this book at the recommendation of my teacher couple years ago and have to say, while some parts are a little dry, it will definitely get you going if you follow it: https://www.amazon.com/Serious-Electric-Bass-Complete-Contemporary/dp/1576238830/
Serious Electric Bass. My good friend who mostly plays upright nowadays gave it to me. I haven't really gotten around to playing through it all, but it seems like a REALLY good book.
Learn lots of songs, but also try reading some books. Creative Guitar and its sequel are awesome books, I learned a ton from them. Just remember to take it slow and try to apply the concepts to what you are already playing and new things you're learning. Good luck, have fun!
Creative Guitar by Guthrie Govan. Great book, well written, not to long, and basically covers everything a student of guitar should know, including all the theory that will be relevant to a non-jazz guitarist, and how it relates to the guitar.
I'm just learning too (starting a class this week, in fact!), but I found the format in Bluegrass Banjo for the Complete Ignoramus to be a great way to learn.
The title is silly, but it did a great job of breaking down how to play, and understanding how you use rolls to fill in the melody. For someone like me—who has never played an instrument before—it was nice that it had no expectations of the reader.
The basic gist is that the book teaches you the raw melody first, then once you get that down, you slowly add in pinches, drone notes, rolls, and slides, until you are playing a very full-sounding piece.
(I also recommend looking up some videos on YouTube, which helps because watching other people play was very helpful. You can just search and see what you find, something like "learning bluegrass banjo" is a good start.)
I've been interested in building my own guitar for a few years now. I started seriously looking into it during my senior year of high school, and bought this book.
I plan to (at some point in the next few years) build an electric guitar. I want to build it completely from scratch, so I don't want to buy a neck.
What are the most important tips you wish you had known when you first started building?
The best way to start, IMO, is to read. Get as much info as you can on the subject. There's a couple of books that are pretty good; This One or This One are good places to start. Another thought is to check out websites like projectguitar.com. They've also got a forum with lots of tips and such.
Finally, it's going to be a big asset if you already know your way around some various woodshop machinery, if you plan on doing it all from scratch. Knowing how to solder helps too.
One final thing. Do't expect to be able to build something utterly incredible your first time around. Start simple; it's easy to bite off more than you can chew. You will make mistakes; it's pretty much guaranteed. Don't worry about it. When you finally finish, you'll have an instrument that you can be proud of.
Good luck!
EDIT: Almost forgot, there's also an /r/luthier subreddit as well.
Here's what I did when i got started on my first bass - see pics here:
I bought and read three books cover-to-cover:
I watched LOTS of youtube videos. Both on making basses and using wood working tools. I wasn't familiar with wood working walking in, so I would make a list of what I wanted to do each day and then spend 30 minutes or so watching videos on how to use the tools and the step.
I hung out at projectguitar.com. Great website with some really talented builders and noobs like myself. I followed along with other builds and kept a build thread myself. It's amazing how helpful people were in answering very specific questions.
I went window shopping. I lived for several years in Tokyo where there's an entire district of guitar and bass shops. I hit up a bunch of shops, played a bunch of amazing basses, took a ton of pictures, made a bunch of notes, and got a feel for what I wanted. I was able to get my hands on basses in the $5k-$10k price range to see what those builders did. It was inspirational and upped my thinking substantially.
I've now built several basses and two guitars - I am hooked. Playing something that I made myself really adds to my overall enjoyment and it inspires me to practice more. Plus I really like the mind-clearing focus required to be successful in the shop. When I'm working I have to clear my mind and focus only on the task at hand.
The "Complete Scores" book is pretty much unusable, given its size. Instead, get the "Beatles Complete Chords Songbook". The chords are very accurate and the book can be placed flat on a table or on a sheet music stand.
If you want to learn other people's songs, you learn other people's songs. If you want to really learn the instrument, then you get a method book like this.
I recently picked up this book and agree it's an excellent resource for learning theory.
I also picked up Berklee Modern Method for Guitar which I'd also recommend - or a method book of some sort. Be forewarned, however, these method books are not easy to digest, but you'll learn your guitar and how to read music.
wtf is all that shit, try this book if you want a challenge http://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Metal-Bass-Book-CD/dp/1423497155