(Part 2) Best guitar & fretted instrument songbooks according to redditors

Alright, let me give you a rundown of my personal library.

Beginner:

• "Guitar World Presents: Steve Vai's Guitar Workout"
  
• "A Modern Method for Guitar: Volumes 1-4" By William Leavitt
  
• "Creative Guitar Volume 1" by Guthrie Govan
  
  Intermediate:
  
  
• "Reading Studies for Guitar" by William Leavitt
  
• "The Advancing Guitarist" by Mick Goodrick
  
• "Melody Chords for Guitar" by Allan Holdsworth
  
• "Joe Pass Chord Solos"
  
• "Charlie Parker for Guitar"
  
• "Hybrid Picking for Guitar" by Gustavo Assis-Brasil
  
• "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine
  
• "The Bill Evans Guitar Book" by Sid Jacobs
  
  Advanced:
  
  
• "The Brazilian Guitar Book" by Nelson Faria
  
• "Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar: Using Generic Modal Compression" by Tim Miller, Mick Goodrick
  
• "The Art of Two-Line Improvisation" by Jimmy Wyble
  
• "Elementary Training for Musicians" by Paul Hindemith (not guitar specific)
  
  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.

May I suggest, this, this, and this

They'll get you pretty darn close to the ballpark. Also, a 6 string will come in handy. A lot of good youtube lessons out there and of course slowing down the songs in VLC or your app of choice. I recently discovered the Pocket GK app for iphone that lets you slow down tracks in your library. Come back in a few months and report your progress.

Here it is on Amazon.

> RIght now i'm trying to exaggerate my motion of picking at a slower tempo, idk why but i feel like this might help.

You're developing muscle memory to use a wider range of motion while picking? Don't do that.

This has been standard for almost 30 years:
https://www.amazon.com/Speed-Mechanics-Lead-Guitar-Stetina-ebook/dp/B002SDRSZW

I have this one. I don't remember what it cost at the time, but it wasn't that much.

It's a great book. Half of the songs are fingerstyle and half are chords with singing.

The second song you mentioned is in this book, but it's the singing version, so it would take some work to adapt it to a fingerstyle piece.

The best source for sheet music is Japan itself. Order this. These are arrangements, btw. Not official I don't think!

I've an older copy of the book. Soooo, here. (am taking this down tomorrow, so grab it now!)

Bruce has been around for a while and is a stellar player. I well remember when his first hits, "If I had a Rocket Launcher" and "Wonderin' Where The Lions Are" hit the airwaves.

There's quite a lot of YouTube material, articles from Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and collections of tablature like this one from Amazon:

Bruce Cockburn: Complete. Partitions pour Tablature Guitare https://www.amazon.com/dp/8850719108/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_3aZGzbCBT5JHV

If you're a starting fingerstylist, you've got some work to do. I'd suggest immediately moving beyond that "Travis" pattern picking and getting into the fundamentals of material like Chet Atkins.

So, I don't know if this is helpful, but have you seen the Hal Leonard Fingerpicking series of books? I've been playing guitar 4 months and they are challenging but doable for me, so they are probably WAY below your skill level. You could probably sight read through them the first time. They sound pretty good, though, and would seem to meet your requirements. I'm working on What a Wonderful World right now from Fingerpicking Standards.

I own a copy of this the name made me giggle at first. Then I realized what it meant. I found it at an antique store. I like to frame some old things, so I bought it but doubt I can display it without people getting the wrong message.

the Berklee series is best imho. They include songs and examples created by the author.
amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Berklee-Press-Modern-Method-Guitar/dp/B001UH10F6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1300835364&sr=8-4

https://www.amazon.com/Police-Complete-Guitar-Artist-Songbook/dp/B00068427S/

Bass: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Police/dp/079350337X/

Guitar: https://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Police-Guitar-Signature-Licks/dp/B0002DVLTY/

Drums: https://www.amazon.com/22Police-22-Drums-Police-Sheet-music/dp/B00OX8XNCM/

For standard swing type big band music it's helpful to learn the basic comping style that goes with. Here's Herb Ellis giving a demo on the style, and you should also check out him comping for Joe Pass on Cherokee. For the basic chord sounds I usually recommend Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar, Vol. 1. It's not perfect but no book is, and it has diagrams, super basic theory, and costs less than $6.

The thing is, big band music has come a long way since the 1930s, and you may be called upon to play pretty much any style of music, which means you need to not only know a variety of chord voicings but also various comping styles. There's no way to quickly teach that, so you'll need to just listen, study, and ask questions of pro players like you're doing here.

http://www.amazon.com/Matteo-Carcassi-Melodic-Progressive-Studies/dp/0793518679/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405454838&sr=1-4&keywords=carcassi+etudes

these are the carcassi etudes. I've had a musical background on the trombone for years and I've played guitar for about 2 before my teacher put me onto classical. I already knew how to read music, and he taught me the technique behind the etudes. SO, I guess I'm saying I started CG knowing how to read music already, with a certain level of aptitude to applying it to the guitar. I didn't start off with any method books, but I eventually bought a bunch and saw that my teacher pretty much taught me all of it to begin with, apart from the flamenco stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Solos-Classical-Guitar-Worlds-Favorite/dp/B002V4SIX4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1405454901&sr=8-3&keywords=classical+guitar+favorite

This is a compilation of beginner to intermediate guitar etudes and short pieces. Also you will find some arrangements of songs that were not written for the guitar, but someone did good work and made it so. If you get bored of the carcassi, try some of these to take your mind off it and to practice your sight reading, but always go back.

With Pumping Nylon inbetween. There are a few things you're going to have to learn that come with basic general guitar playing. Chord forms, triad forms, rest strokes, note reading, (maybe some Italian lol) also, grab a musical dictionary for the Italian stuff.... If your piece says to play Andante, you don't want to play it Allegro. If your piece says to play staccato, you don't want to play legato. If it says Dolce, don't play it Pesante.

There are so many things you learn with time and practice, but learn to play the carcassi etudes, MIND YOUR FINGERINGS. Good luck!


One last thing, STAY ON ONE ETUDE BEFORE YOU MOVE ON. Perfect it, you don't want to be able to play 10 half-ass etudes... that defeats the purpose. Get them down pat as you move along.

I have this swell book which has 36 chords for every root. My copy is spiral bound, so it stays open to the page you're interested in, and it fits easily into a gig bag pocket. Bought it at GC.

If you can swing it, I think this book is worth every penny: http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Steely-Dan-Recorded/dp/B002F8L6NK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398466707&sr=8-1&keywords=steely+dan+guitar+recorded+versions

https://www.amazon.com/guitare-basse-Initiation-rythmes/dp/B001J2Z6L6

Sheet music: Arrangement work - and Miguel Castillo Berry port Guitar Works - original work (GG488) ISBN: 4874714889 (2010) [Japanese Import] https://www.amazon.com/dp/4874714889/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_KLctDbCKN2Z5J

Now that you know how the notation works, I suggest you get a big thick book full of sheet music songs which you can learn randomly for practice.

If you like jazz, the real book is perfect. Just pick a random page and go. Some of the songs are pretty simple, e.g. chitlins con carne, but some will be challenging, e.g. doin the pig.

For classical music, you could actually just find a book of violin parts. The instruments have similar compasses and are written in the treble clef. (Technically the guitar is a transposing instrument by an octave, but not everything follows this practice.)

Or you could just get a song book for an album you like like so. The problem with this is that many of these books, especially recent ones, will have the tab alongside the notation, in the fashion of no fear shakespeare. So you'll just end up reading the tab.

Another exercise which practices indirectly is to pick random notes on the fretboard then write them on the staff. You can also get or make flash cards which have a note written on the staff on one side, and the C# or whatever on the other. Or, try translating a sheet to tablature without looking at the guitar. If you can play by ear, try transcribing a solo straight to notation. Tap out a random rhythm and write it down. For many people, myself included, the hardest part about standard notation is the rhythms.

Don't feel discouraged if it doesn't come quickly. The guitar is not laid out clearly relative to notation. With 10 years of reading on piano behind me, learning notation for guitar still felt like going back to square one. Just keep up your practice routines and eventually you'll discover new things.

El Camino Guitar Book

Thanks for the contest c:

The Wedding Singer: The Musical Comedy (Pvg)