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Popular Guitar Music
This is the book I was constantly looking for when I was learning how to play, but could never find. Later, when I became a teacher, I was hoping
to find a book like this for my students. I couldn't, so I wrote it.
When I wrote this book, it was almost impossible for guitar players to find anything that was
accurately transcribed from recordings; everything was "in the style of" or approximations for piano players.
The musical quotations I use are short excerpts from popular recordings,
not full transcriptions of entire songs. I chose the songs to illustrate musical ideas: For example,
in chapter 18, I have a few measures each from Brown Sugar and Suzanne,
because they both use Sus4 chords.
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Free Sample Chapters in PDF
Chapter One
covers the parts of the guitar, strings, frets, chords, fingers, hands, and an introduction to TAB notation. For the absolute beginner.
Experienced players can revisit the very basics of the guitar with best practices and knowledge.
Chapter Eleven
explores blues/rock shuffle rhythm patterns and 12-bar blues progressions.
Chromatic octaves in first position is the single best exercise for developing complete fretting hand dexterity and coordination.
Chapter Twenty
shows how to develop finger style solo arrangements using harmonized scales and rhythmic variation. Based on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."
Please email
if you are intersted in purchasing the complete Popular Guitar Music
through download ($12.00) or on CD ($15.00 including shipping)
Popular Guitar Music was originally published by Prentice-Hall in 1986
and went through two printing. |
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Popular Guitar Music is a study of guitar playing as performed and recorded by
Chuck Berry, Joan Baez, the Beatles, George Benson, the Clash, Leonard Cohen,
Jim Croce, Steve Cropper, Fleetwood Mac, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin,
Kansas, the Kinks, Lynyrd Skynrd, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, the Rolling
Stones, Paul Simon, the Who, Jerry Jeff Walker, Neil Young, and other guitarists
of the past five decades.
Guitar playing skills are thoroughly explained, from the most basic chording and
strumming techniques to advanced concepts of electric lead guitar and
finger-style arrangements of melodies. Each technique is illustrated with
transcription and references to available recorded guitar music.
Well-known recorded guitar parts are also used to illustrate musical ideas.
Musical concepts are explained progressively from the fundamental (names of
notes, reading simple rhythms, etc.) to the advanced (chord construction,
complex rhythms, etc.). All musical concepts are presented with reference to,
and in terms of guitar music.
Popular Guitar Music is a source book that can be referred to and enjoyed on
many levels throughout a guitar player's musical development. The first three chapters are for readers who have never played before or who want to start fresh with the best possible techniques and attitudes. The mechanics and musical concepts of guitar playing are introduced and explained together.
Chapters 4 through 9 concentrate on finger picking and strumming accompaniment styles. The material in Chapters 10 through 13 helps to develop dexterity and strength in the hands and facility with musical ideas.
Chapters 14 through 17 concentrate on single-note solo guitar, and they culminate in transcriptions of famous electric guitar solos as recorded by Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, John Lennon, Keith Richards, and others. The remaining chapters concentrate on systematically developing chord vocabuary and on applying guitar playing and musical skills to arranging melodies for solo performance
Popular Guitar Music can be used
by an individual player who wants to learn about music as wll as learn about the guitar while also
learing how to play the instrument accurately in the ways heard on recordings.
Most chapters conclude with a set of excercises and projects. All examples are in TAB and staff notation. |
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction to the Guitar
2. Basic Concepts of Music and Rhythm Notation
3. Basic Guitar Playing Skills
4. Accompaniment Styles: Strumming Patterns
Should I stay or Should I Go?, the Clash
Me and Julio Down by the School Yard, Paul Simon
You Really Got Me, The Kinks; Take it Easy, The Eagles
5. Accompaniment Styles: Patterns with Bass Notes
Me and Bobby McGee, Janet Joplin
Ripple, Grateful Dead
6. Accompaniment Styles: Fingerpicking Patterns
Diamonds and Rust, Joan Baez
Play with Fire, Rolling Stones
Tired of Waiting for You, The Kinks
Landslide, Fleetwood Mac
7. Major Scales, Time Signatures, and Sixteenth Notes
8. Notes on the Fretboard: Changing Chords
9. More Accompaniment Patterns and Melodic Bass Lines
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, The Beatles
House of the Rising Sun, The Animals
Mr. Bojangles, Jerry Jeff Walker
Needle and the Damage Done, Neil Young
Yesterday, The Beatles
10. Major Scale Intervals and Chord Construction
Help, the Beatles
The James Bond Theme
This Land is Your Land, Woody Guthrie
With a Little Help From My Friends, The Beatles,
Give My Regards to Broadway, George M. Cohan
Sentimental Journey, Bud Green
Michael Row the Boat Ashore
The Star-Spangled Banner
I'll Follow the Sun, The Beatles
Hush, Little Baby
Sound of Silence, Paul Simon
It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing, Duke Ellington
Star Wars Theme, John Williams
The Entertainer, Scott Joplin
11. Barre Chords, Sixteenth Note Patterns, and Open Tunings
Midnight Hour, Wilson Picket
Bad, Leroy Brown, Jim Croce
Wild Horses, Rolling Stones
Pinball Wizard, The Who
Jumping Jack Flash, The Rolling Stones
Circle Game, Joni Mitchell
12. Rock Shuffle Patterns and Chromatic Octaves
13. Transposing and Common Chord Progressions
14. Single Note Styles: Scales
Heart of Gold, Neil Young
Sweet Home, Alabama
15. Lead Guitar Special Effects
16. Patterns and Riffs on the Harmonized Major Scales
Homeward Bound, Paul Simon
Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffet
Breezin', George Benson
Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morisson
She Loves You, The Beatles
Was a Sunny Day, Paul Simon
Soul Man, Sam and Dave/Blues Brothers
17. Transcribed Guitar Solos
Johnny B. Goode, Chuck Berry
Around and Around, Keith Richards
That's Be the Day, Buddy Holly
Bring It On Home To Me, the Animals
Steel Guitar Rag, Bob Wills/Leon McAuliffe
Back in the USSR, The Beatles
Get Back, The Beatles
18. Chord Vocabulary
Brown Sugar, Rolling Stones
Suzanne, Leonard Cohen
19. Topics in Music Theory
20. Solo Guitar: Fingerstyle
Ode to Joy, Ludwig Van Beethoven
Georgia On My Mind, Ray Charles
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