Overviews of the Individual Volumes

Details coming soon

This new book is intended for guitar teachers and their students, in both group and private settings.  The information, condensed from other titles in the Guitar From Scratch series, is presented here in a more direct manner with less detailed explanation.  The text has been stripped down to the essential information, so the teacher has room to put his or her own personal stamp on the material.  This book uses chord diagrams and tablature to get the student playing easy material ASAP: chords first, some strumming and fingerpicking, then on to melodies, basslines and scales, and even introducing 12-Bar Blues and some basic blues improvisation.

The best-selling of all my books, Guitar From Scratch is aimed at the rank beginner (you know who you are!). It’s all about chords: their individual personalities, the mechanics of playing them, and how they relate to other chords belonging to the same key. After getting the left hand (fretting hand) under control, we turn to the right hand to explore the easiest and most common strumming and fingerpicking patterns.

Even if you’ve been playing for a while, you might want to check out this one. I’ve heard from several readers that Guitar From Scratch helped fill in certain gaps in their knowledge that they didn’t even know existed. Meredith Cox from Raleigh wrote, “Thank you for writing something intelligent, witty and something that I actually looked forward to reading.”

Now that you’ve gotten used to playing the basic chords back and forth, it’s time to peruse three different areas. First is what I call Stupid Chord Tricks. These are actually Very Cool Chord Tricks, the kind that guitarists have been swapping back and forth for centuries. Second is an introduction to playing single notes and scales and incorporating them into chord progressions and basslines. You’ll also get started on the pentatonic scale and learn how to play some basic blues licks.

The third section of the book is a friendly introduction to reading the actual notes on the musical staff. Don’t roll your eyes; while not indispensable, this is a useful tool, and I use mostly melodies that you’ll recognize. According to Elderly Instruments, “Reading music is taught with as little pain as possible.”

This book is an in-depth treatment of the technique of fingerstyle vocal accompaniment, previewed in Guitar From Scratch. Several years of studying classical guitar in high school gave me a firm footing in the fingerpicking style, which I have since modified for the needs of the everyday folk, pop, blues and country guitarist. This is a comprehensive study of the various right-hand patterns that can be used to accompany the voice or other instruments.

The real strength of this book is in the use of specific and recognizable examples of fingerpicking from popular and classical music. Elderly Instruments says, “Emery’s extensive background in classical playing adds enormous depth to his approach.”

Solo Travis-Style Fingerpicking is a tricky thing.You need to be able to keep a steady bassline going with your right thumb as you play melodies and harmonies with your index, middle and ring fingers. It's like patting your head and rubbing your belly, except that it creates
music. Ragtime piano players do the same sort of thing when they split
up these two functions between the left and right hands.

It is NOT the purpose of this book to present actual transcriptions of the pieces that Merle or Chet or Leo have played. That way lies sorrow
and disappointment (I know because I’ve been that way). We’ll start
off simply and add complexity in a measured fashion. See this as an
opportunity to take that knuckleheaded thumb of yours and whip it into
shape before you try to take on the Travis-Style classics. And even if
you’ve been playing this style for a while, I think some of the
material toward the end may still quicken the pulse and knit the brow.

Now that you’ve received a whole new lease on life from having read the Brown Book, along comes the Blue Book to help you apply your newfound knowledge on the fretboard itself. If the Circle of Fifths was the star of the first book, the CAGED system dominates the second book. It will help you organize scales and chords into all these handy inter-connected box patterns up and down the neck.

We go into chord voicings, chord qualities, quadrads and complex chords. Dan Miller mentions the “slap on the forehead” factor as a frequent response while reading this book. I also spend some time talking about how to put chords to melodies and how to use intervals known as Thirds, Sixths and Tenths. No matter what style of music you play, the CAGED system rules. Robert Brown, from Raleigh, NC, wrote, “When I got to page 50 of Volume Two, it was like a heavy curtain was raised from the neck of the guitar and I finally saw it in all its splendor.”

This book proceeds onward from Volume Two, The Fretboard, and presumes that you are up to speed on the the first two volumes. We look at the structure of jazz chords first and introduce such diverse and fascinating topics as the Rhythm Changes, Substitutions, Alterations, Extensions and my favorite, Voice Leading. We identify two main forms of Rhythm Changes, which I call the “MVP” (Most Valuable Progression) and the “VIP” (Very Important Progression) and work ‘em every which way but loose.

Then we investigate the “1234567” Progression and learn how to chop it up and use it all over the neck; the chord progressions found in five actual jazz standards; and Mustery Chord Analysis. Finally we talk about the 7 Modes (“Modes Shmodes”) and how they can help you to improvise jazz solos. Michael Plunkett wrote via e-mail, “I have had a desire to learn jazz for a while now, and it seems as if every book I picked up make me understand it less and less. You have successfully translated one language into another.”

These are all traditional Christmas carols that you probably know, but there are several specials features here. First, few Christmas songbooks have been written specifically for the strumming guitarist. But this book does away with all the extraneous music notation that keyboard players need and provides just the words, chord symbols, timing, chord diagrams and accompaniment patterns in keys that guitarists like (G, D, Am, Em and C).

Not only that, but each carol is presented in two versions, one Plain and one Fancy. They differ in the number of different chords and in the frequency of the chord changes. This way, whatever your playing level, you’ll be able to jump in behind any school or church group that might require your services. Lyric sheets in the back can be copied and distributed to carolers.

If you’re a fingerpicker, this is the instrumental Christmas book you’ve been waiting for! Each carol is arranged at 3 different playing levels, so no matter how much fingerstyle experience you have (or don’t have), you’ll be able to jump in and play SOMETHING. Level One arrangements are completely straightforward; in fact, even if you play with a PICK, you’ll be able to manage these.

Level Two arrangements are a bit harder, but sound better by adding arpeggios and different chord voicings and basslines. As for Level Three arrangements, well, let’s just say that, come December, I myself start off at Level Two and ease my way into Level Three, where the harmonies and basslines can be a handful. Most of the arrangements stay in First Position at all three levels and occupy the Keys of C and G. What could be nicer? Greg Olef wrote via e-mail, “Hey, what a great Christmas book! I like the way you have the songs at different levels. It’s so much easier and they all seem so guitar friendly."