Members Broadus Posted October 2, 2008 Members Posted October 2, 2008 I'm a geezer who's been messing around with the guitar for a year now and have learned a lot of useful chords, gotten into barre chords, and been introduced to fingerstyle. I want to continue with these practical things, but I really want to understand what's going on with the guitar and reading music and so forth. By the way, I do have a little musical background, having played trombone in the high school band about three and a half decades ago. I've seen some good things about Leavitt's Modern Method for Guitar. Has anyone used it, and do you recommend it? There is a 3-volumes in one, but volume one can also be purchased separately with a DVD. My idea is to get Leavitt's book and work slowly through it while continuing to do more "fun" stuff like Mark Hanson's fingerstyle material. Any thoughts? Thanks, Bill
Moderators Jed Posted October 3, 2008 Moderators Posted October 3, 2008 Modern Method for Guitar is a highly regarded series of books. The DVD version is highly recommended. Your previous experience with the trombone will serve you well. cheers,
Members Music Calgary Posted October 3, 2008 Members Posted October 3, 2008 I've seen some good things about Leavitt's Modern Method for Guitar. Has anyone used it, and do you recommend it? Have done back in the day when preparing for a college audition -- it is what it is, effective for the basics. Definitely highly regarded by some amazing musicians -- I doubt you'll regret it... Just buy book 1 at first and see if you like it. Hang on, I just remembered -- they sell a single 1-2-3 book, better value.
Members Broadus Posted October 3, 2008 Author Members Posted October 3, 2008 Have done back in the day when preparing for a college audition -- it is what it is, effective for the basics. Definitely highly regarded by some amazing musicians -- I doubt you'll regret it... Just buy book 1 at first and see if you like it. Hang on, I just remembered -- they sell a single 1-2-3 book, better value. Thanks. I considered the three-in-one book, but the separate one-volume book comes with "a matching DVD-ROM featuring 14 complete lessons with Larry Baione, chair of Berklee's guitar department." Somehow, I suspect if I get through the contents of volume 1 (with the DVD, which should proved helpful), I'll be doing good and could very well acquire the understanding I'm after. At any rate, it's ordered. Thanks. Bill
Members Music Calgary Posted October 3, 2008 Members Posted October 3, 2008 Thanks. I considered the three-in-one book, but the separate one-volume book comes with "a matching DVD-ROM featuring 14 complete lessons with Larry Baione, chair of Berklee's guitar department." Somehow, I suspect if I get through the contents of volume 1 (with the DVD, which should proved helpful), I'll be doing good and could very well acquire the understanding I'm after. At any rate, it's ordered. Thanks. Great value, you wont regret that purchase.
Members Mistrals60 Posted October 3, 2008 Members Posted October 3, 2008 I've seen some good things about Leavitt's Modern Method for Guitar. Has anyone used it, and do you recommend it? I bought the series cause it was a better value. I highly recommend it.
Members Broadus Posted October 3, 2008 Author Members Posted October 3, 2008 Hey... Me too! I bought the series cause it was a better value. I highly recommend it. That's great (on both points!). Have you gotten very far into it? I've got to learn patience and work through it diligently and slowly. Bill
Members Mistrals60 Posted October 3, 2008 Members Posted October 3, 2008 That's great (on both points!). Have you gotten very far into it? I've got to learn patience and work through it diligently and slowly. Bill I've only gotten about 1/3 of the way into volume 1. I've found the DVD included with the first volume to be invaluable. It forces you to read notation fairly early on in the course. I played piano when I was very young and then trombone in H.S. Both of which required that I learn to read standard notation... Now, 30+ years later, it's been a challenge to pick it back up. If I find myself saying "F A C E" or "Every Good Boy Does Fine" one more time...
Members Broadus Posted October 4, 2008 Author Members Posted October 4, 2008 I've only gotten about 1/3 of the way into volume 1. I've found the DVD included with the first volume to be invaluable. It forces you to read notation fairly early on in the course. I played piano when I was very young and then trombone in H.S. Both of which required that I learn to read standard notation... Now, 30+ years later, it's been a challenge to pick it back up. If I find myself saying "F A C E" or "Every Good Boy Does Fine" one more time... Thanks. I have to think about treble clef because bass clef is all I ever read. My copy's supposed to be here on Tuesday. After what you said about the DVD, I'm glad I order the Volume 1/DVD combination (plus a dozen Dunlop Tortex picks for Amazon.com free shipping ). Bill
Members Music Calgary Posted October 4, 2008 Members Posted October 4, 2008 I made it through vol. 1 without a DVD and it wasn't too painful. It's all pretty logical sounding stuff. It definitely gets you into reading right away but it brings you in string by string so it's a soft landing. The only thing is for self-study that it's handy from time to time to check in with a really skilled sight reader to make sure you aren't establishing any bad habits and also that you are taking advantage of any tips they may have. Once you get through Leavitt's it's pretty much just all about reading as much as you can if that's your thing. I can remember Jaco talking about how he would scramble together any old scraps of random music from whatever sources he could find when he was learning to read -- just so he could lay his eyes on fresh stuff. I see what he meant by that, it's not reading once you're going over the same pieces -- or at least not in the same way as it is when you try to read a piece for the very first time. Jaco would have loved Band in a Box. I've read/heard from various sources that, at this peak, Jaco could read almost everything people put in front of him perfectly the first time through.
Members Broadus Posted October 4, 2008 Author Members Posted October 4, 2008 I made it through vol. 1 without a DVD and it wasn't too painful. It's all pretty logical sounding stuff. It definitely gets you into reading right away but it brings you in string by string so it's a soft landing. Is volume 1 the "meat and potatoes" of the three volumes? Looking at the Table of Contents for volume 1, it seems that it would cover a lot of fundamental information (and perhaps even more) that I would find useful. Or, should I plan to work through all three volumes? One other question: how long did it take you to go through volume 1 at about how much time per day? Thanks,Bill
Members Music Calgary Posted October 4, 2008 Members Posted October 4, 2008 Hi Bill, I wouldn't worry too much about 2 and 3 until you've gotten through 1. 1 is an excellent book for fundamentals -- you will most certainly find a lot of other useful stuff in book 1 as well. At the time I got through it in a few months of daily practice but I had a slight basis for reading already from piano. Heck, even if it takes you a year, or a decade, it's a worthwhile pursuit... It's a great little book.
Members Broadus Posted October 4, 2008 Author Members Posted October 4, 2008 Hi Bill, I wouldn't worry too much about 2 and 3 until you've gotten through 1. 1 is an excellent book for fundamentals -- you will most certainly find a lot of other useful stuff in book 1 as well. At the time I got through it in a few months of daily practice but I had a slight basis for reading already from piano. Heck, even if it takes you a year, or a decade, it's a worthwhile pursuit... It's a great little book. Thanks, MC. We'll see how the first goes. I don't have a decade. I need to start making good music as soon as possible! Bill
Members Broadus Posted October 5, 2008 Author Members Posted October 5, 2008 Just don't get his sight reading books unless you're a cyborg, or hate life. I suspect that's way beyond what I want to do or am even willing to do. Bill
Members Music Calgary Posted October 5, 2008 Members Posted October 5, 2008 I suspect that's way beyond what I want to do or am even willing to do. FWIW the book 1 that you ordered teaches the basics through sight reading. You are going to be sight reading from the get go. If you've never done that before you should definitely just stick it out and work through the pain, it will revolutionize your internal processes. Learning to sight read at some point in your life, even if you just forget about it afterwards, has all sorts of subtle side benefits...
Members Broadus Posted October 5, 2008 Author Members Posted October 5, 2008 My last sight reading would have been for the trombone in the high school band in 1972. I'm sure it will be helpful; I just wish I had started this 30 years ago. Thanks for the encouragement. Bill
Members Music Calgary Posted October 5, 2008 Members Posted October 5, 2008 Reading for guitar is messed up compared to most band instruments -- the #1 book does a good job of providing a soft landing. Reading on a piano for example yields precisely one key per note, i.e. if the staff says middle C you have but one option available for sounding that note. On a normal 6 string guitar though you have 2 different locations where middle C can be played so it becomes an issue of learning which position to choose for a given score or to achieve a given timbre. That gets even worse with some notes showing up 4 or 5 times across the fretboard (even 6 on a 24 fret). I think I'm going to drag that book out later and see if I can still right read. I doubt it. HAW!
Members jonfinn Posted October 6, 2008 Members Posted October 6, 2008 Bill Leavitt was one of my private teachers at Berklee. The MMFG series was written originally as the core curriculum for the Guitar Dept. at Berklee. For many years (30? 40?) every student was required to use it. We re-vamped the curriculum a few years ago. Bill's goal in writing those was to provide a "musicianship" resource for guitarists. Vol. 1 was written as an introduction, but really, Vol. 3 has all the "teeth." It was his attempt at explaining everything he could think of. He told me many times that regretted breaking it in to Vols. 1, 2, and 3 because most people only buy Vol. 1 When putting it together, he told me that he wrote all the pages on scales at one time, all the pages on chords at another time, pieces, theory lessons, techniques at other times. Then finally he divided the topics up so that every page-turn would bring a new topic. His thought was to balance the player's learning curve so they don't hyper-focus on one thing at the expense of others. He deliberately left out tablature because he felt it was important for serious guitarists to get comfortable reading standard notation (I agree on that point). Much of the musical content is quite dated sounding. But then I think it was published in 1965 - ish? (not sure of exact date) Book 1 is great. But all three volumes is amazing.
Members Music Calgary Posted October 6, 2008 Members Posted October 6, 2008 Much of the musical content Awesome post... The musical content is dated but in a way that's good because it's so simple to recognize what's going on as you're playing it, i.e. all the melodies are very easy to digest, etc.
Members Broadus Posted October 6, 2008 Author Members Posted October 6, 2008 Bill Leavitt was one of my private teachers at Berklee. The MMFG series was written originally as the core curriculum for the Guitar Dept. at Berklee. For many years (30? 40?) every student was required to use it. We re-vamped the curriculum a few years ago.Bill's goal in writing those was to provide a "musicianship" resource for guitarists. Vol. 1 was written as an introduction, but really, Vol. 3 has all the "teeth." It was his attempt at explaining everything he could think of. He told me many times that regretted breaking it in to Vols. 1, 2, and 3 because most people only buy Vol. 1When putting it together, he told me that he wrote all the pages on scales at one time, all the pages on chords at another time, pieces, theory lessons, techniques at other times. Then finally he divided the topics up so that every page-turn would bring a new topic. His thought was to balance the player's learning curve so they don't hyper-focus on one thing at the expense of others.He deliberately left out tablature because he felt it was important for serious guitarists to get comfortable reading standard notation (I agree on that point). Much of the musical content is quite dated sounding. But then I think it was published in 1965 - ish? (not sure of exact date)Book 1 is great. But all three volumes is amazing. Thanks, Jon. I appreciate your perspective. I looked at other offerings, but nothing seems to contain what Leavitt's does and have the following. I've just gotten started with it this evening. Hopefully I'll stick with volume 1 and the proceed to volume 2. Bill
Members Music Calgary Posted October 12, 2008 Members Posted October 12, 2008 Just watched this DVD today at a friends. Awesome, yes this is the ultimate companion for this book -- I wish I had it back in the day. Maybe I'll work back through this for fun.
Members Broadus Posted October 12, 2008 Author Members Posted October 12, 2008 I've been with it for a few days, but it's pretty slow going for this geezer. It's good stuff, though. Bill
Members Music Calgary Posted October 12, 2008 Members Posted October 12, 2008 Yes. I'm not too sure about his rest stroke but for sure this is good stuff. Just keep chippin' away. This is one of those systems that works at any speed as long as you're making some progress...
Members lazaraga Posted October 14, 2008 Members Posted October 14, 2008 i have the complete set. got it a couple years ago, have gone through it maybe a half dozen times. first at 60 bpm, then 70, then 80, you get the idea. i would strongly encourage using a metronome when you practice this book. play each page 3 times in a row perfect before moving on. another great leavitt book is melodic rhythms for guitar. it's very clever how he breaks down a study of rhythm by looking at number of attacks per measure. the tunes are pretty good too. great stuff to get into. once you get through those 2, try sight reading the bird omnibook:cool:
Members Broadus Posted October 14, 2008 Author Members Posted October 14, 2008 I'm 53 now. At the rate I'm going, I'll probably have Volume 1 down by the time I'm 60. Bill
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