Saturday, July 19, 2008

Creative Guitar 1: Cutting Edge Tech

The aim of Creative Guitar 1 is to help any rock guitarist who feels stuck in a rut. The book focuses on refining playing techniques, explaining the nuts and bolts of theory in an accessible manner, as well as how to practice efficiently, and even demonstrates lots of new licks. This book promotes a self-sufficient approach to learning that will give guitarists new artistic directions in every aspect of their playing. The accompanying CD features detailed examples of penatonic patterns, minor arpeggios and backing tracks so the guitarist can apply these instructions to their individual style of playing, helping them to become more creative musicians.
Customer Review: Great gift!
I purchased this for my 22 year old son. He is an avid guitarist and is enjoying the book while home on winter break for college. He has been playing for 7 years and asked for this for Christmas.
Customer Review: A must-read for any guitarist looking to take it to the next level
Guthrie Govan proves not only to be an amazing guitarist, but also an excellent teacher. This book will have you feeling inspired to say the least. After reading many of the sections in this book I felt as excited to touch the guitar as I did the first time years ago. Guthrie's love for music and especially the guitar is inspirational. This is by far the best guitar book I have ever read. Not only does it provide excellent technical strategies, but it also gives great insight on how and why certain sounds are produced. The book maintains a light-hearted approach and will not leave you disappointed pick it up if you want to play better.


When a landscape artist wants to get the essence of a beautiful scene, they make a quick pencil sketch of it.

The artist doesn't want to represent the entire landscape as it is, but as they feel it to be. A few lines scribbled here and there indicate the feelings the artist wishes to convey. We musicians can do the same thing! We can quickly sketch out our ideas on paper by using chords and a chord chart.

A chord chart is just a way to notate when chords change through time. You can write out 8-bars to begin with (as I do). Now let us suppose you have the urge to capture something musically. What do you do? Well, for starters, you can pick a key to compose with.

For example, let's choose the Key of C. Now after deciding that, we know that the piece will have a Major sound to it. We also know that we have 6 chords to create with from the C Major scale. With these primary decisions out of the way we now can focus on notating our musical ideas and capturing a mood. Here's how I do it:

I start by just improvising and letting the music come out naturally. For example, I play a C Maj. 7 chord and I like what I hear. I'll write down the first 2-bars of the melody, then place a chord symbol on top of the chart so I now have the musical idea in place.

My goal is to finish charting the 8-bar phrase with chords all the way through. Once this is accomplished I have the first section of music. If more is to come, I simply write out another 8-bar phrase and keep adding more music.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Visit http://www.quiescencemusic.com now and get a FREE piano lesson!

dance music 2007

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