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Cool Music Stuff
Guitar Books
By Skip Anna
Guitar Learning Books
Volume 1
Volume 1 â An introduction to the âmusic stuffâ you want learn to play, and the weird-looking secret code for it â ânotesâ. The parts of the guitar, how to hold and tune it, and other basic stuff (like which fingers are which). Then learn to read and play notes on all six strings (adding one string at a time). You also learn basic 2 & 3-note chords, and play duets.
Volume 2
Volume 2 â âGet movingâ with eighth note rhythms and learn about sharps and flats (the notes we skipped over in vol.1). Tempo, dynamics and articulations (how fast, how loud, and how long) are covered. Then âget funkyâ with eighth note syncopations. Finally, multi-part solos (you become a one-person band! Also covers 4, 5 and 6-string chords
Volume 3
Volume 3 â Along the first part of âMusic Theory for the Guitaristâ, learn about intervals and scale construction, and apply that to learn about key signatures (1-sharp & 1-flat). Then get flashy with sizzling sixteenth notes. Finally, Move on up to 2-sharp & 2-flat key signatures.
Volume 4
Volume 4 â Start off with 2, 3, 5 and 7-beat rhythms., and then play triplet eighth-note rhythms. Learn the basic full-bar chords and eighth-sixteenth note rhythms. Chord types and movable chords are covered. Finally, do syncopated accents and muted notes.
Volume 5
Volume 5 â Get âswinginââ with shuffle rhythms and triplet quarter notes. Start moving up the fingerboard with second positionnotes and chords. Learn intricate syncopated sixteenth-note rhythms, and finally, start âcuttinâ upâ with cut time and related rhythms.
Volume 6
Volume 6 â Starts with an introduction to slurs (hammer-ons & pull-offs), and then covers 3-sharp & 3-flat key signatures. Then itâs compound time rhythms, and finishes with Add9, Sus4 & Dominant 9th Chords.
Volume 7
Volume 7 â Move up into third position notes and chords. Learn slides and finish with 4-sharp & 4-flat key signatures.
Volume 8
Volume 8 â Learn 5th & 4th position notes and chords. Then itâs an introduction to grace notes. Finally, âpedal to the metalâ with sextuplets & triplet 16th note rhythms.
Volume 9
Volume 9 â Starts with an introduction to 7th & 6th position notes and chords. Then play with 5-sharp & 5-flat key signatures, 32nd note rhythms and finish with trills
Volume 10
Volume 10 â âMax outâ with 6-sharp & 6-flat key signatures. Then âtake it higherâ into 9th, 8th and finally 10th positions (notes and chords, of course)
Volume 11
Volume 11 â String Bends, Vibrato, 12th & 11th positions and 8va notation
Cool Music Stuff
Music Theory for the Guitarist
By Skip Anna
Music Theory For The Guitarist Volumes 1 - 7
Music Theory for the Guitarist Volume 1
Volume 1 â Constructing major scales. 70 pages + 10-pg. Appendix
Music Theory for the Guitarist Volume 2
Volume 2 â The Intervals of Minor Triads. 79 pages + 13-pg. Appendix
Music Theory for the Guitarist Volume 3
Volume 3 â Introduction to Scale Modes and Minor Pentatonic Scales. 113 pages.
Music Theory for the Guitarist Volume 4
Volume 4 â The Minor Modes. 114 pages
Music Theory for the Guitarist Volume 5
Volume 5 â The Major Pentatonic Scales, single-position patterns and their fingerings, Full fingerboard diagrams and Exercises. 170 pages
Music Theory for the Guitarist Volume 6
Volume 6 â Using Major & Minor Modes together. 104 pages
Music Theory for the Guitarist Volume 7
Volume 7 â Major Blues Scales. 94 pages
The Fingerboard Revealed
The Fingerboard Revealed
Use simple concepts of Music Theory to "map" the notes of basic chords and scales on the fingerboard of fretted string instruments
More Cool Music Stuff
Folk Guitar Books
By Skip Anna
A Fingerstyle Guitar Primer
A Fingerstyle Guitar Primer
Introduction to Fingerstyle Technique and Pattern-Picking
What This Book is About
...So, you want to start âfingerpickinââ. Fingerstyle technique (picking the strings with your fingers and thumb) is one of the two main ways of playing the guitar. I guess you could call the other way, using a pick held the thumb and fingers, âpick-pickingââ. Folk, country and bluegrass players call it âflatpickingâ â everyone else (rock, blues and jazz players) just call it âpickingâ.
A large part of learning to play fingerstyle guitar though, is about âlearning to play guitarâ, regardless of picking technique, and a goodly portion of that, especially at the beginner level, is learning about music. Thatâs why for years I would take students, even those interested in fingerstyle, through the first book or two of a traditional pick-style guitar method (a teaching âmethodâ is a book or series of books where you start off with very simple stuff, and as you master it, you move on to increasingly more complex and difficult material). That way you learn where the notes are (and how to play âem), how to count time, the basic chords and some very fundamental music theory. Then you can all apply of that to fingerstyle playing. Besides, most fingerstyle players can play some pick-style, just as most pick-style players can play a little fingerstyle. Itâs good to be well-rounded, and both picking styles are cool!
If you can read notes on the guitar in first position, and are comfortable with eighth notes, sharps, flats and simple key signatures, you can skip this book! Check out my âFingerstyle Guitarâ method instead. If you donât know what âfirst position, eighth notes, sharps, flats and simple key signaturesâ are, (or you just want to get the thumb a fingers of your picking hand under control first) stick around...
Another reason for starting pick-style is that although pick-style playing (like most any playing technique) can be âtaken to the limitâ in complexity, itâs trickier, especially for beginners, to get âup and runningâ with fingerstyle technique. When you play fingerstyle the thumb of your picking hand is doing different stuff than your fingers, and while some of the fingers of your fretting hand are grabbing the notes that your thumb is playing, other fingers are going after the different notes that the fingers of your picking hand are playing. Got that? In other words, itâs like youâre playing both parts of a duet at the same time! Unless youâve got four brains, you canât think about all of that at the same time. The only way mere earthlings like you can do all that stuff at the same times is to get it programmed into the âautopilotâ (the one that lets you âwalk and chew gumâ). Itâs usually less frustrating for beginners to program the pick-style âautopilotâ (where you merely pick the note that the fretting hand grabs), than the fingerstyle âwalk, chew gum, rub your stomach and pat your head-autopilotâ.
What, youâre still there? Since you havenât stopped reading in order to go out and buy a good pick-style guitar method (like mine!), I guess you still want to start off playing fingerstyle. Since I couldnât scare you off (stubbornness is a good thing when learning to play!), I have to confess, there are some good books that start off beginners with fingerstyle technique. Unfortunately, theyâre classical guitar books (unfortunate only if you donât want to play classical guitar). If youâre only interested in playing âclassicalâ, then go get one! Still there? Classical players call their picking technique âproperâ. âFingerstyleâ is a kind of code for those unruly music styles, mostly folk, but also country, rock, blues and some jazz that use the same picking technique as those âproperâ classical dudes.
OK then, what about the folk, country, rock, blues and jazz fingerstyle methods? Well, the rock players who play fingerstyle are few and far between, and while jazz players are an even mix of pick and fingerstyle players, Iâm not aware of any teaching methods in those styles that are specifically for fingerstyle players. Although there are lots of blues finger-stylers, there arenât many teaching methods. Disappointingly, the blues method books are mostly very rudimentary, and limited (they donât take you to very advanced material). There are some nice collections of transcription of the playing of the âold mastersâ of the blues, but theyâre not really for beginners.
So, what about country and folk? Stylistically, except for the cowboy hats, rhinestone jackets and pedal steel guitars of âold schoolâ country, and the âcountry twangâ of country vocalists, thereâs not great deal of difference between country and American folk music. Again, Iâm not aware of any country fingerstyle methods currently in publication (maybe Chet Atkins or Merle Travis had books out). There are some folk fingerstyle methods, but like the blues ones, they tend to be very rudimentary, or collections of advanced level arrangements.
So here we go... A âFingerstyle Primerâ for beginners, at least for those who know a few simple chords and can manage to keep a steady beat. Slow is OK (at first), as long as theyâre steady. Since youâve got the ânotes editionâ of this book, I assume youâve already learned to read and play guitar notation, so we wonât have to tiptoe around those scary-looking âlittle black specksâ, (but donât worry, the note-reading wonât be too ferocious). If you donât âread music on a guitar, thereâs another version of this book which, with a little âTiptoeingâ, will get you started finger-pickinâ
A Fingerstyle Guitar Primer Song Supplement
A Fingerstyle Guitar Primer Song Supplement
A Fingerstyle Guitar Primer Song Supplement.
Fingerstyle Guitar
A Method for Learning Solo Fingerstyle Guitar Volumes 1 - 5
Fingerstyle Guitar Volume 1
Add simple melodies to an alternating bass. Then play melodies with more complex rhythms.
Fingerstyle Guitar Volume 2
Introduction to Position II, slides, 1-note position changes & grace notes.
Fingerstyle Guitar Volume 3
Introduction to sixteenth note rhythms. Eighth note bass lines.
Fingerstyle Guitar Volume 3 Song Supplement
More contemporary songs arranged for solo fingerstyle guitar.
Fingerstyle Guitar Volume 4
Introduction to counterpoint and counterpoint bass lines.
Fingerstyle Guitar Volume 4 Song Supplement
More contemporary songs arranged for solo fingerstyle guitar.
Fingerstyle Guitar Volume 5 - Part A
Songs and Tunes arranged with "Pulse" (monotonic) bass lines.
Fingerstyle Guitar Volume 5 - Part B
The Blues equivalent of "Pulse" bass is called "Dead Thumb".
Originally âpart A & Bâ were intended to be in a single volume, but it was getting pretty big, and the mostly folk songs of part A are stylistically a lot different than the mostly blues songs in part B)
Writing a Solo Fingerstyle Guitar Arrangement
Writing a Solo Fingerstyle Guitar Arrangement â Part 1
Turn a simple melody and its chords, into a fingerstyle guitar arrangement.
A Flatpick Folio
A Flatpick Folio
A graded collection of Flatpick-Style arrangements of Folk and Old-Time songs.
Folk Guitar Method
Folk Guitar Method Volume 1
Learn guitar "from the ground up": Parts of the Guitar, and how to tune it.
Folk Guitar Method Volume 2
Picking up from where Volume 1 leaves off. Learn about sharps & flats.
Folk Tab Guitar
Folk Tab Guitar
For the "Note-a-phobic" â this book is like an abridged version of "The (mostly) Folk Guitar Method Vol 1."
đ Holiday Special đ
Christmas Guitar Books & Music
Classical, Jazz, and Pop Arrangements
By Skip Anna
Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar Folios
These Folios of Fingerstyle Guitar Arrangements of Christmas music are companions to each of the four volumes of the âFingerstyle Guitarâ books. The song arrangements in each folio correlate to the material covered in the corresponding âFingerstyle Guitarâ book.
Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar Folio 1
All arrangements in this folio are in position I (where the reading and playing is easy).
Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar Folio 2
All the arrangements are in positions I-III on the fingerboard of the guitar.
Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar Folio 3
All the arrangements are played in positions I-V â coordinating with Volume 3 of Fingerstyle Guitar method.
Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar Folio 4 - Part A
Advanced arrangements of Traditional carols all the way up to position XII.
Fingerstyle Christmas Guitar Folio 4 - Part B
Advanced arrangements of Folk carols, crazy Bluesy arrangements, and Pop/Jazz Christmas songs.
Flatpick-style Christmas Guitar Folios
Flatpick-style Christmas Guitar Folio 1
Christmas music from Europe played in "down-home" American flatpick-style arrangements.
Flatpick-style Christmas Guitar Folio 2
Traditional American folk carols in flatpick style arrangements.
Why Choose Our Guitar Books?
Comprehensive Content
Each book covers everything from basics to advanced techniques with clear explanations and examples.
Practice Exercises
Hundreds of exercises and songs to practice, from simple chord progressions to complex solos.
Progressive Learning
Structured learning path that builds skills systematically from beginner to advanced levels.
Bonus Content
Exclusive bonus materials including video demonstrations and supplementary exercises.