hello - i have been using 3 books now for a bit and thought i would give some info on them. although i am nowhere near the end (or middle) i can tell that the quality of instruction seems to be top notch for each. here they are:
1. blues you can use. no surprise here, as many others have found it helpful. as i'm 99% an acoustic guy, some of the songs are not for me as they include bends of 1 full tone, which generally isn't possible for me. however, his work on the pentatonic scales and his exercises on it are great and his explanations are very good. much much better, imo, than fretboard logic, which doesn't even go into the difference between major or minor pentatonic scales (same roots, but different patterns). i started using fretboard logic but went to BYCU. just my opinion on it. now that i'm getting into electric guitar (just bought one that is great), i will be going over some of the songs.
2. berklee's modern method for guitar - volume 1 with DVD. the quality of this dvd is exceptional. if you're starting out with reading, i think it is very helpful to have the dvd (it is available cheaper without). i spend 10 minutes per day working on this book to improve my reading, and even with 10 minutes per day for about 4 to 6 weeks, i've noticed significant improvement. it is not exciting work though, and if you need constant entertainment value in a DVD or book, look elsewhere. no songs that you will recognize, which is part of the point as you are learning to sight read. still very well done.
3. chord tone soloing by barrett tagliarino. this is a little hard to recommend as i haven't gotten to the meat of the book, but i like the way that this guy writes and explains things, and how he talks about practicing. i'm still on the scales section, chapter 6, and i like his advice on exercises for this. he discusses using the metronome, and on which beat the notes should fall. i've had this book now for about a 4 to 6 weeks and it will take me a long time to go through. i read one bad review on amazon where someone said that the solo that he teaches is just two notes so this is a waste of a book. i didn't believe it and the original solo that he goes through in the example, which i'm assuming the reviewer is writing about, is only something to get you started before learning anything - it is the first 2 to 3 chapters. then he goes into the meat and potatoes of what he is teaching, and i looked later on in the book and the solos that he shows are significantly more impressive than what was in the first 2-3 chapters. again - this book will take me a long time and i'm nowhere near even the middle, so it's hard to completely endorse, but if the rest of it is like how he teaches the start, i like his style of teaching.
just thought others who might be looking for some books could use some advice. not affiliated with any of the authors/publishers, etc. i've been playing now for about 1.5 years and have taken lessons for about 1 of those years, and work on this stuff in addition to what my teacher gives me, which is mostly song based learning. these books have provided a good supplement to what he teaches.
hope this helps,
paul
