Posted by Benz on Sep 5, 2010
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Basic Classical Guitar Method, Book 1
Categories: Guitar | 5 comments
- Book & CD Pages: 48
- By Scott Tennant
Product Description
From Scott Tennant—the best-selling author of Pumping Nylon—this fun and friendly method starts at the very beginning, teaching the anatomy of a guitar, how to choose and maintain your instrument, proper seating position, how to hold the guitar, and efficient hand positions and techniques. The step-by-step approach continues with lessons on how to read music, right- and left-hand basics, notes on the fretboard, accidentals and the chromatic scale. Photographs, d. . . More >>
5 Responses to “Basic Classical Guitar Method, Book 1”
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My background in music was almost non-existent, and I couldn’t read music *at all* before buying this book. I bought it because I wanted to have some background before seeking out a classical guitar teacher. My goal is to be a musician and learn about music the right way, not follow some kooky guitar method and play phony versions of pop songs.
Well, this DVD is like having a teacher in the room with you. Almost everything my teacher told me in my first several guitar lessons were addressed in this book and DVD. Tennant doesn’t cover every little nuance — and that’s where a teacher comes in — but this method DOES WORK WELL for the totally rank beginner like myself. Even if you’re sitting in a room with a TV and no instructor, you can really learn to play.
This book has kept me very busy playing and practicing for three months at least, and I am not going to be through with it for a while yet. Even when I am done and on to volume 2 I’m sure I’ll still be playing pieces from this book for practice.
Best Things: Scott Tennant has a friendly style and he doesn’t oversimplify or overcomplicate things. Now that I know a little bit more about learning to play classical guitar, I can appreciate the effort put into making the exercises in this book “musical”. Even when you know only a few notes on one string, he has you playing a “first string polka” that sounds like music. Many other books or methods have fingering exercises that go on and on and are not very musical at all. There are a few exercises in this method that have you walking up and down the fretboard in a pedantic way, but these are brief and the material focuses on the “musical” pieces, which is much more fun.
Having the DVD is the best part of this tool. You cannot replace the experience of seeing/hearing/playing along with an experienced player. It teaches you timing and how your notes are “supposed” to sound. You could play all the exercises in this book with a cruddy, twangy tone to your notes and you’d never know it if you didn’t have the CD or DVD to measure against. The DVD material along with the book is about to create a revolution in music instruction for the home, I think.
Cons: On the TV it is sometimes hard to represent notes, because staff lines are so thin, on a white background. Maybe my TV stinks, and this would look better on a computer monitor. Most of the time you can tell what the note is, but it is really better to be reading from the book . . . the online music does give you a nice crutch though when playing duets with Scott.
And the binding of the book . . . why isn’t this book spiral bound? The book IS lightweight enough to put on a music stand, but man if it were spiral bound it would be sooo much easier. This is a small nit to pick, but publishers should know this by now. I usually end up photocopying pages out of books and putting them on my music stand, so maybe they figure most people just do that.
A big warning should come on the part of the DVD about re-stringing your guitar. He shows you how to make a single loop around the bridge, and I had a couple of nylon strings slip out of that knot while I was winding the string onto the key. One of these snapped out hard enough to scratch the surface of my guitar, which sucked. I then started twisting them a couple of times at the bridge so they wouldn’t slip, but I don’t know why he doesn’t address this or mention the possibility.
There really aren’t any more cons. This is a great product. Eventually you’ll need an instructor but this book really will stand in for an instructor for your first few months of playing.
Rating: 5 / 5
Learning to play any musical instrument is hard work. The guitar is no exception. Anyone planning to buy a self-instruction book should be dedicated to making the effort and willing to work past the frustration that is part of it. If, like me, you have played only keyed instruments, or never played at all, your fingers will scrabble over the fingerboard as you attempt to put the right finger at the right fret on the right string and pluck that same string with the other hand. You will make many mistakes, but if you work past that point you will find that muscle memory eventually takes over. The pieces Tennant provides are well suited to that purpose. Your job is to practice these pieces over and over and over and over until your fingers know where to go, and your ear tells you that your playing is beginning to sound like music.
Tennant is tough. He gives you a lot to learn at each lesson, and if you don’t already know how to read music, it will take you a while to get through this book. Once you’ve gone through it, go through it again, picking up what you missed the first time. Even though I am now in Book 2, I keep going over the pieces in Book 1 and my playing steadily improves.
At the end of this book you will still be a beginner, but you will have some ability to read music and some degree of comfort with the guitar. If you have worked hard you may be impressed with how far you have come and perhaps be motivated to buy Book 2.
Rating: 4 / 5
For those of us who are attempting to self-teach classical guitar, I think a DVD is invaluable at the early stages. This is when you are working on the basics of hand position, posture, sitting position etc. . . If you go wrong here, you could potentially develop bad habits which are much harder to correct later on. From this DVD, you can actually see Scott Tennant demonstrating the right way to play – which is more useful than using static photos or hand sketches you traditionally find in guitar books.
Also, it’s great to be able to play duets with the on-screen Scott (once again for those of us who don’t have a teacher or anyone else who can play duets with us).
The book itself is fun. The pieces include some memorable tunes. The difficulty level is for the most part reasonable for a beginner like me. The main problem is that the book is quite sparse. I finished all the pieces within a week, and it’s not that much fun just repeating pieces over and over again (though maybe that’s what you’re really supposed to do). And though I have Basic Classical Guitar Method 2, I actually didn’t feel proficient enough having gone through book 1 to move straight into book 2.
As a way of filling in the gap, I bought and am currently working through “Solo Guitar Playing” by Fredrick Noad, and it is a MUCH thicker book. Noad himself claims in the introduction that there is enough material here for 2 years of study! Now I like the sound of it, but it doesn’t mean that Classical Guitar for Beginners was not satisfying or useful – just that it didn’t have enough meat on the bone.
Also, the DVD version doesn’t show Scort playing every single piece in the book. In that way, the CD version is superior. It’s useful to be able to hear a piece being played right first so you know when and where you are stuffing it up.
Rating: 4 / 5
I am a full time guitar teacher and have reviewed hundreds of books. This book offers general encouragement and sage bits if advice but is a very mediocre guitar method with nothing to add to the vast array of existing methods. The CD performances are fine. This book is very minimal in its extent, however. It includes no music that is really wonderful and inspiring. There’s essentially no reason to ever choose this when many better options exist. If you don’t like snarky/jokey writing or corny caricature style illustrations, then you’d definitely want to avoid this. If you want a truly fine method for absolute beginners who are serious about guitar try Larry McDonald’s book, the “Conservatory Tutor”. If you want a decent general intro with some nice music, go for the Parkening Method or Noad’s classic First Book For Guitar. There’s lots of other decent options as well. This very short minimal book is mediocre by comparison.
Rating: 2 / 5
Being a classical musician myself and watching my dad practice with this book was really great. The dvd is very helpful and the way that the book teaches to read music is very cohesive. The only problem is that it moves kind of fast. However, I do believe this is a good book.
Rating: 4 / 5