Recommended
Surfing, Reading, and Listening
Web Links, Books, etc.
I just got started on this page, and
plan on adding a lot more to it. I am always interested in finding
new links to add to this page, but I would like to keep it somewhat
exclusive; I don't want this page to become so big that it outgrows
its usefulness. I intend to limit this page to links and recommendations
that are truly helpful (not just trying to sell you stuff), and that
I have had a chance to check out myself. The internet is absolutely
LOADED with guitar resources, and Google is usually a good place to
start. If you have any suggestions for websites that should be included
on this page, e-mail them to me and I'll check them out, paul@highcountryguitar.com.
Websites
(will open in new windows when you click)
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Lessons and Other Resources
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Tuck's
Corner. This is the website of Tuck Andress, a guitarist
who you should know if you don't already. His album Reckless
Precision is absolutely groundbreaking in the world of fingerstyle
guitar (you have GOT to track down his version of Stevie Wonder's
"I Wish"...absolutely incredible. He is also well known
for his work with Tuck
and Patti. "Tuck's Corner" is unbelievable--lots
of different material there, including the most in-depth analysis
of picking technique that I have ever seen anywhere, along
with some great stories from the road, philosophy, and more. |
| GuitarNotes.com
has a very cool chord
generator to help you figure out different ways to play all
kinds of chords. |
| Looknohands.com
has a great page to use as a reference for chord fingerings, which
you can find here,
and it also has some cool features for finding scale fingerings
as well in the advanced section. |
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Tabs and
Sheet Music
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The
Guitar School. The website of Icelandic (?!?) classical guitarist
Eythor Thorlaksson and his son, Sveinn Eythorsson. Loaded with
free sheet music of some really interesting classical guitar
pieces for all difficulty levels. Note--everything on this site
is in standard notation, so if you're looking for tabs, this isn't
the place to find them. |
| Flatpicking
Tablature Database. A huge collection of bluegrass tunes in
tab format for free. I'm a big advocate of learning bluegrass
songs because of their melodic focus, as well as the technique
and precision required to play them. This is a great place to
get started. |
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Jamey
Aebersold Jazz. Probably the most famous name in jazz education
materials. A huge collection of play-along books & cd's,
sheet music, and all sorts of good stuff.
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General Guitar Stuff
(Other good places
to begin guitar-related surfing trips)
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Harmony-Central.com
has been around for years and is a great all-around resource site.
Also has a lot of product reviews and user forums. The guitar
section of the site is particularly useful; you can find it here. |
| The
Bluegrass Guitar Home Page. An excellent place to start if
you want to learn about bluegrass guitar. |
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Guitar
Shred Show. This is just funny.
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Software
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Here
is a link to a free ear training program from Harmony Central.
It is a good practice tool for chord and interval recognition. |
| Band-In-A-Box.
A great (and not-too-expensive) program for both practice and
composition. I used it to create all of the midi play-alongs on
this site (and each one takes about 30 seconds to make). |
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Other Useful Links for Musicians
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Online
Gigs. A great resource for your band to use to keep track
of calendar, contracts, publicity, etc. Phix uses it!
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Books
I am frequently asked about
books that I have found helpful, and the truth of the matter
is that there are not that many that I would really recommend.
Of course, everyone learns differently so this is pretty subjective.
But I have been playing guitar for well over 20 years now,
and in that time I have built up a HUGE collection of music
books--songbooks, instructional books, method books, etc.
And guess what: 99% of them are collecting dust in a box
in my garage. It must be a thousand bucks worth of books.
Sound familiar? I should add that I have NEVER found a book
that was the "magic ingredient" for my playing.
With any book, you get out of it what you put into it. Don't
expect to read through a book once or twice and instantly
find yourself a better musician.
Here is the handful that I
actually use and recommend.
(Please note, I did not include
links for most these books because I didn't want to favor
any one retailer over another, but Jamey Aebersold Jazz (link
above) probably carries them, and you can always just Google
'em or find them on Amazon.com).
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| The
Advancing Guitarist by
Mick Goodrick.
I cannot say enough about
this book. It is one of the few books I own that I find myself
going back to regularly. It is full of all kinds of unique exercises,
concepts, and even a whole bunch of philosophy! Lots of great
ideas for new ways to look at the neck of the guitar, scales,
modes, etc. More oriented toward intermediate and advanced players,
but lots there for everyone, and not just guitarists. |
| A
Modern Method for Guitar
by William Leavitt, (from the Berklee School of Music).
This
is a fantastic book to use if you want to learn to read standard
notation, and learn your instrument inside and out. But this book
is serious--only for those who REALLY want to learn to read music.
Used to be separated into Volumes 1, 2, and 3, but now seems to
only be available in one big book that combines all three volumes.
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| The Guitar Grimoire
Series by Adam Kadmon. This is a great series
of books with a unique way of mapping out the neck of the guitar.
There are DVD's out now too, which I haven't checked out. But
the Guitar Grimoire is definitely worth the money, and
I also like his exercise book. They have their own website at:
http://www.guitargrimoire.com/ |
| The Jazz Theory
Book by Mark Levine. This is pretty much considered
the bible of jazz theory. I'd only recommend it if you are pretty
serious about wanting to learn jazz. Reading skills are practically
a prerequisite for this book, although you could probably get
some good information out of it even if you can't read. And you
would also want to have a pretty good grasp on chords, modes,
and scales before you even started with this one. |
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The National
Guitar Workshop's Jazz Guitar Method. This is
a 4-part series and is very interesting because the books are
actually not that long, about 60 pages, and pretty cheap too.
But they contain a lot of nuggets of extremely practical, useful
information. Reading skills not required, but helpful. Here
are the titles of each book in the series:
- #1: Beginning Jazz Guitar.
Covers chord construction and the modes, much of which is
already here at HCG!
- #2: Intermediate Jazz Guitar.
Takes it to the next level, covers ii-V-I progressions, and
creating solo lines.
- #3: Mastering Jazz Guitar-Chord/Melody.
Study of how harmony & melody work together, an essential
part of creating good jazz solos.
- #4: Mastering Jazz Guitar-Improvisation.
Advanced improv concepts-altered chords, melodic minor modes,
etc. Has a particularly useful concept called "tone clusters"
that I really like.
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