(Part 3) Reddit mentions: The best books about musical instruments

It seems to me that most people are very poor judges of what is too easy. I think most people would benefit from going much easier than they think they should. It just tends to hurt their ego and so they instead spend a ton of time on one really hard thing.

The thing is, in the same amount of time you could spend working on one really hard piece, you could've probably worked on a dozen or more simpler pieces. Those pieces might not be as individually challenging, but each probably has something that challenges you a little. And it likely exposes you to a much greater variety of challenges. More rhythms, more keys, more variety period. That is going to lead to much more lasting improvement than spending a month or more on a single piece of really hard music.

The accumulation of skill will eventually make harder music easier to learn. I always say if you can't sightread it flawlessly and effortlessly with good musicality, there is something to be learned from polishing it up. That might take a few days, or it might only take 30 minutes of practice, but it's infinitely more worth your time than throwing yourself inaccurately are very difficult music and hoping to get it right.

The thing is, it doesn't feel like you're making progress because you're making huge strides. And the better you get, the more incremental your improvement will be. It takes more and more small incremental improvement to even notice you've gotten better and at some point it's basically almost impossible to notice unless you record yourself and then look back in 6 months, or maybe read something difficult and then come back to it 6 months later to see how much easier it is. Early on you are making big leaps, but it just can't continue.


It's like an RPG

Honestly, it's a lot like an RPG. You want to gain a lot of XP, so you go fight the hardest monster possible that gives 500 XP. But your party wipes... over and over... for an hour. In that same hour you could've beaten dozens of monsters that only gave 50 XP. in that same amount of time you could've gotten 3 or 4 times as much XP if you hadn't wasted your time wiping to the really hard enemy. And now that 500 XP enemy is laughably easy because you've leveled up so much. It's just that 50 XP a pop doesn't feel as good even though it's much more efficient.

And likewise, the higher level you get in most RPGs, the longer it takes to level up. Early on you'd be leveling up every 10-30 minutes, but in the end, you're only leveling up every few hours.

Finding music

This one is going to be hard depending on your goals. It seems many people only want to play music that is very personally fun to them, but that's not always the most efficient path. It's an issue if you want to get better or if you want instant (but often frustrating) gratification. It's honestly very worth it to spend some time suffering through less fun stuff and building up the skills that will eventually let you just pick up a piece of music and quickly read it or learn it in a few days. So you have to decide if you want to play something you love right now but it takes you 1-3 months every time you want to learn something new...or if you to be able to constantly pick up music you like and learn stuff you enjoy within a week or days.

The additional benefit is that once you get to that point, you'll actually accelerate your learning because you'll be able to play so much more music that you'll just exponentially increase your exposure. It will still feel slow, but you'll actually be improving a lot more.

So if you want to actually work on improving, just find anything. Don't go looking for the perfect piece at the perfect level. Just go grab tons of stuff erring on the side of offensively simple and just learn a ton of it. I like to grab song books from used book stores to use as reading/learning material. It's very cheap and I get a ton of material. Once again, if I can't sightread it, it's probably worth practicing.

You could also get various method books and work through them. Can you read everything in all 3 levels of the Alfred adult books? You could get all sorts of graduated collections of works like this series and just work through them. You could get First Lessons in Bach. Just find, learn, and read tons of material. Err on the side of short and simple.

EDIT: I'll also add that only working on overly difficult music often leads to an increased risk of developing lots of bad habits and playing with lots of tension.

Okay so for teaching yourself music theory I believe this was the book I used https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Theory-Complete-Spiral-Bound-Book/dp/0882842250 although I can't find my copy to be %100 sure. It was super cut and dry so maybe boring but I think of music theory as like a sudoku puzzle and find it fun. Basically this should teach you basic stuff like the major and minor keys and how chords are built. Learning the fundamentals is super important to really understanding theory in a meaningful way.

Once you get the fundamentals down learning roman numeral analysis will help you understand how songs are built and why chords work the way they do. For example in Casey Jones I know that the D major chord is V/V which is called a secondary dominant which means that it is acting like a dominant V chord pulling to G so I know when soloing on it that the F# in that D major chord is super important because it is the 7th or G major and especially since F# isn't in the key of C it is a note that causes a lot of tension and is just begging to be resolved up a half-step to G. Now none of that probably made sense but its just to show why learning the roman numeral analysis of Bach and Mozart can be helpful to understanding the Grateful Dead.

Learning Roman Numeral analysis on your own maybe tricky so like I said in my other comment if you can take a music theory class as an elective at your school that would be best. If you can't though, you could just buy the textbook yourself like Clendinning/Marvin's Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis or look through this thread for suggestions https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/comments/pse4l/beginners_resources_for_the_sidebar/?st=jf744ciz&sh=fe9dd4bd .
There are a lot of videos out there such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICDPWP6HUbk&list=PLw9t0oA3fHkxx1PgYpiXrMUPXaOiwh6KU but you have to poke around YouTube to find ones that work for you.

And than for applying this stuff to guitar you'll want to learn all the notes on the guitar. To do this sight reading whatever you can get your hands on (I go to my local music store and buy flute music), classical guitar music, jazz or folk tunes, or just googling sheet music for whatever songs you want to learn and playing this music in different areas of the guitar. Even sight reading a simple melody can be hard in the 9th position if you aren't used to it. If you are having trouble learning treble clef pick up one of the Mel Bay guitar books https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bays-Modern-Guitar-Method/dp/0871663546 .
Another good way to learn the notes on the guitar is to play scales and arpeggios in all positions and than say each note out loud as you are playing it. Obviously you will first need to learn your scales and arpeggios but once you do play them on guitar or to make that work book I recommended less boring play your guitar as you go through it.

And lastly the most practical thing you are looking for is a Chord-Scale relationship book like this one https://www.amazon.com/Scale-Chord-Relationships-Knowing-Educational/dp/0634019945 I've never owned this book but it looks alright and any chord-scale theory book should help you.
Chord-Scale theory is basically like "on this chord you play this scale" and it's a terrible way to learn jazz and in general it over simplifies everything and I hate it lol buuutttt I do think it will help you with Grateful Dead stuff. It's just very surface level stuff so I'm putting it last to hopefully encourage you to still learn the more boring classical stuff, because it will pay off in the long run to learn how analyze a Mozart piece. However, if you just kinda wanna start getting into it I think a Chord-Scale Theory book will help you out the most quickly.

Also musictheory.net is a good website to check out to help with this stuff. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!

One important thing is to relax, and especially relax your fretting hand. If you've got the strings in a death claw, it's going to sound bad and you might eventually wind up with carpal tunnel.

Instead of trying to do hammer-ons right away, force yourself to go back to fundamentals. Set the metronome (you must have a metronome) to 40 beats per minute and play one finger per fret. Your fingers should fall immediately behind each fret. Whole notes, half notes, quarters, eighths triplets and 16ths...make sure you're playing in time with the clicks. Try to relax completely and use only the minimum amount of pressure it takes to sound each note without buzzing. The idea behind this exercise is to teach your muscle memory the exact amount of pressure you need to play a given note. Forcing yourself to play slow will give your muscles time to readjust in order to sound the notes accurately. Your fingers, wrists, body posture, etc. should be completely relaxed and comfortable throughout. If you start tensing up or feel pain or burning in your fingers, make yourself relax and loosen up.

Couple other popular hand exercises.

1. The Soft Touch. Play exactly as above, only leave your fingers on the frets until each finger is ready to move up to the next string. Example: you play index A on the E string, middle finger A#, ring finger B, pinkie B#, keeping each finger in fret position. Now leaving your mf, ring and pinkie down on those frets, pick up your index and move it to D on the A string. Then pick up your mf and move it to play D#, ring to E, pinkie to F and hold. Then continue up the D and G strings the same way. It might help to start higher up on the neck, like C on the E string. Throughout this exercise, the most important thing is that you relax your hand. There should be no pain, no strain, no bizarre wrist angles. Just smooth, slow, relaxed and locked in to the 40 bpm pulse.
   
   
2. The Spider. Purpose of this exercise is to learn independent control of index/ring fingers and middle/pinkie fingers. Play A on the E string with your index, then E on the A string with your ring finger. Then A# on the E with your middle, followed by F on the A string with your pinkie. Then switch up and hit B on the E string with your ring finger, followed by D on the A string with your index, then B# on the E with the pinkie and D# on the A with the middle. Alternating 1-3, 2-4 fingers the whole time. Practice that until it's comfortable (could take a few days), then play the same pattern skipping up to the D string, and finally all the way to the G string. The full spider pattern is played E string to A string, then E string to D string, then E string to G string, then back down E to D, finally back to E to A.
   
   For books, there's a big difference between a good one and a bad one. I can personally recommend Serious Electric Bass, Bass Logic, Bass Grooves, and Standing in the Shadows of Motown (this last book is less of a beginner's guide and more of a project you could spend a lifetime on: i.e. learning from the great James Jamerson). Also highly recommended is Ed Friedland's Building Walking Bass Lines. I also have and recommend The Bass Grimoire, but it is more a reference book for advanced scale and chord building, as opposed to a beginner's guide. Bass Guitar for Dummies is actually pretty good and comprehensive.
   
   And there are some good online resources as well: studybass.com is great and starts from a beginner level. Scott Devine is an amazing teacher especially with more advanced techniques, but also for fundamentals. Paul from How To Play Bass Dot Com just steps you through a bunch of popular rock & r&b tunes...not bad for picking up new songs, but it's far better to learn the theory & structure behind a song than just memorizing the finger patterns. MarloweDK is a great player with hundreds of videos, but he's highly advanced.
   
   Finally, musictheory.net has some great ear training exercises you can do any time, in addition to a wealth of info about basic theory that applies to all instruments.

I'm in a similar position as you. I've been playing guitar for about 8 years now, and I'm currently focusing more on piano than anything. I took a few private lessons at my university, and they were a ton of help. I can show you the books my instructor recommended to me.

Frankly, as long as you've got some material and some diligence, you can learn just as much. A background with guitar and music theory will also help you move along quickly! :)

The first consist of these exercises by Czerny. They're a bit redundant, but going through them to a metronome and gradually increasing speed will really help with dexterity and spacial recognition.
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Method-Beginners-Op-599/dp/0793525675/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293474093&sr=1-4

The second I began with is Easy Classics to Moderns. Simple to intermediate tunes that will help with sight reading (which I can't stress enough), fingerings, and will give you a general sense of how basic harmony works and has worked for the last few centuries on the piano.
http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Classics-Moderns-Piano-Millions/dp/0825640172/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293474402&sr=8-1

This last one, also by Czerny, is my favorite. It combines the simple exercises of the first book I mentioned, with harmony and melody from the second book. So it will help with coordination and dexterity, as well as sight reading and familiarization with common chord progressions and melody.
http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Studies-Alfred-Masterwork-Editions/dp/0739015974/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293474093&sr=1-6

Also, it's interesting to convert a few exercises back to guitar, just to break down the barriers between the two instruments. Having a better understanding of both instruments from the other's perspective is pretty enlightening.

Anyway, I'm getting off to a great start with these books. Hope I've helped you out, too! The piano is a kick-ass instrument. I'm hoping to move up the ladder quickly and learn some challenging material soon. But don't slack off with guitar too much!

Cheers, dude. :)

http://www.scottsbasslessons.com

This was one of my first books. It starts off fairly easy, but gets moving pretty quick.

This is the Tao Te Ching of bass.

This was one of the books that helped get my technique to where it is today. I'm not sure if the new version has all of the same exercises.

Always read notation. Tab becomes a crutch, and the quicker you learn notation, the more you'll use it, and the better you'll get at it. It's a skill, it's frustrating at first, but it's worth it.

This is my favourite Music Theory book.

Transcribe music. Not only learn how to play it by ear, but learn how to write it down as well. It's really hard at first, but it's probably the best thing you can do to learn to jam, interact with other players, and communicate your ideas to anyone at any level.

Want Chops?

Find a qualified bass teacher in your area. Don't go to that guy who plays guitar and teaches bass on the side and only uses tab because he's never had to read. It may not seem like it, but there are differences in technique that an experienced bass player/teacher would know that a guitar player may not. Find a teacher that pushes you every lesson and makes you want to sit in a chair for hours working on technique, transcribing, and listening.

On top of getting an instructor, scour the internet for every piece of information you can get. At first you'll get some bad advice, but you'll find that there is a lot of great information out there. Always test the boundaries of what you're being taught by anyone with the information you're absorbing for where ever you're getting it. One of the best teachers that I had said "If you're teacher tells you there's only one way to do something, it's time to find another teacher".

I'll give you more great advice from a different teacher. He was this old grizzled player that played Jazz before, and after, Jazz was cool. He said:

"There are only three things you need to do to be a successful musician. One: Show up. If you show up every time you're going to be ahead of 95% of the rest of the musicians out there. That means every lesson, every rehearsal, every gig, every time.

Two: Know your parts. If you show up every time, on time, and know what you're supposed to play, you're going to be ahead of 99% of the players out there.

Thirdly: Play your heart out. If you show up, on time, know what you're playing, and love what you're playing, no matter what it is you're playing, then you're going to be in that 1% of musicians that actually get steady gigs."

Have Fun.

You obviously know how to play a wind instrument, so that's an explanation about air that doesn't need to happen. One thing most people don't consider before jumping onto another instrument, after having played one for a while, is that they're not strictly a beginner.

The best thing you can do, is be patient with yourself. Don't over-extend to the point where you clearly know you're not benefiting yourself in practicing. I'd recommend practicing in 15-20 minutes intervals, rather than long sessions that just create lactic acid build-up in muscles, and are in turn counter-productive to development, and very often cause bad habits due to poor reactionary technique.

That said, long tones will help you figure out fingerings, and coordinate your facial muscles to do what they need to. Trumpet isn't about strength, but rather, making sure you've trained your face to play the thing without more effort than you have to put into it. Once you've got a good grasp on fingerings and facial facility, learn scales (all of them, would be nice). This will be the quickest process to making your knowledge of fingerings applicable.

I should add, by the way, that you should do the long-tones with a tuner in front of you. Pitch can get wacky, and most people try to play sharp due to their perception of where the note really is. This will train you to eliminate that issue. Marching band tends to sour anyone's sense of pitch anyway.

When you're acquainted with fingering patterns and whatnot, you might do well to invest in a good of easy-to-intermediate etudes. I'd recommend Getchell - First Book of Practical Studies for Trumpet & Cornet. I use this book with a lot of my students, and it generally carries you a long way, if you commit to playing things absolutely clearly. Pay attention to the articulation and dynamic markings very closely. They're not difficult nor vague, so this is an easy task if you can muster the concentration.

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Since you'll be doing marching band on trumpet, I omitted a few things that might've otherwise been helpful to have under your belt. For instance, every marching band does some sort of flexibility study (at least among the brass section) as a warm-up. That'll give you a good idea about slurring between partials of the harmonic series, and reinforce the knowledge of fingerings.

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If it matters for context, though...

I'm a professional trumpet player who also teaches a collection of students. I do marching band camps when in season, often perform repairs on brass instruments, and write for all sorts of pop/top 40/rock/R&B/Funk/Soul/Latin/Ska groups. While I'm mostly a freelance performer doing random gigs all the time, I do work for a major company as in-house entertainment, and have played with scores of Grammy-Winning artists. My students normally receive superiors at Solo & Ensemble, and several have gone on to great music colleges within the United States. I also cook.

One of my favorite things in the world. Don't you just love the way they wrote music? If I may, let me recommend a Beatles songbook to you (if you don't already have it). The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook.

I have been playing Beatles music for 25 years or so, and there are many inaccurate songbooks. Mostly, really. This is one of the best, simple layout, very clear, seemingly very accurate There are almost always some assorted questionable transcriptions in any Beatles book that is essentially mostly scored by ear, but this is one that seems to have the least. The layout is great for someone just wanting to sit and play the chords on a guitar because there is no sheet music for melody or piano that you don't need taking up space, just the needed chord diagrams up top, then just the lyrics with the chord names above each line.

Anyway, sorry if I've come across like a know-it-all, just sharing my love of playing the beautiful songs of our boys on my acoustic, as well as one of my favorite books to use.. and I have many!

So yeah. Happy playing! And good for you for starting and staying with it! I'm sure it's a joy. In fact, I know it is.

Speaking from experience as both a violinist and teacher, obviously the best thing to do would be to see a teacher - but I definitely understand that isn't an option for everyone financially or time-wise. That said, here's my advice:

Start from the very beginning. Essential Elements is an awesome book series to teach you the basics, especially if you're rusty on reading music. The interactive CD helps quite a lot, and you should use it.

Put finger tapes on your instrument. Here is a good instructional on how to do it. I don't recommend the violin fretboard as it's too busy; the tapes are much easier to look at while you're playing.

Buy a tuner! If finances are a concern, you can download an app to your phone/tablet, but a digital tuner is your best option. I use this one and swear by it, particularly as it also has a metronome.

Practice using a full-length mirror. Since you don't have a teacher watching you play, you'll have to take on the role yourself. Particularly watch your left wrist (is it folding in against the instrument?) and your bow arm (is your bow moving straight and is your right shoulder hunched?). It sounds crazy, but practice in the bathroom...it usually has great acoustics and a large mirror. It works!

Make playing comfortable. If you need one, use a shoulder rest - they aren't especially expensive and make a great deal of difference in holding the instrument securely and comfortably (you don't want to be pinching your shoulder upwards or angling your head downwards). The Kun is an industry standard and works well for most beginners. Also, use a stand - do NOT put your music down on your bed or on a table and hunch over to read it, as it totally ruins your playing posture and prevents you from bowing properly.

I hope this helps!

I think after three years that seems feasible if you have a pretty good teacher to help get you there. My main advice, however, is to find lots of pieces that are easier than those two for the in between period that you love just as much.

We're very lucky to play the piano because many of the world's greatest musicians have been playing and writing for our instrument for the fast few hundred years, which means there's a huge variety of material written at lots of different levels. Books like the [Masterworks Classics] (http://www.amazon.com/Masterwork-Classics-Level-Alfred-Editions/dp/0739006770/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452604892&sr=8-1&keywords=masterworks+classics) series have lots of good material at different levels and it comes with a CD so you can listen to all the pieces to decide which one you like.

Besides the "classics," there are loads of great pedagogy teachers writing music nowadays, most of which sounds very satisfying and isn't too hard. [Martha Mier] (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Rags-Blues-Elementary-Intermediate/dp/0739075284/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1452605076&sr=8-2&keywords=jazz+rags+and+blues), [Dennis Alexander] (http://www.amazon.com/Splash-Color-Contemporary-Awareness-Performance/dp/0739013165/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452604982&sr=8-1&keywords=splash+of+color+piano), [William Gillock] (http://www.amazon.com/Lyric-Preludes-Romantic-Style-Pieces/dp/0874876494/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452605098&sr=8-1&keywords=william+gillock)...

My point is, it's great that you have goals!! But listen around and try to find other pieces that you love just as much as those that you listed that you can play earlier. Alternatively, you can find [simplified versions] (http://makingmusicfun.net/pdf/sheet_music/clair-de-lune-piano.pdf) to hold you over until you get to the real deal.

Good luck!

>And here you have a method (modeled after Suzuki's view of language acquisition) that says playing a small handful of melodic pieces but those to perfection is all you need.

I think the Suzuki method may successfully reproduce the effect of going through hundreds of scales and other exercises that you'd otherwise do like in more boring books like [Whistler] (http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Positions-Violin-Third-Position/dp/1423444876/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422686450&sr=8-1&keywords=whistler+violin). But I wasn't aware that teachers use Suzuki as the only material for their students. It was the case for me that I'd have several etude books like Whistler plus a "fun" piece like Suzuki to work on concurrently. Plus I would hypothesize that the core "vocabulary", if you will, is narrower for violin playing than for languages. In other words, you only have to have mastered a relatively small set of variations on the scales, shifting and double-stop exercises before you are able to apply it freely in other pieces. It's like that typing example I mentioned. I only needed to practice for two or three weeks before I was typing completely fluently in a Dvorak layout and in Korean. Compare this with my Latin, where I can drill myself on the endings to the verb "eō" until the cows come home and still stumble when I see something like "inībat".

> We seem to have quite different approaches to language.

After reading the rest of what you wrote, I don't think so, or at least not to the extent that you think. I completely agree with your next statement regarding viewing core language fluency as chunks of words or phrases of varying lengths. Of course scanning language and analyzing syntax at the microscopic level is highly inefficient. I only recommended this as a way to learn the fundamentals before moving on to the 'chunking' phase. But it seems to me that it is still more a matter of chunking grammatical forms than individual words or phrases. Caesar does have a set of very frequently used words but I don't think to the extent that you can call them stock phrases. When I see something like that passage you quoted, for me there is a two part process going on. Just as you do, I instinctively group them together. His, litteris and nuntiis share ablative-like endings so they must convey a "by/for/with" kind of meaning (of course I'm not translating into English as I do this, I'm just trying my best to describe to you in detail the mechanics that happen behind the scenes, i.e. subconsciously, when I read a sentence). Then I interpret the meanings, which is not hard because I know by the stems that they must refer to litterae and nuntium, so there's hardly any difficulty here. Then I see "commotus Caesar" and think this must be the subject and instinctively pair this with the ablative phrase. And so on... But I think this example more demonstrates the repetitive occurrence of form, not individual words & phrases. It could easily be something like "illis servis permotus dux..." or "his legatis, qui in gallia erant, Marcus certior factus..." (k, I'm sure that's not good Latin but I'm trying to make a point). I'm in no way trying to parse them individually. This may be what is happening behind the scenes but I'm not formalizing them into technical terms by saying "ok this is ablative, singular, feminine". The meaning just dawns on me organically. But even if Caesar can be read fluently by having mastered a set of individual stock words and phrases, I think this goes against what our friend here was after, which was about the production abilities in language.

I make enough from guitar building and repair to be able to fund it as a hobby in itself. You're looking at a significant initial investment in tools, workspace, and marketing in a market that's pretty saturated with factory guitars and independent builders. I hope someday to build up a customer base large enough to make this a career, but until then I enjoy it as a hobby and an art that pays for itself. As an art, I'd suggest picking up a couple of books:

Guitar making tradition and technology and Make your own electric guitar.

Both of these will give you a great background on how to build an instrument. The links in the sidebar will be very helpful to you as well.

One thing that has been helpful to me is engaging in your local music community. I live in an area of the US with lots of churches and worship pastors that need their guitars worked on. I work on their guitars and every now and then do builds for them that meet the needs they're looking for. I don't know what your community looks like, but engaging with musicians where they're at and building up a report is the beginning to a self-sustaining hobby and hopefully will carry you to a business.

Best of luck to you!

You're not going to get a lot of people in r/classicalGuitar that are going to answer this without some kind of recommendation that you just improve your regular score reading skills instead. Tab can be a great tool at times, but more often it seems to be used as crutch.

My advice is to start sight reading as much as you can whenever you find tab-free scores because it is skill that you can only develop with dedicated and focused practice. Whenever you go to the effort to transcribe a score to Tab, you are still leaning on a crutch because when you start playing, you aren't using the music, you're using your Tab instead and not actually getting any score reading practice in. In your mind, you are probably translating your scores to Tab instead of actually reading the score. Tab and score notation are similar in that respect. In fact, I suspect that if you just force yourself to give up tab you'll see an amazing and very rapid increase in your ability to process standard scores.

Here is a personal example: When I read Spanish I am not actually reading Spanish... I'm translating it into something I am familiar with. I still have to learn to transform my thought process into Spanish before I am truly reading Spanish. Once I stop communicating by saying buenos noches to mean "good afternoon/night" and I just start saying buenos noches when I mean "buenos noches", I am actually speaking Spanish. Until then, I am just translating words. That won't change until I immerse myself in Spanish without clinging to English as my crutch. The same thing applies to changing from Tab notation to score notation.

http://www.amazon.com/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769209742/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333574358&sr=8-1

I have this book and it is great practice in sight reading and you may want to check it out. It is nothing more than a bunch of short sight reading exercises. Teach yourself one or two of them a day without transcribing them to tab first and I am absolutely confident that your reading skills will improve noticeably.

If you are really insistent on using Tab though, classtab.org is decent.

This book has some decent stuff in it as well: http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Spanish-Guitar-Solos-Book/dp/1603780599/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333575720&sr=1-1

If you can spare the money I most definitely recommend finding a teacher. You will want to start with rudiments (they can be boring, but you'll be glad you did them in the long haul) and while you can pick them up from books, having a teacher giving feedback helps a lot. You don't have to stay with a teacher on the long-term, if you make it clear that you just want a solid base most teachers know what you mean and want.

If you don't have that money, these are three books I highly recommend to anybody who wants to play any percussion instrument:

http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764040/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

Description: This book is full of rudiments. Like ctrocks said: This book is evil. You will most likely both grow to hate and love it. Hate it for both how boring rudiments can get (to me, at least) and how hard they get. But love it for the results and seeing how all those rudiments advance your playing immensely. I suggest picking this up as soon as possible.



http://www.amazon.com/Accents-Rebounds-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764067/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343162586&sr=8-1&keywords=Accents+and+Rebounds

Description: The 'sequel' to Stick Control. This book adds accents and even more difficult rhythms. I would suggest picking this up at an intermediate level.

http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Steps-Syncopation-Modern-Drummer/dp/0882847953/ref=cm_lmf_tit_5

Description: Don't let this book fool you. It all starts out really simple. But this is one of those books that really lays down a foundation you will be very grateful for. And when you're getting to a more advanced level, you will see how you can translate a lot of these syncopated rhythms to the entire drumkit. I suggest picking this up as soon as possible.


http://www.amazon.com/4-Way-Coordination-Development-Complete-Independence/dp/0769233708/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c

Description: This book is very well named. You will want to grab this book after you got the basics down, imo. You want to work on the independence of your limbs as soon as possible, but not too soon. Yet again: rudiments. But now rudiments that require all limbs.


http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Techniques-For-Modern-Drummer/dp/0757995403

Description: We're starting to get into the bigger leagues with this book. I honestly don't quite know how to describe this book except for the word: challenging. Challenging in a very, very good way. I recommend picking this up once you're starting to get into a more advanced stage.


These books are for the basics, imo and in the opinion of many fellow drummers as far as I know. But don't forget: the books are merely tools. You don't want to be only playing rudiments, you'll go crazy. I tended to go for a trade: every half out of rudiments rewards me with a half our of putting on tracks and rocking out. Resulting in one-hour sessions a day. Hope this helps!

Edit: Feeling bored so added more books and descriptions.

The first thing you need to get for him is the 1st Getchell book. Link below. I don't know how to make hyperlinks all nice and fancy. So sorry for the big long link. This is a great book for beginners. He will spend a long time on each of them, but it is well worth it..and will help him start reading music. Don't let him write in fingerings!!! But to answer your question about buzzing, lets say he is working on the first etude in the Getchell book. He would sing the first 4 bars, then try his hardest to buzz it. Then sing it again, then play it. That should be the method for EVERYTHING he does on the horn. I'm working on my DMA in trumpet performance and I still do this with absolutely everything I play. Also, Smart music has some wonderful play along things (with piano/band/orchestra) that are super easy and fun for kids to get into. BTW, lots of people, including myself, give skype lessons all the time. With beginners, one or two lessons really go a long way. When it comes down to it, the kid has got to figure it out on their own, but with little nudges in the right direction, they will be well on their way.


(http://www.amazon.com/First-Book-Practical-Studies-Trumpet/dp/0769219578/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409615395&sr=8-1&keywords=getchell+trumpet)

I have no teaching advice to give since I'm still a relative beginner myself, but as an adult learner perhaps I can give some advice from the student's perspective.

My first lessons (after my teacher showed me how to hold the instrument, do pizzicato, bow from the elbow, etc.) were taught using the Essential Elements book. I thought it did a decent job as a first step to learning intonation. We also did the Twinkle Theme and variations from Suzuki Book 1, because of course every beginner has to learn Twinkle Twinkle Litte Star lol. Honestly I don't remember much after that, because she wasn't a very good teacher. The one thing I do remember clearly, and am thankful to her for, is that she taught me to do scales with normal (separate) bows, slurred bows, and in sequential thirds. Sequential thirds in particular have proven to be really good finger exercises for me, and I was surprised when I looked through the ABRSM scale book that it's not part of their repertoire. (If anyone doesn't know what sequential thirds are, look at measures 19 - 26 of this score.)

My second (and current) teacher instructs me using the Suzuki Books(see note below), with lessons modified for me since I'm an adult (the Suzuki Method is meant for children). I've been very happy with this teacher and the Suzuki Books - they contain good tunes and the progression can be quite demanding, which is good if you're up to the challenge. Being an adult beginner, one of my biggest issues was/is stiff fingers, so I remember having a lot of trouble when I was first introduced to G Major, with that low 2nd finger C (when I played the low 2nd finger it would also pull my 3rd and 4th fingers flat). So be prepared for that, and other similar issues. My teacher is really good at both pushing me to improve, but at the same time being very laid back and always making a point to instruct me to relax and not beat myself up - which is important because as we all know, learning violin can be very frustrating.

• Note: Just buy the paperback version of the Suzuki books. No need to pay extra for the version with the CD, since you can find all the Suzuki pieces on YouTube. Check this thread I made here a while back for the relevant links.
  
  I hope that helped a little. I'll edit my post if I think of anything else that might be useful to you.

A couple of good books that I have are the Maran Guitar book and Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method: Grade 1. The first book shows you the absolute basics of playing the guitar along with choosing a guitar, taking care of a guitar. sitting properly with a guitar, tuning different guitars, stringing different guitars, and stuff like that. Of course, this is in addition to a standard lesson plan and chapters for specific styles like rock, jazz or blues.


The second book is great when you're already familiar with what it means to be comfortable holding a guitar and playing a few notes correctly. If you want to learn how to play for real and read music, this book is great. It's very straightforward and has nice pictures for reference.

Also, use this online metronome when you practice. Set the beats-per-minute to something really low and try to play in-time with the sheet music. When you are able to play the piece at this low tempo 100% without any mistakes, move up a few BPM and do it again.

Eventually you'll be able to play the song perfectly at the song's real tempo better than you ever could just starting to play at its standard tempo. Trust me. This is the best way to learn songs and avoid really bad guitar-playing habits.

Take it slow. Speed and skill come with time, sometimes seemingly without reason.

One thing I tried doing was learning every chord in every position and every inversion. I'm not done writing them up, but I have charts for dominant, major, minor, and half-diminished chords I could scan for you. I also have the arpeggios to be played over the chords.

Another thing is to learn are your scale modes. I'll pick either 4 modes in 1 position or 1 mode in 4 positions and practice each scale for 5 minutes.

You could improve your sight reading with this. It's not meant to be studied, but to be opened up to a random page and played.

I'm also a fan of speed and dexterity exercises. You don't have to shred, but sometimes you need to get from point A to point B in a hurry. After playing these for a while, you'll also feel less fatigue. My favorite books for this are John Petrucci's Wild Stringdom and Frank Gambale's Technique Books

Also, if you really get into jazz, I highly recommend The Jazz Theory Book. It will help with your improvisation and teach you how songs are structured, which will help you with other genres. A more classic theory book that's good is The Complete Musician.

After you get technique stuff down, it all comes down to where you want to be as a player. What do you want to play? Do you want to write? Do you want to do covers? Maybe you want to teach.

Sorry this was so long. I love teaching music myself, so if you want to learn anything specific, PM me and I should be able to help you out and send you some materials.

With jazz one of the most important things is to have a very developed understanding of theory, I played in my college's jazz band this year and a lot of the time I was expected to go off a chord chart. Adam Neely does a good video of quickly breaking down some of the important aspects when approaching chords and Scott Devine has a good video on phrasing. Both of them have really good videos on the subject and I'd definitely recommend referring to their content.

Two good books that I've used are Ed Friedland's Jazz Bass and Joel Di Bartolo's Serious Electric Bass, the former covers a lot of standard concepts and while it doesn't really go into too much depth all the information is well presented and useful. The latter goes over a lot of scales, arpeggio patterns for certain chords and scales and it even gives you blank staff to come up with your own ideas.

Honestly though I think your best bet is to go listen to some jazz players, I would recommend Ron Carter and Paul Chambers and then learn their bass parts (preferably by ear) and analyze what they're doing in certain situations and what they're doing over certain chords. There's a lot of freedom and personal style in jazz and it's not something that can be easily taught by reading and watching videos X and Y, at least in my opinion. Don't take that as don't use videos or books just don't feel you have to abide by a certain technique or approach that is mentioned.

First what you want to do is probably get a decent book of beginner songs and just work your way through them.

The piano literature series is popular, but I personally have not used them. I know volume 2 has a bunch of popular songs like Sonatina that everyone plays.

Burgmuller is also very popular among intermediate beginners.

You probably also want to get Hanon because everyone uses it for warm ups no matter what level, and it has all the scales.

And you might want Czerny, which are really short decent sounding pieces that people use for warmups.

These few books will get you started. Just start working through the books. Work on something from all three or four books.

Just a note. You'll probably be very enthusiastic in the beginning and get really bored before you reach your third month. You need to persist if you want to get good. I personally did not enjoy playing piano until I got pretty good and was able to play the more virtuoso piano pieces.

I'd recommend Jazz Guitar: Complete Edition by Jody Fisher. It covers all the important topics in a fairly straightforward way and comes with a CD of examples and backing tracks. It's aimed at intermediate guitarists, but your experience should be sufficient.

The old standard was Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar, but I'm not a huge fan. The learning curve is extremely steep and there's not a great deal of theory or explanation. It'd be a really useful companion to lessons with a teacher, but I think that most beginners would really struggle with it.

A good alternative to the Jody Fisher book is A Modern Method For Guitar by William Leavitt. The learning curve is fairly gradual, but it's tough going - everything is written in standard notation and there's no real instruction as such. It seems to be inspired by the Suzuki method. Everything is taught through progressively more demanding examples. You probably won't get stuck on anything, but you will need to do a bit of thinking to figure stuff out for yourself.

If you want to learn jazz theory in depth, I'd strongly recommend Jazzology by Rawlins and Bahha. It's the clearest, most elegant explanation of how everything fits together in jazz. It's not specifically written for guitar, but the theory is universal. The Jody Fisher book covers all the theory that you really need to know, but Jazzology would be a really good supplement if you like to understand things in detail.

In your jazz guitar journey, you'll probably come across The Real Book. It's an essential reference text, containing lead sheets for hundreds of the most popular jazz tunes. It's how most of us learned our repertoire and most of us still have a copy in our gig bag pocket. Today, you have a huge advantage in learning tunes because of the fabulous iReal Pro. It's an app version of The Real Book, but it can also play backing tracks for any tune in any key and at any tempo. It's an absolute boon when you're learning to play solos.

Finally, I'd suggest just listening to a whole bunch of jazz, not just jazz guitar. You should know Joe Pass, Ted Greene and Wes Montgomery, but you should also know Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie.

This is such an important (and IMO urgent) question for so many.

Sadly, the vast majority of guitar instructional material is either a) written for the unserious learner or b) written to not scare away the up-until-now-unserious learner.

That's why you see so many books and blogs on understanding theory (or playing jazz) that are full of TABs––in order to get the now-serious student to buy the book (or sign up for the course, etc) you first have to reassure them that everything is tabbed out and they won't have to read music, as if TAB and theory weren't at odds with each other.

Kudos to /u/igotthejack for this:

> While doing this focus on the note names while you play so by the time you're done you've also memorised all the notes on the fretboard.

And Ben Levin's youtube series is one of the few instructional pieces that doesn't make me want to stab myself in the face with one of the many pointy ends on a shredder's guitar.

Other quality standouts include:

First, Learn To Practice by Tom Heany

Music Reading For Guitar By David Oakes

Modern Method For Guitar Vols 1, 2, & 3 by William Leavitt

The Real Easy Ear Training Book by Roberta Radley


But there's good news in this too:

Because the vast majority of talented guitarists are so busy chasing their tails trying to figure out how to sweep pick faster or two-handed tap in the LandoCalrissian mode, even reasonably talented players with mediocre reading skills and a halfway decent knowledge of practical music theory get hired to play really great gigs.

That's my experience anyway. And getting hired for those gigs put me in contact with so many world-class players, which a) did as much as anything else to make me a "real" player, and b) helped me realize how so many of the things in the guitar-teacher-circle-jerk-echo-chamber are unimportant.

I think if you can get your practicing organized, fall in love with the metronome, record yourself (and listen back) often, and train your ear, you will be one badass player in a reasonably short time.

And if you learn the instrument in a way that lets you communicate with other non-guitarist musicians, you set yourself up to get actual paying work (and music theory gets waaaaaay easier).

My suggested order is:

1. Names of notes (to the point you prefer them to TAB coordinates: that's not the 8th fret of the 3rd string, it's Eb)
   
2. What notes go together in keys (ie know the Circle of Fifths so well you're never in doubt as to whether it should be called D# or Eb)
   
3. Understand how chords are built (so you're unfazed by something like | Fm7b5 Bb7b9 | Ebm9 | even if you've never played it before).
   
4. Understand how chords get built into progressions. (so when you glance that last example, you immediately think "oh, ii-V-i. Eb harmonic minor.)
   
5. Rhythmic notation (I'd say at least 80% of the guitar charts put in front of me on a paying gig are chords with rhythmic hits and no further melodic notation to read.)
   
6. Chart reading (knowing what "DS al Coda" and "second system" and "tag" and "ritard" mean, and what musician slang like "football" and "trashcan" and "railroad tracks" and "split the difference" mean.)
   
   Shameless plug, but I built a system that teaches these in a tiny daily lesson delivered by email. 1-4 are done, 5 & 6 are on their way soon. Free for now, just sign up for the first one (Note Names) and it'll walk you through all 6 in order (I'll be done with 5 & 6 by the time you finish 4).
   
   After that, read through the David Oakes & William Leavitt books mentioned above and you'll be 80% of the way to professional musicianship. A dedicated student (who already has a fair amount of technical proficiency) could pull that off in 6 months.
   
   TL:DR - The fact that you are even asking a question like this leads me to believe that you'll do just fine. Good luck!
   

I don't want to make any enemies here, so don't take this the wrong way CactaurJack, but please don't buy an Ibanez. They are never worth shit resale, they are ugly as sin and I've never liked any that I played.

I would recommend a Mexican Strat. They will be in your price range and you will always be able to resell easily for about $250-$275.

They will sometimes not be set up real well, but that is when you take the time and learn how to do basic setups on your guitar. You can find out a ton of great stuff from books like this, that, or Dan Erlewine's....or sites like Project Guitar and/or Fret Not.

I would say check out some guitars in the used section on guitar center's website...you can find pretty good deals on there. Check your local store, and last resort check local pawn shops, they'll sometimes have something for a good price, but most of the time are fucking jip joints, so be careful.

Used is good because it comes with built in mojo. Give this a shot as well as maybe just using the above resources to re-setup your squire...that may be all it needs and you'll be good to go.

I'm currently building my first acoustic guitar, I didn't know anything about woodworking before starting, so I don't have a lot of experience but here are my thoughts:

I don't think you need a drum sander, at least not yet. You can do a nice job using a well sharpened plane, a caliper and a methodical approach. Invest in a good quality #4 or #5 plane, they're expensive but worth it and learn how to sharpen it, seriously your job will be a lot easier if you know how to sharpen your tools. In fact, i'd even consider taking a class.

As for power tools, the only one you absolutely need is a router / laminate trimmer, no way you can route binding channels without one, and it'll be great for working on the rosette and the truss rod slot.

I used a DIY bending iron powered by a light bulb, cost me about $40 and an afternoon to build one, it did a decent job, except that I wish it had a different shape with different radii, also it can be a bit tricky to set it to the right temperature, maybe it'd be easier using a torch but i'm not sure. If you can afford it could be a good idea to buy one, it seems to be the kind of tool that last a lifetime.

The advice about getting new tools when you need them is a sound one, otherwise you risk buying stuff you don't really need. At the beginning you just need a plane, a couple of chisels, a backsaw, measuring tools (caliper, straight edge...) and clamps.

Buy Cumpiano's book, read it and check luthiers blogs, forums and videos they're a great source of information. A blog that really helped me is that one he even has a [list] (http://acousticguitarbuild.blogspot.fr/2009/01/essential-tools-and-materials-to-get.html) of basic tools you need, check it out.

Ah man, I wanna go to Burning Man soooo badly...

Hm. Looks like you like books, and I always think that books make the best gifts, so...What about [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Vonnegut-volumes-Rosewater-Welcome-Slaughterhouse/dp/B000BVFV48/ref=sr_1_18?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373428804&sr=1-18&keywords=kurt+vonnegut+collection) It has some of my favorite Vonnegut, although no Breakfast of Champions. Not sure if it's actually cheaper to get the boxed set, but it's an easy way to show all of them at once ;)
Or how about some lighter fare. Terry Pratchett is funny and easy to get into from any book in the series.
Or, I know that people sit around and sing songs sometimes...and that's my favorite part of any get-together! As lots of people know the Beatles, what about this great songbook? It's one of my favorites, and it's got all the chords and lyrics to tons of songs, many that people forget about but still like! (You'll need a good camp guitar to go with it...)(now I'm just thinking of things I brought on my recent camping trip...I just got back so it's fresh in my mind...)

You need a target or goal or an end point. I was in a similar funk as you. I needed to figure out WHAT I wanted to work on and be better at. I was stuck making 30 second funk covers for Instagram but not really making any progress. You can play scales all day but if you're not learning them to play over chords then what's the point?

I've found what works best for me is to get a book. For instance say you wanted to work on improvising and writing better lines, then pick up something like this book and just read it cover to cover. You're now making progress towards a single goal.

You mention not being able to play those fast Geddy licks. Is that the goal? Then start trying to learn some Rush songs. Start slow. Get an app to slow down the song so you can hear it, and work on your speed.

Your timing feeling off? Get a syncopation book.

I've been slacking on this skill, but I can tell you what my ideal method would be for this skill. Note that aural skills were the bane of my existence as an undergraduate, and my current struggles have probably kept me from full funding at the graduate level, which is why I've been woodshedding (I'll show them! I'll show them all!)

• Buy "A New Approach to Sight Singing, 4th Ed." (because the newest editions are too expensive) http://www.amazon.com/New-Approach-Sight-Singing-Fourth/dp/B000L3K71I. Why? Because the interval of a 4th (do --> fa, re --> so, mi --> la, so --> do, la --> re, ti --> mi) feels different in each of those contexts, relative to whatever is your tonic note. For that matter, so do all other intervals. At any rate, sing through Part I of each chapter, and then Part II of each chapter, etc. Expect this to take a long time. Expect to be frustrated when the keys go outside of a comfortable range (e.g. a major 2nd which is easy in G major is incredibly difficult in the key of B, a major 3rd above)
  
  
• Buy "371 Harmonized Chorales and 69 Chorale Melodies with Figured Bass" by J.S. Bach (http://www.amazon.com/Harmonized-Chorales-Chorale-Melodies-Figured/dp/0793525748), and play three voices while singing the other. This will also take forever. Use sol-fege
  
  
• Buy MacGAMUT (http://www.macgamut.com/) MacGAMUT looks really, really outdated. But it isn't--if you use Windows you'll need to get a Virtual MIDI Synth and some SoundFonts, because the way it sound out-of-the-box will probably hurt more than help. But where MacGAMUT succeeds is in it's refusal to coddle you as a musician. Either you know it or you don't. Expect to spend dozens of hours using the program. The most vital exercises are going to Melodic Dictation and Harmonic Dictation. They are both difficult and will require you to use staff paper. But they work.
  
  
• If you are fortunate enough to be studying music at the Undergraduate level or beyond, look for "error detection" methods in your music library. If you are not fortunate enough to be studying music but you have money, you can buy something like "Error Detection: Exercises for the Instrumental Conductor" for around $200. (http://www.jwpepper.com/10087652.item#.Vy0lh76b2CM)
  
  
• Realize that ear training is different for everybody. Some people just have great aural skills, and they will treat you like dirt because they'll wonder "why can't you hear that?" Others believe that aural skills are like athletic abilities and thus cannot be trained to a consistent standard. I disagree. I do think that ear training requires devotion and it is time-consuming, and the payout is not the same now when everything is on youtube than it was in the 17th-19th centuries when you had to be able to relay information accurately to other musicians. Consider that most of the educated populace had better skills with the visual arts before the age of photography and you have a striking parallel to music before the age of recordings.

Basso Continuo (Figured Bass)-You do not need to learn how to read it fluently or anything, but it is the building block of the composers of that time. This is especially prevalent in the Baroque period. Study it, play it, listen for it. This helps to truly understand and write good cadences and tropes of that time.

Bach - Bach is king when it comes to tonal harmony and modulation.
Study his Harmonized Chorales and learn how he constructs his harmonic phrasing and cadences.

Counterpoint - I used this book by Kent Kennan. Learn the basics of good voice leading. This is a huge subject and requires study and practice, but it is crucial to replicating the music. This will help you develop the tools needed to construct the forms and sounds of that time.

This is a good starting place. Keep in mind people spend entire lifetimes learning this stuff. God speed.

Your uncle is right. The older one is, the harder it is to pick up something as technical as the violin. However, because you have experience as a musician, I don't think it's out of the question that you could reach a basic proficiency, at the very the least.


With that aside, I would definitely check out the videos from Violin Masterclass, Todd Ehle, and the great virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin. In terms of method books, check out the Learning the Positions series, the Tune a Day series, and also the Sevcik and Schradieck scale books. Violinist.com is also a great place to ask around. I'm going off the top of my head here, so perhaps other people can chip in as well, since I know I'm missing a bunch.


Anyway, you need go into this like a sponge; listen to everything your uncle suggests. Watch videos and listen to recordings of the great performers, such as Perlman, Oistrakh, Menuhin, Heifetz, Zukerman, Hahn, Mutter, Bell, Shaham, etc. (i could go on and on about this one, haha) and see what you can learn from them. Attention to detail is a must! Most of all, be patient! I have been a violinist for the majority of my life, and yet I am still constantly learning new things from my teacher and other violinists.


I hope this helps, and best of luck to you as you learn this wonderful instrument!

If you already have a guitar you love, and you already have a versatile amp that can hook up to your computer as an interface, you're in pretty good shape.

Here are some of the best things you can own to improve your playing, if you don't already have them:

• Metronome
  
  
• Tuner pedal
  
  
• Looper pedal (TC Electronic Ditto or Ditto X2 are popular choices)
  
  
• Sight-reading books like this one or this one
  
  
• Music theory books like this one or this one
  
  If you only have 1 or 2 pedals you don't need a pedalboard.
  
  If you are interested in pedals but don't know what you want, a multi-effect unit is a great choice.
  
  If you're looking for an all-in-one effect unit & guitar trainer, this is a good choice. It has a built-in tuner, metronome (rare on pedals or multi-FX units), pre-programmed rhythm patterns for jamming, an aux-input for playing along to MP3s, a whole bunch of effects that you can use like a standard effects pedal, and a bunch of other stuff.

I'm currently working my way through a method book called Ukulele Acrobatics: For All Levels From Beginner to Advanced

I'm currently working on week 6. As someone who's been classically trained in music (9 years on the clarinet, 2 years on the cello), I found this book as an excellent resource in learning how to play the ukulele using traditional music theory and methods.

This particular method book breaks the exercises up by days and weeks, which allows you to take your time in digesting each exercise. I especially enjoy how the author breaks down music theory, particularly establishing how to properly strum rhythm, scales, arpeggios, harmonics, etc.

I also recommend using a metronome and tapping your foot to the beat as you practice. This will help you keep a nice and steady rhythm which is so important in playing music as you could imagine.

I can see how this method book can be frustrating for those who have never studied music theory, especially for those who primarily rely on tabs and chords. But if you're truly serious about learning to play ukulele using sheet music, it is vital to have an understanding of music theory and how to properly apply techniques and this book addresses those concerns. You just need to be patient with yourself and take the time to really practice with a metronome.

Good luck!

I haven't been playing much longer than you and there's no way I'd play in public, but here's what I have:
For jumps, it can be frustrating but I don't think there's any real trick other than to practice until the muscle memory gets you there. Like any difficult passage, you want to practice that particular part in a loop sometimes, rather than playing the whole song which is less efficient. Consistency comes pretty gradually but it does get easier. Also, I find that after a while, I know immediately what I did wrong and can recover more easily, so maybe it's not too noticeable.

I'm not sure how you manage to look at what you're doing on the left side; are you using a mirror? In any case, that's no good, you want to get used to navigating by feel. It helps if the buttons feel different. If your accordion only has an indentation on C, maybe mark the A-flat and E somehow so they feel different? (See chart at [1].)

For exercises, "Melodic Adventures in Bassland" [2] is fun and helps quite a bit for sight-reading bass notes and for remembering where the buttons are and their relationships to each other. There are also a lot of exercises in "The Mighty Accordion" [3] but I found them too boring to use much since they're not really songs. It has fingering and exercises for advanced chord combinations, though, so it might help later.

[1] https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Accordion/Left_hand

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Palmer-Hughes-Accordion-Melodic-Adventures-Bass-Land/dp/0739021729/

[3] https://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Accordion-David-DiGiuseppe/dp/0786688394/

I have played for over 40 years... I am learning to sight read right now... I wish I would have started there... imagine if you could only get stories by having someone else read them for you... it really helps become an 'adult' in music... some of the things I found helpful are :

• Play any RHYTHM easily - perfect your timing and sight reading!
  
• Syncopation made easy! Interactive RHYTHM training.
  
• Music Reading for Guitar (It has taken me 2 months to get thru the first 25 pages... I keep going over them again and again because I REALLY want to master this)
  
  I play a dirt cheap guitar and amp (squire tele I spent a week working on the frets and a blackstar 1 watt combo... love this setup)
  
  I put my effort not in what gear I should have, but in how to be the best player I can be.
  
  I would have learned my scales AFTER learning to sight read. I would have learned at least 10 songs like the back of my hand before I ever learned a single scale. I would have taken Mel Bay a lot more seriously.

This was a lifesaver for me. I taught guitar for many years and recommended this to all my students wanting to learn to read. It breaks it down very well and covers just about everything you'll need. Teaches chord chart as well as teaching you to read notes in open, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 12th position. Simple enough to go through it by yourself, but I'd recommend having someone else go through it with you. Even if you didn't necessarily get a guitar tutor, you could have a friend or family member with a good knowledge in theory (even if they play a different instrument) just check in with you every now and then to make sure you're on the right track. Anyway, that's my 2 cents :)

How about spending some time working through a book?

• Stick Control is great for getting your hands to do what you want, but might be a bit boring as /u/virusv2 said.
  
• A Funky Primer is pretty good overview of rock patterns, and will get you comfortable with basic independence of your limbs.
  
  I have been working through both and am enjoying them! Another thing that has really helped me is transcribing drum parts and learning to play them that way. I did this with a Tool song and it was unbelievably illuminating. Really makes you think about what the drummer is doing.
  
  PS: Nice username :P
  

I'm an adult learner and I started with Suzuki. I actually like it. I also use Whistler's Introducing the Positions Vol. 1 and my preferred scale book is The Complete Scale Compendium for Violin by Larry Clark although I also have Galamian's Contemporary Violin Technique. I like Larry Clark's because it's good for beginners and very thorough. Galamian's and Carl Flesch's Scale System are good if you're really familiar with scales and need something more advanced.

YouTube has a lot of excellent videos. I prefer Eddy Chen if I'm stuck with something really particular. His advice helped me to really develop a practice routine that helped me stay focused and actually accomplish something. If you do Suzuki, there are some instructors who do play along videos (some even do slower tempo versions) of the etudes which I find helpful.

The most challenging thing for me to learn I think was always sight reading. However, my guitar teacher showed me a good methodology for this, basically he split it up into the different skills you needed to sight read. One skill was reading the rhythms, which was covered by http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Reading-Text-All-Instruments/dp/0769233775 this book, Modern Reading text in 4/4 time. Which is basically a book full to the brim with rhythms. The idea is then that you tap your feet in 4/4 time on the floor and clap and vocalise what ever rhythms are written down. I used to do this for hours, and the rhythms contained in that book went from simple to just insane.

Actual note reading was covered by reading studies for guitar...

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013351/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311235782&sr=1-3

and advanced reading studies for guitar

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013351/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311235782&sr=1-3

The methodology for learning was to start ridiculously slowly, with a click at about 30bpm, and to do one note per click. This may seem insanely slow, but it helps you to become relaxed about sight reading, and also trains you to read ahead because you get bored.

This was part of the sight reading task, then after a while of doing this we moved onto sight reading notation from tunes from real books. I learned a few tips from doing this, I'll list the ones I can remember here.

1. When you first see a piece of music, scan it and find out the information listed here.
   2.Work out the structure for the piece, AABA ABAB etc, this will help you to minimize the amount of other analysis you need to do.
   
2. Check out the key signature, and time signature.
   
3. Look for the lowest and highest notes in the tune, this will help you to start off in a comfortable playing position, so you can do the whole tune without worrying about changing position, or knowing when you have to.
   
4. Look out for any accidental notes, if you know them before hand, they are less likely to throw you off.
   
5. Scan the rhythm and quickly hum the rhythm of the tune to yourself, this will also give you chance to scan through the notes once before you actually play the tune.
   
   If you follow these tips, then sight reading will eventually become easy for you, but it takes quite a lot of work to achieve this.

I picked up the accordion relatively easily having played classical piano as a kid/teen. I would definitely recommend trying it if you have an accordion available and you're interested, It's such a fun instrument! I bought this book after someone recommended it on here. It's great for pianists cause it focuses on the left hand and doesn't waste time going over beginner music theory.

Real books are great. When you feel comfortable find a jazz jam in town, playing with people will help.

Here’s a book I enjoyed:

Building Walking Bass Lines

You should also get this book:



The Improvisers Bass Method Book

The improvisers bass method book is an industry standard. The beginning may be things you already know, but it does a great job providing you with practice techniques that will actually help translate knowledge to playing. I’d highly recommend both in addition to going through the real book. Outside of that just listen to some jazz. A lot of the key is listening. Go put on some Bill Evans or Miles or Mingus and listen to their bassists

i'll be honest, i've played guitar for nearly 10 years now and have read music for 7-8 of those years. for the most part, being able to read music is a great skill to have, but it won't automatically turn you into a completely new player.

if you feel that you're stuck in a rut and want to try something new, listen to new music, and transcribe from different guitarists or even other instrumentalists. whenever i feel stuck, i usually give the guitar a rest and pursue my other interests. when i get back to it, i feel refreshed and even the old things feel new.

if you still want to stick to reading, i recommend you check out this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Reading-Guitar-Complete-Method/dp/0793581885/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452241138&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+read+music+guitar

i've used it multiple times and it has helped me out. on top of that, get yourself a real book and start trying to play tunes that are at your level. in the beginning, you should try and only play tunes that have whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes. you will be able to learn to read proficiently, but it all depends on how much effort you put into it. if you practice reading for 15-30 mins a day, in a year you'll be quite good at it.

right now, i recommend that you do two things:

1. if you haven't, start learning the notes on the fretboard up to the 12th fret. after the 12th, the notes repeat themselves.
   
   
2. start learning where the notes lie on a musical staff, specifically, on a treble clef staff. you should be able to quickly identify where all the notes are, up to two ledger lines, both above and below the musical staff.

[Czerny's 30 exercises are great] (https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Method-Beginners-Pianoforte-Op/dp/0793525675/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505531391&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=czeerny)


I would also recommend playing a few pieces from Bach, his music really reinforces right/left hand independence. Every time I sat down and committed to a Bach piece I came out a much better pianist.

Aside from that it takes time and commitment. For me it too a solid 6-8 months to really start getting comfortable with the mind/muscle connection associated with hand independence when playing.

/r/classicalguitar has a useful sidebar with resources.


I would start learning to sight read with material such as this from Pebber Brown.

I would then move on to books such as 'Sight Reading For Classical Guitar' by Robert Benedict - book 1 and book 2.

I would also include Giuliani's 120 Right Hand exercises to test my accuracy, and Fernando Sor's Opus 60 for melodic diatonic studies, as well as Op 35 and Op 44 for sight reading, scale/arpeggio studies and position work, as well as being nice to play.

Kitharologus The Path to Virtuosity by Ricardo Iznaola is a collection of discipline exercises which run from the straightfoward to the almost impossible.

Sagreras Guitar Lessons Book 1-3 by Julio Sagreras are also well worth studying as left/right hand discipline studies, and are also nice to listen to.

/u/Morthy's Demands: I only have one wishlist. =]

1. I feel like classical music could be something posh. haha
   
2. People may think I'm odd if I just busted this out in public.
   
3. Sadly I had nothing phallic on my list, what is wrong with me?!
   
   /u/Akeleie's Demands:
   
   
4. Possibly this, but not sure if she's that geekish, more like awesome!
   
5. This to help me relearn what I've forgotten.
   
6. I don't think anything on my list would be helpful, except maybe these? lol
   

Hanon can be helpful, but remember that technique is a means to an end. Really, if you learn to play 3-10 short pieces with musical dynamics and articulation, you're learning technique and coordination as well. Why not grab a book like the [first Masterworks Classics book] (http://www.amazon.com/Masterwork-Classics-Level-Alfred-Editions/dp/0739006770) and try to learn 5-10 pieces? I think you'll be surprised at how quickly you can improve.

Also, my biggest suggestion for technique is to keep your wrist fluid. If you make sure to keep your wrist from locking while playing quickly, you'll go far. For example, many beginners think of the first five notes of Hanon #1 as five notes/five finger motions, but it's really one wrist movement. When you start thinking of grouping notes like this, your technique can take off.

If you want to study Bach and functional harmony, this should suit your needs. Starting with the chorales would be advisable, as they are much easier to study and will teach you everything you need to know about four-part writing. Once you have, though The Well-Tempered Clavier has been a major inspiration to many composers of keyboard music and will serve you just as well. Beethoven could apparently play all 48 from memory and drew on his knowledge of them in the creation of some of his later and greater works.

The Art of Fugue and the Goldberg Variations would also be great additions to your library someday, but for now the chorales and WTC should be fine.

As Friedso has already mentioned, Bach's music can be obtained freely (and legally) on IMSLP, also known as the Petrucci Music Library. There you will find multiple editions of the Art of Fugue, WTC, Goldberg Variations and more in PDF.

Hope this helps!

well i assume if you play guitar and keys then you already have a metronome. if not get one, it's the most important thing. also it's good to practice rudiments in the mirror so you can see you're hands. it helps with height consistency.
funky primer is a great book with lots of simple beats to learn that. fun with accents around the drums is also a pretty good one.

The auditory component will always be there. You still need to primarily develop the mechanical muscle memory side of things but violin intonation is about constantly adjusting based on your ear.

Here is a great video by Nathan Cole, associate concertmaster of the LA Phil discussing how to nail shifts that I think you'd find useful. Keep in mind he is talking especially about how to do big jumps, from first to sixth+ position for instance. It's still very important to teach your muscles where the basic positions are, such as knowing where third or even where first position is, which is where the muscle memory mechanics come into play.


Edit: The practice exercise you described is exactly how you should be developing the motions. Slide up to the pitch that you are going for and eventually you can start hiding the glissando sound, through shifting fast enough and/or by slowing down your bow/changing bow direction. I highly recommend you also start practicing 3 octave scales with basic shifting, even if you only go up to the highest note you can play in third position for now.

The Whistler shifting book is a staple resource for developing all this.

• Rent a trumpet from a nearby music store (I see you live in Sweden, do they offer instrument rental programs there?): cheap, and you can ensure it works (instead of buying a possible dud from ebay). Most shops will ask for a minimum of 3 months- this will give you some time to figure out if this is something you'd like to continue with.
  
  
• The trumpet is a very physical instrument and it's easy to develop lasting bad habits that will really hurt you down the road. Try to take at least 1 lesson with a teacher so you can get the ball rolling. If that's REALLY not possible (a 30min lesson is $20-45 usually so it's not much!) search for Charlie Porter on Youtube and check out his vids.
  
  
• You will improve fastest if you can play everyday: even if it's only 5 min. Rest often! The goal is to reinforce good habits.
  
  
• Get a method book that will inspire you to continue playing. If you have not played an instrument before, I wouldn't recommend Clarke/Arban like another poster suggested- those are extremely technical and Arban is frankly probably out of your range right now. Try The Jazz Method for Trumpet. It has a playalong CD and tunes that are much closer to the type of music you like (rock) than most other method books. Other good beginner books: Embouchure Builder, or Getchell (might be a little out of your range for the 1st few weeks).
  
  
• Lastly, please do not get discouraged! Most people sounded awful when they first started out- that will probably include you. Don't judge yourself too hard- just be patient and practice consistently and I promise you that the improvement will come.

I can't recommend Hal Leonard's Ukulele Aerobics enough, as far as stretching the fingers and finger placement. It starts out really easy and unassuming, but has you on four-finger chords by week 3 and goes on from there. It's been a super great resource for someone like me who tends to lack direction when self-teaching. The exercises are all challenging at first, that's the point! But by the time I was on week 8, for example, I realized I could go back to week 5 and do those exercises with ease. In general, that's how practice works, but this made it quite tangible for me.

this book of classical duets is a fantastic way to learn.
https://www.amazon.com/Carulli-Progressive-Student-Teacher-Classical-Guitar/dp/1530036623

get yourself a cheap nylon string guitar and find a player who can read the teacher parts. there is no way around that first task of memorizing all the names of the notes in open/first position. get your c major scale together, then start playing these duets. I've studied reading in a few different ways and I really think this is the best way to start. Once youre well into this book, also start looking at this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Reading-Guitar-Complete-Method/dp/0793581885

those two together will make you a pretty solid reader. good luck.

The [Masterwork Classics] (https://www.amazon.com/Masterwork-Classics-Level-1-2-Book/dp/0739006770) series is pretty good. They come in quite a range of levels that would see you through a lot of growth. There's also a decent amount of songs in each book for a relatively affordable price. The variety of classic composers in each book might also help you discover which composers you enjoy best (if you don't already know).

You're going to love it! When you get some experience under your belt, it's not an informational book, but this guy's books come with a CD, and I find it really helpful to hear a song when I'm learning it https://www.amazon.com/Klezmer-Sephardic-Tunes-Traditional-Performances/dp/1847612563/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543119702&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=Klezmer+accordion

He has books for different types of music, you may or may not like it. Last up, it's super in depth, but if you want to master the left hand, this book is the gold standard as far as I'm concerned : https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0786688394/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1543119891&sr=8-1

One thing you could do is get a chorale book - they are mostly note-against-note four part settings of melodies. Coupled with generally simple progressions, and that the fact that there are very few non-chord tones like passing tones and the like, it makes for a very good starting point for basic harmonic analysis.

Many countries have their own chorale books with texts in the native language, sometimes published by the church, on IMSLP the only one I found relatively quickly was an old English one: http://imslp.org/wiki/The_Chorale_Book_for_England_%28Various%29

When you want something slightly more advanced you can start looking at chorale settings outside of chorale books, for example this collection with Bach chorales (I use it for sight reading and figured bass reading, plus it's good to have such a large collection to beat people over the head with when you run into voice leading misconceptions): http://www.amazon.com/Harmonized-Chorales-Chorale-Melodies-Figured/dp/0793525748

Not all chorale books have that great harmonisations (being from Sweden I have a Swedish one which truth be told contains some pretty crappy ones), but the one up on IMSLP looked to be pretty decent.

musictheory.net has some lessons on chord progressions and such which might be of help.


edit: here are a whole bunch of Bach chorales on IMSLP: http://imslp.org/wiki/Chorale_Harmonisations,_BWV_1-438_%28Bach,_Johann_Sebastian%29 , once again though they might be a bit hard to start out with.

I think the term you're looking for is fingerpicking. If you search for that, you should find stuff. However, some books that I either own or have seen people mention:

• https://www.amazon.com/Jumpin-Jims-Ukulele-Masters-James/dp/1540003043 (or anything else by James Hill)
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Ukulele-Aerobics-Levels-Beginner-Advanced/dp/147681306X (I own this one, it's a little simplistic but isn't a bad starting point)
  
  And plenty more are around. I think James Hill and rockclass101 are the only full systems I'm aware of, although I've never used either of them. But James Hill even does a teacher certification course, and is quite well respected.
  
  You can also come up with your own, it's not too difficult. You can base it off of a book for a classical instrument for example. It's a great exercise to do that, since you already have a basis for music theory from the violin.

So many people seem to have this idea that they're just going to "learn theory." Like that's it.

Like there will be this AHA I NOW KNOW THE MUSICAL THEORY I CAN NOW WRITE THE MUSIC.

But in all seriousness. Yeah you will learn theory. If music is going to be a life long pursuit you will never STOP learning theory. Unless you're not serious about it. Then you might just learn what I IV V means write some pop songs and stop there. I digress..

First thing. Learn to read music. DO NOT READ TAB. Learn all the notes on the fret board. Not like you can count up to it and realize that something is a C. Like you KNOW IT. Point to it and you know what note it is. Start reading music here.

Another good way to learn the notes on the fretboard is to pick 4 triads of different qualities. One major, one minor, one diminished, and one augmented triad and play them in all inversions in all positions on the neck while saying the note names. And then pick 4 new triads the next day. Do not just learn the shapes. This will probably take you 2 hours on your first day if you're as thorough as you should be.

If you don't know what any of that means that's fine for now. Those are some pretty basic concepts that you'll learn pretty soon if you're serious about this.

This guy knows his shit. Learn from him. Take it slow. Don't just watch the video and go "Yeah that makes sense." You need to KNOW IT. Drill the concepts a few hours a day.

You could buy a music text book.

Or get an actual guitar teacher. I'd recommend learning jazz because unlike a lot of rock or pop players they actual know their shit about theory and their instrument. You kinda have to know your shit to play jazz. Either that or classical. But jazz theory is more in line with modern music.

Segway: Buy a Real Book

Start off in there with Autumn Leaves or something else easy.

If you're really beginner-y start here.

While that guy's course is good it really focuses on technique. You learn basically no theory from that guy. Just shapes and tabs. Doesn't even use standard notation. His jazz course is ok. It's on his side bar.

This guy's stuff is good for a beginner in jazz. But a beginner in jazz is not exactly beginner level for some other genres. I think you need a pretty solid level of understanding to understand what he's talking about.

That should get you started..

[Edit] Some people have this disconnect. They think that learning theory is somehow separate from song writing. Learning theory will open so many doors to you and show you why and how things work. So that you can actually understand what you're doing.

If I wanted to build a house I could just jump in and start building a house. I'd probably come across a lot of problems. My first house might suck and have a leaky roof or bad plumbing or something. But I could probably learn a long the way. Maybe after I build a ton of crappy houses I could figure out for myself why things work.

Or.. I could look through the writings of the millions of house builders that came before me and see what they found out works and what doesn't. Then maybe my first house will have some issues and it might not be so easy to pull off but I'd be better off learning from the people who came before me than trying to figure it out myself. By doing this I have just saved myself the time of trying to rediscover the wheel so to speak.

That's what learning theory will do for you.

No, the saddles won't be even except under very rare circumstances. The saddles are individual adjustments for individual strings, and thus will have different set distances when everything is intonated correctly.

​

I hope this doesn't come across as rude, but if you aren't willing to take your guitar to a shop that's 22 miles away to be setup, and you aren't willing to live with the buzz, then you're going to have to learn to do it yourself. There are some great resources online, but intonation can be confusing and it will take some time, some trial and error, and some effort to get down. Basically, each string saddle can be moved vertically (towards/away from the guitar body) to adjust string height, but can also be moved horizontally (closer/further from the neck) in order to change the effective length of the string (between the saddle and the nut at the other end of the neck). The length of the string is directly proportional to its fundamental frequency as it vibrates, so if the string is in tune at one part of the neck, but not at other parts of the neck you can reduce this problem by changing the effective string length (again, distance between the saddle and the nut) by adjusting the saddle towards/away from the neck. It is HIGHLY unlikely that you will have a situation where all of the saddles are lined up at the same distance and each string is also intonated correctly.

​

The Guitar Player Repair Guide is a very inexpensive book that thoroughly covers proper guitar setup techniques and I highly recommend getting it if you are hoping to learn this skill on your own. It helped me a TON when I was learning guitar setups and you can usually pick up a copy for less than $10 if you are in the USA.

I'm a huge huge fan of the Masterworks Classics series. These aren't arrangements, but complete baroque and classical pieces scaled for difficulty. If you're halfway through Alfred's you're ready for book 1.

I love these books and definitely recommend the first. It's exactly what you are looking for. Link: https://www.amazon.com/Masterwork-Classics-Level-1-2-Book/dp/0739006770/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478093147&sr=8-1&keywords=masterworks+classics+level+1-2

I recommend William Leavitt's Reading Studies for Guitar. I've been reading two pages a day and it's been really helping me to improve. The key is to read through them with a metronome and don't stop at all to correct your mistakes- that's how you really get better at sight reading.

Now when it comes to reading in big band, you've got the right idea. I always check, in order: key, time signature, road map (repeats/coda), highest/lowest note you'll be playing in the part, then determine best caged position(s). If you still have time left after doing those, try to learn the trickiest parts (difficult rhythms, lines with accidentals). If you can do all that while the band director is still talking to the horn section or whatever, you'll be set when he counts you in! Hope this helps!

Here's the book I mentioned:

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-Positions-Multi-Position/dp/0634013351

David Oakes' book on Sight Reading for Guitar is a decent one for learning how to sight-read if you're a beginner:

https://www.amazon.com/Music-Reading-Guitar-Complete-Method/dp/0793581885/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466625720&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=David+Oates+sight+reading

If you get through that one, try out William Leavitt's Melodic Rhythms for Guitar. This one is really solid:

https://www.amazon.com/Melodic-Rhythms-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013327/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466625895&sr=1-5&keywords=William+Leavitt

I've not looked through this one, but if you're interested in combining classical guitar and sight reading, it might be worth a shot:

https://www.amazon.com/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769209742/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_15?ie=UTF8&dpID=514XaC6KshL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_SL500_SR103%2C135_&psc=1&refRID=0E43T3ND9D1TG4KDPZVE

Good luck!

I like to start most of my beginning students (age 8+) in the Essential Elements book The notes are bigger than Suzuki method, as is an emphasis in reading and theory. Musical jargon is explained in highlighted areas on the pages. Music literacy makes comprehension a lot easier. It is a focus of mine from day one with each student (as young as 4).
Suzuki books are used as a supplement once the student makes it through Essential Elements book 1 and they typically fly through the Suzuki songs, about 2 a week until the minuets in book 1.

If the student understands what is on the page, it's easier for them to figure out music as they get into more complicated pieces and areas of their violin - rather than being overwhelmed by a bunch of random finger numbers and random Italian words.

One thing I would encourage, is to have the student fill in the letters to all the notes until g string is introduced and then start taking them off and practicing the old stuff with fewer letters. And then start all over with writing in the newly introduced notes. Literacy takes practice, just like practicing writing letters or multiplication tables in grade school.

Proper hand shape and figuring out the right shoulder rest will be the most challenging things to emphasize. (I've inherited students that have atrocious hand shapes and low literacy levels- so education is no guarantee that you're set up for success.) Everest is the brand that about 80% of my students prefer for shape and cushy level. ~18% go for the Kun and 2% of are taller people with longer necks and the wolf is the one to try out.

Guitar position lasts for about a week or two. Then we split time between guitar position to up on the shoulder (it is exhausting building up proper posture) and after about 2 months, all of them prefer to play with the bow all of the time.

I make my students do a clap test once the violin is up on their shoulder. Make sure they use the right shoulder joint to raise the elbow to a string height. I dislike seeing lazy T-Rex arms for string crossings. The student should feel the back working for it, not puny wrist and finger muscles.

The rhythm: It's very common for old jazz tunes to be played with a bit of swing rather than exactly as written. That's what you're hearing on the recordings.

It's also very common to play in different keys other than the original, you can probably find recordings in many different keys. You have to either find a chart in the key you want to play with or transpose the chart.

You wrote "the second bar" but I think you meant the first bar of the second system. Each little block is a measure or bar, each new line of bars on the paper is a system. The parenthesis ( ) around the natural sign are not necessary and don't really do anything, I would say they are a courtesy to point at that this change isn't happening a lot, unlike the B-natural which happens almost every time.

I know it sounds boring, but really the best way for you to learn to read sheet music is to start from the beginning, otherwise you are going to have LOTS of these kind of questions. I'd suggest a book like http://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bays-Modern-Guitar-Method/dp/0871663546 or there are probably some websites that will teach you.

I also mainly play the piano and would highly recommend The Mighty Accordion. Someone recommended it on this sub and it's perfect for piano players; it focuses on the left hand and eases you into it.

I was a violin maker for ten years. I went to violin making school for about four years. I had basically no woodworking experience with woodworking aside from one shop class in high school. Just get some tools, a good book and give it a shot. This book is super cool: https://www.amazon.com/Guitarmaking-Tradition-Technology-Guitar-Reference/dp/0811806405/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523510264&sr=1-1

I build about ten classical guitars following the instructions from that book. It's fun to read too. Lots of pictures!

If you want to learn to build guitars maybe think about getting a kit and trying that first, or build a dulcimer from a kit. Building a dulcimer will give you a basic idea of instrument construction.

First and foremost be super patient with yourself and get some band-aids.

Also, don't try and make your living as a luthier! :P I struggled for years until I came to my senses and got a normal job.

Serious Electric Bass. My good friend who mostly plays upright nowadays gave it to me. I haven't really gotten around to playing through it all, but it seems like a REALLY good book.

This is one of the most useful books I've come across. Lots of great tips to make your life easier and very easy to read and follow. I use it as a quick reference all the time.

Guitar Player Repair Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/0879302917/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_VF3fzb9TE2BB0

Make sure your shoulder rest (if you use one) is properly securing your violin. You should not have to adjust your grip on the violin after a shift.

I personally had my shifting improve substantially after adjusting my shoulder rest.

Second, don't forget your open string checks. In 3rd position, you have 2 checks that are easy: 1 and 2 can be checked with the lower and higher strings, respectively.

Also, this book has very good exercises: http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Positions-Violin-Volume-Position/dp/1423444876

The latest incarnation of the Royal Conservatory Guitar Series are published by Fredrick Harris. Look for the Bridges series in the guitar section. They are the graded repertoire books for those doing their RCM examinations (here in Canada). The books are great. I use them with my students regardless if i have them doing the exams. They are not specifically devised for learning to sight read, just good broad ranging repertiore arranged by difficulty. For sight reading, Robert Benedict's books are good. For technique and nail advice check out Scott Tennant's, Pumping Nylon... cheesy title... great book!

I have this book which is great. It's all 371 Bach chorales (4-voiced harmonizations of typical contemporary religious melodies, along with some new melodies) in a solid volume, at a pretty good price often.

Dan Erlewine's book comes pretty highly regarded and it recommends against a straight neck in favor of a slight relief. I'm surprised to find this so controversial here.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-Erlewine/dp/0879302917

Get into the habit of playing scales regularly. Scales will help you develop pitch recognition (getting used to what "in tune" sounds like), tone quality, bow usage (use full bows!) and it will help you learn the higher octaves/positions once you advance.
When I started learning violin, I used the "Essential Elements" method book, which has pretty useful information and exercises. (http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Elements-Strings-Book-Violin/dp/0634038176)

In addition to the Suzuki repertoire, I had these books when I first started:

• String Builder
  
• Introducing the Positions for Violin
  
• Hrimaly (Scale Book)
  
• Practical Method: Violin Method
  
  String Builder, Intro to the Positions, and Practical Methods all have several books in the series, and I went through quite a few of them. If I recall correctly, they're filled with fairly simple etudes that aid in building fundamental techniques. I wonder if a teacher would recommend other progression books for adults, however?
  
  You could also use that extra time to practice one octave scales for intonation, finger positioning, and bow variations (whole notes, quarter, eighths, then different slurs such as 2 notes in one bow, 4 notes, 6...). Not only do scales help in solidifying fundamentals, but just knowing how to play/identify different scales, as well as it's minor, harmonic, and melodic counterparts goes a long way when playing more complex music.

Start slowly, and repetitiously.

​

I learned by getting a teacher who recommended a book called A Funky Primer. Start with the most basic exercises as slow as it takes for you to play them right. Once you master that slowly speed it up. Learn new exercises as you master older ones, rinse & repeat (so to speak). It takes patience. Lots and lots of patience. Best of luck to you, slow & steady wins the race here.

Practice hitting these at the same time to build up muscle memory until it registers to you as a single motion:

• bass & hi-hat
  
• snare & hi-hat
  
• bass & crash
  
  ​
  
  For hands (right/left multitasking) learn flam drills.
  
  ​
  
  That should get you started.

I came up learning before the internet was big (like pre high speed where video wasn't a super viable option, and content wasn't so much in regular people's hands) and spent a lot of time reading books, articles, and message boards.

Dan Erlewine became my biggest teacher in books and This book was my bible for a while.

I originally started getting into it after getting the third degree by a mom-and-pop shop when I brought a bass in for repair that I didn't buy there, but when my friends in school would see the things I was doing, they'd ask me to work on their stuff too.

Been a while since I've actually had to wrench on anything guitar wise, but I still keep up with some of the new stuff coming out and browse new catalogs when I get them in the mail.

Edit: I also had the first edition of this book and it seemed to be more related to guys who play and are just getting into working on their own stuff.

Just glancing at the piece, it looks like you should start in third or fourth position. I personally would start in fourth, so that high E can be played without an extension.

I would highly suggest getting the two Whistler positions books, which will help you get your fingers placed properly in the positions, and help you shift to them properly as well.

Book 1.

Book 2.

i'm a beginner too, self-teaching. do you have a metronome?

i bought this 4 way coordination book. its straight forward and you can do it on or off the kit. these are exercises to get your limbs on time and independent. they are extremely challenging, especially as you build speed.

http://www.vicfirth.com/education/ has some interesting stuff to check out, i am working off "Beginning Snare Video Lessons" to build my actual stick/bounce/finger technique. it's all about perfecting technique slowly if you want to get blinding fast.


i've had experience with music my whole life though (can already read music, understand time signatures, etc), and this is the path that i am sure i want to take to get where i want to be. you might find it very dull and want to just dive into playing along to songs?

Nice! I got Bass Fitness and Serious Electric Bass a few weeks ago and have been slowly working through them.

I got Serious Electric Bass without realizing the exercises aren't tabbed out. I've been meaning to learn how to read music for a while now so I guess there's no better time than now!

Bass Fitness is a little tedious and you've got to be really dedicated to work through it, but the payoff is totally worth it.

I highly recommend both books. It'll be a while before I'm through with both of these, but I'll check out the book you mentioned too.

It's definitely worth it. It'll make you a more versatile musician able to communicate with other musicians better. I haven't read this book, but it looks like a good introduction to reading on guitar: http://www.amazon.com/Music-Reading-Guitar-Complete-Method/dp/0793581885/

That is awesome. I just found this book on 4-way coordination while drumming that sounds like the kind of thing redditors have shown interest in in other threads. I threw it in my Amazon shopping list.

Czerny has lots of good stuff.

As well as the popular 'school of velocity' (op 299 linked below), there is Op 599 that whilst entitled 'for beginners', actually comprehensively covers many areas of technique. They are far more 'musical' than Hanon and, of course, you can elect to play them at whatever velocity you choose (which often takes something from 'simple' to 'fairly advanced'. I've been using them as sight reading and once I get to the end I'll work backwards and learn one or two a week properly

1. Transcribing, as others have mentioned. And listening in general. You don't have to get the entire solo; picking out bits and pieces is fine, especially when parts are really complex.
   
   
2. Books. Of the following, I'd say definitely get the first two, then any one of the other three:
   
   4-Way Coordination, so you can do what you want when you want.
   
   All American Drummer, so you can swing that snare like Philly Joe. Also move around the set.
   
   Modern Reading Text in 4/4, because Louie Bellson knows his big band rhythms. Play them across the entire set and sing along. Use rests and busy rhythms to set up the big hits.
   
   Syncopation for All and Syncopated Big Band Figures. More of the big band rhythm stuffs.
   
   
3. Practice soloing. Start with 4s and 8s. Play time for 4, then solo for 4. If you're using the big band books, improvise a solo, then set up 4 bars. Rinse, repeat.
   
   Get really used to 4s and 8s before moving on to longer solos. Try starting with a simple idea and develop it; don't play a bunch of different, random crap for 4 bars: 2-3 beats of a rhythm, and keep working with it. You'll find you can express yourself much better after some practice.
   
   Also, metronome. Always, always the metronome.
   
   
   

Depends on what you want to get out of it.

Are you wanting to write your own tunes? Then start with a little bit of music theory and apply that to playing (i.e.: play the A note everywhere on the board).

Are you wanting to join a band? Start looking at songs on sites like Ultimate-Guitar or Songsterr.

In the mean time, try to understand what you're doing. I bought this book at the recommendation of my teacher couple years ago and have to say, while some parts are a little dry, it will definitely get you going if you follow it: https://www.amazon.com/Serious-Electric-Bass-Complete-Contemporary/dp/1576238830/

Since you are just starting out, your emphasis right now needs to be on developing a solid basis of technique, . For the next 2 years I recommend you alot your practice time as follows:

• 1/3 to scales and arpeggios
  
  
• 1/3 to exercises - Hanon is the classic starter book. Czerny is a more challenging and interesting addition.
  
  
• 1/3 to pieces
  
  After 2 years, once you have built up your dexterity, then you can begin alotting a greater portion of your time to practicing pieces.
  
  Please note that this time estimate is based on my experience, playing for 3 hours/day during my formative training years. If you are practicing less, it may take longer for you to build your dexterity.

3 hours would be great. It's mostly important that most of your practice is strategic and goal-oriented. There are good books out there about practicing well; check'em out.

Things you'd do well to practice/learn about other than sheer technique on your instrument: theory, ear training (be able to identify intervals and chords by ear), transcribing (writing down music by ear), walking bass, sight-singing and rhythm skills.

One good book I was fortunate to discover in high school (maybe early college?) is Chuck Sher's The Improvisor's Bass Method. It doesn't hold your hand too much, but it'd give you lots of ways to practice and think about scales as well as ideas of things to look for more resources on online.

Alfred's Masterwork Classics series is, in my opinion, a great resource. The pieces are pretty simple in the beginning, and you should be able to transition from something like "Alfred's Volume 1" without much difficulty. I know I found it a real joy:).

Based on this, I would recommend the Getchell First and Second Book(s) of Practical Studies. I used these for transposition exercises in college, but I've used them with intermediate students for sight reading or lyrical work.

Sounds like they would work out well for you. If you want some more "musical" stuff to play, try the Canadian Brass Book of Beginning Trumpet Solos - it even has an accompaniment CD.

If it's anything like this , it can be so helpful. I use this Beatles book almost daily, and I like having to determine on my own what melodic notes fit into simplified chords, adding my own scribbles to the shortened pages.. Get's the job down, listeners seem happy enough with the summarized song.

Alright, let me give you a rundown of my personal library.

Beginner:

• "Guitar World Presents: Steve Vai's Guitar Workout"
  
• "A Modern Method for Guitar: Volumes 1-4" By William Leavitt
  
• "Creative Guitar Volume 1" by Guthrie Govan
  
  Intermediate:
  
  
• "Reading Studies for Guitar" by William Leavitt
  
• "The Advancing Guitarist" by Mick Goodrick
  
• "Melody Chords for Guitar" by Allan Holdsworth
  
• "Joe Pass Chord Solos"
  
• "Charlie Parker for Guitar"
  
• "Hybrid Picking for Guitar" by Gustavo Assis-Brasil
  
• "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine
  
• "The Bill Evans Guitar Book" by Sid Jacobs
  
  Advanced:
  
  
• "The Brazilian Guitar Book" by Nelson Faria
  
• "Creative Chordal Harmony for Guitar: Using Generic Modal Compression" by Tim Miller, Mick Goodrick
  
• "The Art of Two-Line Improvisation" by Jimmy Wyble
  
• "Elementary Training for Musicians" by Paul Hindemith (not guitar specific)
  
  I'm sure others will disagree with my ranking, and obviously my library is rather genre specific. But it's a lot of quality material that will definitely improve your playing no matter the style.

If you're teaching yourself, get a book with exercises, etudes, etc. If you choose mellophone, trumpet books will work perfectly. There are a million to choose from. I like Schlossberg for exercises and Getchell for etudes (the second book is good too).

Disclaimer: I am not a music teacher.

That one would work but I would suggest starting with this one first. First Book of Practical Studies Practice the first 7 exercises every day till you can knock them out damn near perfect. At that point drop the first one and tack on the next one (#8). Continue to do the same thing until you are playing the last 7 in the book. They are easier than the other book but if you are truly able to knock this book out without issue, then up the BPM. On that note, you should always have your metronome ticking away.

I got The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook and just played through a bunch of stuff. The book is great -- has the chords for all their songs. I'm not sure I could play any of their songs from memory, but flipping through this book and just playing whatever is a lot of fun. Probably the only song by any of the Beatles that I have memorized is "Working Class Hero."

I use the Getchell book with my beginning students once they have started to read music and can play up to C in the staff. It’s a good progressive etude book.

Other than that, play what you like!

Is it Progressive Guitar Method Book 1 possibly? I haven't done much book-based learning, other than for my forays into classical method, so I can't comment on that book specifically. I can say that if you are interested in learning not only the fretboard but also standard notation, check out Sight Reading for the Classical Guitar, Level I-II. Going through the exercises will definitely help imprint in your mind the notes of the fretboard in various positions.

Chuck Sher's The Improvisor's Bass Method: For Electric & Acoustic Bass is good.

Honestly, my usual recommendation is to buy a keyboard and try to take some piano lessons. The ideas of theory translate really well to keys. Then once you understand them well, you can transfer that knowledge to other instruments.

I have been going through Ukulele Aerobics book, which has a dedicated section on fingerpicking, scales, licks and runs. It can get pretty challenging pretty quick, but since its an exercise book, you can practice as good as you can get and go back and forth.

Excellent Stuff by Ervin Somogyi

The Responsive Guitar

Voicing the Guitar DVD

Older but still Excellent
Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology

Basically a step by step for a steel string
Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar: Complete Instructions and Full-Size Plans

Edit: Formatting

Jody Fisher’s Complete Method for Jazz Guitar

I own around 20 guitar books. This one is the best for getting a comprehensive overview of what you should know to start and grow with jazz guitar IMHO. then other books are good for supplementing specific concepts that you find along the way.

I recommend reading basic exercises in higher positions. That's the best way I've found. That said - I do like these two sight reading books:

Sight Reading Classical Guitar Levels I-III


Sight Reading Classical Guitar Levels IV-V

They appear really basic but there is more to them than meets the eye as far as phrasing, musicality and rhythms go. I read the first volume all in higher positions for the challenge. The second volume has upper position playing and covers a lot of common classical guitar styles in short snippets. I have them both and they are both worth checking out.

As they told u, start simple and slow. Also, check this book: https://www.amazon.com/4-Way-Coordination-Development-Complete-Independence/dp/0769233708 .
"4-Way Coordination: A Method Book for the Development of Complete Independence on the Drum Set". It sounds overwhelming but the exercises are very simple (think stick control from gls and add left and right feet). Most importantly do each one slow! don't go up on the metronome until you are comfortable with an exercise.

Start by learning some basic rudaments and slowly improve your speed doing them. http://www.vicfirth.com/education/rudiments.php is pretty good and had videos on each rudament. I also invested in This, and this which I found were really helpfull.

Edit: I invented a book instead of buying one

Hello player!

I bought some Ukulele books myself not long ago. Please note that I'm a total beginner so you might not find them as useful as I found them. The books are:

• Ukulele Aerobics. This is a 40-week book. Each week is split into different practices.
  
  
• [20 Easy Fingerstyle Studies For Ukulele] (http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Fingerstyle-Studies-Ukulele-Book/dp/078668397X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427050523&sr=8-1).
  
  
• Fingerstyle Ukulele
  
  I also got an Ukulele Chord Dictionary, very handy and small. I keep it with me.
  
  I recently bought James Hill's book series (The Ukulele way) but haven't received them yet! If you want to check more books by James hill: Empiremusic website have them
  
  I hope that gives you a starting point. The only reason I don't own every single Ukulele book is because I pay twice their price due to shipping costs ;(.

It'll be hard to develop by looking at complicated, long pieces. You need to practice the underlying structure. (Just like it's hard to get better at figure drawing just by learning how to draw shadows and texture or slowly tracing finished pieces.)

I've been using this series, and it's been going pretty well:
http://www.amazon.com/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769209742

https://www.amazon.com/Ukulele-Aerobics-Levels-Beginner-Advanced/dp/147681306X

This is pretty cool. It gets complex pretty fast though.

While nothing beats at least some lessons when starting out, just to get the right approach on your technique going early on, you can learn a lot on your own.

I personally went through the free lessons over at StudyBass.com, and picked up a few books: Serious Electric Bass by Joel Di Bartolo and Improvisor's Bass Method by Chuck Sher. There are of course other books that are well received and would benefit you.

For a more generic advice, try to get a practice routine going, and keep it consistent. Start out slow, with a metronome, and really focus on how your notes sound, how long they last.

If you have any more specific questions, ask away!

The Modern Method books are good but Leavitt's Sight Reading Studies For Guitar are great for practicing positional sight reading.

Well, with no song structure and no harmonic or melodic element to the music, it makes sense that the bass would do lot of repetitive rhythmic stuff. I don't know of many bass players who regularly jam with a drum circle, so I don't think the whole set-up is common. But I'd guess your reaction would be - it's not super interesting or satisfying to play along with the same rhythm for 20 minutes.

Some ideas:

• Get some crazy effects going and have fun soloing
  
• Play longer chord sequences (12 bar blues, Autumn Leaves, Summertime, etc) and see if the others pick up on the changes
  
• This book will help you with new ideas:
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Improvisors-Bass-Method-Electric-Acoustic/dp/0961470100
  
  
• Get some other harmony/melody instruments involved to give you some interaction on those levels

I normally start by doing the bottom A, C, D and G major scales with different pattern bows strokes, then do the full scales top to bottom. After that i'm kind of jumping into playing a few pieces from this book:https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/9043127515/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1, then practice a few things from the either Suzuki book 1, or one or two things from this book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0955438462/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 or this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0634038176/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. After doing that I normally try and do some 3rd position scales (Which I'm still really having to work at) and have recently started learning to do double stops.

When I notice I'm getting out of tune I normally stop, go back to the start of the phrase I was playing, play the notes in the key I'm playing, then go back over the phrase to see if it sounds better.

I also normally have a go at a few pieces from The Lord of the Rings book, from Full Metal Alchemist, a book of Disney songs (as they're familiar) or another piece that's caught my ear from gaming.

I built one using this book

http://www.amazon.com/GUITARMAKING-Guitar-Reference-Jonathan-Natelson/dp/0811806405

Its really a great walkthrough with nice pictures and descriptions. I really didn't need any major power tools either.

Another guitarist learning drums here! And yeah, drums are a bit on the physically exhausting side (admittedly I'm out of shape though), wow I knew I was uncoordinated, but I didn't really realize how uncoordinated I was until I started trying to play drums. I bought copies of 4 Way Coordination and The New Breed.

I'd call New Breed a 'difficult but worth it' workbook for actually getting your hands and feet working together. And 4 Way Coordination more of a 'learn to control them separately' (little tip: make sure that your hands are on different drums for the melodic exercises).

For drum set books, I really like Mel Bay's Complete Modern Drum Set

It will give you at least a working idea of a wide variety of styles.

If you're looking to build strength and independence in your limbs, 4-way coordination

My old college professor actually studied under Marvin Dahlgren.

And finally, Gavin Harrison's books have been blowing my mind lately:
Rhythmic Illusions

Rhythmic Perspectives

A Funky Primer for the Rock Drummer (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Funky-Primer-Rock-Drummer/dp/0739006630/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318357665&sr=1-1) is a good one.

Also worth a look are the video lessons on mikeslessons.com I find him very helpful!

>Is it important to know how to read music or understand music theory?

Yes. This book is will teach you to read music. It's a pretty common beginner book.

https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bays-Modern-Guitar-Method/dp/0871663546

Instead of tapes, get a book:

https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Positions-Violin-Third-Position/dp/1423444876

What I like about this is it builds on what you already know, first position and your existing ear training. You start out by playing something in first, then playing the same thing with a shift to third position. Normally, I don’t suggest books because I think it encourages doing things outside of lessons that could lead to bad habits. But this book is actually intended for students who need supplemental help with shifting. Assuming shifting has been demonstrated in lessons, the book won’t teach you anything new but will rather help cement some things so you can move forward.

This is all great advice- the Riley book has been open on my music stand for years and I am still a long way from 'finishing' the exercises. I also recommend 4 Way Coordination,playing exercises in that book is very humbling and eye opening.

sounds like you're half way there. def check the key sig before first, then find one of the 'caged' chord scale positions that suits the range. if the melody gets high or goes below the reach or your position, choose another or get comfortable switching to another one for extra range.
pay attention to the hard keys for guitar, ie = Eb, Ab, Db etc

check out the book; [modern guitar method book 1], (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Modern-Guitar-Method-Grade-1/dp/0871663546/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451826120&sr=8-1&keywords=mel+bay+modern+guitar+method)
there's a play along dvd that's really handy also.

A Funky Primer full of great beats/rudiments is a book i highly recommend.

This is 'the' book IMO:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Improvisors-Bass-Method-Guitar/dp/0961470100/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502853916&sr=1-6&keywords=chuck+sher

Right now you might be like "Dang motherfucker. I told you I was a rock/metal bassist. What's this improvisational jazz shit?". Well this book will do a bunch of things to make you a much better heavy bassist, and a better musician in general. For starters it'll force you to learn bass clef, and theory from basic to advanced. By the time you're done with this book, you'll be kicking literal arse in every conceivable genre. Take it from another, albeit former, metal bassist, this is the book you want to get your paws on.

I bought this book and have been slowly going through it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0739066374/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/177-1392342-1784740

It really gives you focus for practicing. It's not always fun and it seems like a lot of information to digest at a time but it's definitely worth it.

If you want to learn how to sightread, I suggest you check out:

• [Bartok Mikrokosmos Books on Sightreading](http://imslp.org/wiki/Mikrokosmos,_Sz.107_(Bart%C3%B3k,_B%C3%A9la) ^^Amazon
  
• Burgmuller's 25 Progressive Studies/Etudes (Sidenote: Do this if you're a medium level sight reader)
  ^^Amazon
  
  If you wish to become better at endurance, dexterity, fingering, etc., I suggest you take a look at:
  
  
• [Czerny's Practical Method for Beginners](http://imslp.org/wiki/Practical_Exercises_for_Beginners,_Op.599_(Czerny,_Carl) ^^Amazon
  
• [Liszt Technical Exercises](http://imslp.org/wiki/Technische_Studien,_S.146_(Liszt,_Franz) (Use if you're a bit advanced) ^^Amazon
  
  
  If you want to know what level you are at piano, check out ABRSM
  
  
  IMPORTANT SIDENOTE: The IMSLP links don't work due to Reddit's formatting system, so when you click them, add a ")" (without quotes) to the end of the URL link.

I'm in the same situation as you. 39 and been playing since I was 11 and now want to learn some real theory and how to read music. I decided to get some resources and created a practice routine 1-2 hours a day. Here are the simple things I have been using the last 6 months and noticed real improvement.

Chord wheel app for my phone
Chord Chemistry by Ted Greene
Book of scales
MI Music Theory For Guitar
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0793581885/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474086489&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=reading+music+for+guitar&dpPl=1&dpID=61KkYuMxBZL&ref=plSrch

This is a very good starting book for just $6. It'll give you a good idea of what to do with your fingers. It takes just a week or two to work through.

This Book is absolutely the bomb and will take you from zero knowledge to advanced by simply following it (Jody Fisher Complete Jazz Method)

This one right? That's awesome. I may have to invest in this book. Thanks!

Don't try and speed up the process, it takes a long time and steady practice.

Get this book;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769209742/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375442256&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=sight+read+classical+guitar

And then when you have finished that one, get this one;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769212859/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1375442279&sr=8-2-fkmr1&keywords=sight+read+classical+guitar

And then you should feel confident to play most things.
After those books, I'd recommend folk and bluegrass sheet music as the timings are quite simple (mostly triplets or 16ths throughout).

Jazz and the like will be much harder to read but you'll get there IF you practice.

Stewmac sells plans, as does GAL.

Ukulele would definitely be easier for a first build.

Guitarmaking by Cumpiano and Natelson is The Book with all the info needed to build classical and steel-string acoustics with either dovetailed or pinned neck joints..

​

​

I purchased "The Mighty Accordion" from Amazon. It's a book just for learning the Stradella bass system. I'm still a beginner in general, but the book seem very helpful for positioning, and slowly learning the layout.

https://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Accordion-David-DiGiuseppe/dp/0786688394

I highly recommend this Mel Bay's book to begin with. Once you get a fair way into that book, begin to look at A Modern Method of Guitar and the Carcassi book if you can find it. If you get through these books, you will be a monster at sightreading guitar sheet music!

WTC is awesome - maybe don't go THROUGH it per se, since the level of difficulty vary a lot. The Inventions and Sinfonias are a bit more consistent, and I think they're at a great level to practice bringing each line out, which is really the point.

As for getting comfortable with counterpoint in general, The Riemenschneider is essential. There are 69 chorales at the end for which only the figured bass is provided and you have to improvise the other three parts. It can be tough at first, but your musicianship will skyrocket if you can get the hang of it.

that kind of stuff is all feel. the best advice i can give you is to go back and work on some old 70's funk. all this stuff is rooted in that.

also, buy this book and study it every day.
http://www.amazon.com/Funky-Primer-Rock-Drummer-Charles/dp/0739006630

This is probably the best place to start: http://www.amazon.com/Guitarmaking-Tradition-Technology-Guitar-Reference/dp/0811806405

hi!
It is a somewhat old post, but I was thinking it over myself for over 10 years so maybe it would be still helpful :)
I got my violin at the end of March, as I understand cheap violins can be frustrating. You can search for rentals. I am on a rent-to-own program so anything I pay for rent is going to owning a violin in the future. In the meantime I am learning on a $700 dollar violin.
As books, you can start with Suzuki violin book 1 (with CD) and Essential Elements for Strings: Violin 1.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_25?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=suzuki+violin+book+1+with+cd&sprefix=suzuki+violin+book+1+with%2Cstripbooks%2C189&crid=9LAG8EWNCUFF

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Elements-Strings-Book-Violin/dp/0634038176

this is a great book. helped me learn a lot of different techniques.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-Erlewine/dp/0879302917

Dan Erlewine is one of the all time great guitar technicians and his book is a priceless tome of guitar knowledge.

Definitely, the only other complaint i"ve seen is that the full combined set of Czerny books is big and kind of cumbersome to try and set up on many stands/pianos (especially digital ones with relatively flimsy stands) so if you just want to start out with the first volume.

You can also save a couple bucks buying this version: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Method-Beginners-Op-599/dp/0793525675/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/146-7772873-1196205?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0793525675&pd_rd_r=1ddf146f-a969-11e9-85ce-aff8187a0e51&pd_rd_w=iCFBw&pd_rd_wg=XQAFs&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=VZ57KF2TQTAH2Q8MHZVK&psc=1&refRID=VZ57KF2TQTAH2Q8MHZVK . If you need to hear demonstrations of the etudes, you can find plenty on youtube.

The Complete Jazz Guitarist

Even if you aren't a jazz person, this is a great set of books to expand your musical knowledge and forces you to actually read notation. It actually forces you to learn from the ground up, instead of just teaching you enough to get by. It might not be the most entertaining to a beginner, but it helped me immensely after I'd been playing for some time

I'm all about this book

http://www.amazon.com/The-Improvisors-Bass-Method-Electric/dp/0961470100

But like everyone is saying, learn scales (and modes), arpege, and bass lines. Transcribe lines, play with records and people.

Try to focus on the I and V (this is a very general rule, don't feel grounded by it) when constructing your lines. Always be in time. Yada Yada Yada

Man - that's a rather tough Beatles song actually. I have a feeling if you buy that one song book of their's, and a capo you could likely play most of their other songs. There's only a few that stick out in my mind that are near the amount of dexterity required to play Norwegian Wood.

Make sure they have a smaller size guitar. Most seven-year-olds can't comfortably play a 4/4 size guitar. a 2/3 or 3/4 might suit them better.

There's plenty of books aimed at young guitarists. It would be a good idea to grab one or more of those and look at the material. They basically start you off with single-note lines and open chords.

You should also get them started with reading sheet music. Kids will learn it just as easily as they would learn reading tabs, but learning to read sheet music will come in handy throughout their life.

Mel Bay's Guitar Method is a classic. It also includes teacher/student duets that are appropriate for beginners.

Other than that teaching kids just requires a lot of patience.

I decided to make a guitar last December, and I have no prior woodworking or handyman knowledge. I used the Cumpiano book, which gives instructions on how to build a steel string and a classical guitar.

I am now pretty much done my guitar (a classical), just doing the french polishing steps, so I can tell you from experience that that book will tell you exactly what to do, albeit you'll need to apply some common sense now and again.

One thing I will mention is that I had to buy a fair amount of tools, mainly chisels, planes, rasps, sharpening equipment, etc. The book also tells you what you need to buy.

Do you have a good edition you can point me to for this? Would this Reimenschneider edition be ok?

The "Complete Scores" book is pretty much unusable, given its size. Instead, get the "Beatles Complete Chords Songbook". The chords are very accurate and the book can be placed flat on a table or on a sheet music stand.

If you want to learn other people's songs, you learn other people's songs. If you want to really learn the instrument, then you get a method book like this.

If you want a version you can carry around, most of this content looks like it was taken from this book:

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Beatles-Complete-Chord-Songbook/dp/0634022296

My brother build his acoustic (Spanish style) on this book. I also read it. Rally well done. Tells you everything you need to know and what tools to buy or build. Luthierie involves lots of making your own tools and jigs.

Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology (Guitar Reference) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0811806405/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_qdYXDbRJH8KWG

Back when we were building guitars, the place to buy supplies was LMI (Luthieier Mercantile) and StewMac (Stewart Macdonald). Now there are probably things to can buy on amazon.

One final last recommendation. Don't drop 90$ on a rewire, drop 90$ on an epi valve junior (Tone for days) and learn to wire and setup your own guitar. There are many, many books available for this.

And you'll know your own guitar inside and out plus save $$ - which if you decide to be a fulltime musician will be a much much bigger deal.

The Mickey Baker books are terrible without rooting around on the internet for supplemental material in the way of explanation. Shelve it and getting something that’s actually useful. Like this: Jazz Guitar, Complete Edition (Book & CD) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739066374/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_jpuWAbXE3WE7X

My approach is classically oriented and requires an ability to read music at a level found say at the beginning of intermediate piano lesson books-just to give an example of what I'm thinking of here.

J. S. Bach four part Chorales-tough to follow up on this. But understanding the rules becomes a task of inscrutable difficulty so these two books might help-could need require some additional tutoring on the side.

Robert Ottman's Elementary Harmony -Theory and Practice approachable but lacks some thoroughness. Available at the online booksellers too.

Harmony and Voice Leading (2nd Edition) /Aldwell and Schachter -very thorough, steep learning curve.

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I'd say limb independence. I spent some time working through this book and it's very challenging.

Here it is: https://www.amazon.com/Serious-Electric-Bass-Complete-Contemporary/dp/1576238830. BTW, you can preview the beginning of the book - it's actually Chapter 2 where the playing part starts.