Reddit mentions of Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method: Grade 1 (Grade 1)

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.

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 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!

>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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.