Reddit mentions of Creative Guitar 1: Cutting-Edge Techniques

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.

You should check out the YouTube channel Let's Talk About Math Rock. It's a pretty good resource on learning the fundamentals of math rock.

Also, check out the book Creative Guitar 1.

The CAGED system is HOW you integrate those two, which explains your 2nd question. As for the first one, chord shapes are just open chords moved around the fretboard. You'll have to look up the pentatonic scale chart on the internet for the scale, and it's comprised of 5 different shapes. One book I'd recommend is Guthrie Govan's Creative Guitar I. There are other ways to obtain it too, if that's what you want.

I'm not asking you to NOT study the CAGED system. What I was trying to say in my previous post is that CAGED requires a lot of time to understand let alone execute it because it requires you to know the fretboard considerably well AND dexterity of your finger. I've seen a lot of people setting their bars too high only to abandon them altogether. You said you were fairly new, right? You can try it if you want and I wish you all the best.

> but there's no equivalence there

Not sure what you're saying. The assertion is that CAGED, for reasons the author fails to articulate, produces "limited, amateurish, boring" playing. Govan is a counter example. Use knows CAGED, he teaches CAGED, he is neither limited creatively, amateurish, nor boring.

On the other hand, the guy dissing CAGED, who is selling an alternative commercially, is limited creatively, amateurish and boring, at least in all the public media I could find of the guy.

> I'm interested in hearing Guthrie's take. [..] I don't know of anything with him actually teaching it. Do you happen to have a link?

It's in his book Creative Guitar 1 - Cutting-Edge Techniques. It's used throughout the book, described early on, then referred to periodically as a bit of scaffolding to attach other things to. It's clear that it's part of his mental model of the fretboard.

There's instrument-specific books and websites for that. A lot of people on /r/guitarlessons talk about justinguitar.com Some stress fretboard knowledge, the CAGED system and connecting pentatonics and other scales up the neck more than traditional theory. Ultiately it's about visualizing pentatonic blocks and tetrachord boxes running up the neck and having the LH hit them. I recommend Tom Kolb's theory book, and Guthrie Govan's books (which i remember seeing for $4 in Half Price books), you can read reviews on amazon. THE MI books by Clement and Capuzzo are pretty good. The popular jazz guitar books by Fewell, Fisher, Baker, etc contain crash courses on essential chord shapes and typical sequences

http://justinguitar.com/en/SC-000-Scales.php

http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Knowledge-Contemporary-Guitarist-Clement/dp/0739031570/

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Guitar-Cutting-Edge-Tech/dp/1860744621

Here's an excerpt from Guthrie Govan's Creative Guitar 1: Cutting Edge Techniques.

"In guitar-playing terms, bad postural habits might be the result of lots of playing while slumped in front of the TV, staring too intently at your fretting hand or studying a piece of written music when its pages are strewn across the floor, forcing your neck into an awkward angle. In general, you should aim to keep your spine and wrists as straight as possible.

At one time, I had a teaching job that required me to sit in a tiny practice room for nine hours on the trot, and after a few weeks I started to feel an unpleasant, dull pain at the back of my shoulder blade which made playing a lot more of a chore than it used to be. I finally figured out that the cause of the problem wasn't the guitar playing itself; it was leaning over a stumpy table in a particularly inaccessible part of the room, writing out licks and solos or students with my guitar still strapped on. As soon as I realized this, I moved the table nearer (to) my picking/writing hand, added a pile of books underneath my manuscript paper to elevate it to a more convenient level and the pain went away. Remember that playing should feel as effortless as possible. Try to design your practice environment with this in mind."

TLDR: Playing the guitar shouldn't be uncomfortable. If it is you're doing something wrong.

Guthrie Govan's books are great. I'd suggest book 1 for theory, book 2 for application of fretboard theory for advanced techniques.

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Guitar-Cutting-Edge-Tech/dp/1860744621

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Guitar-Advanced-Techniques-Vol/dp/1860744672

Creative Guitar by Guthrie Govan. Great book, well written, not to long, and basically covers everything a student of guitar should know, including all the theory that will be relevant to a non-jazz guitarist, and how it relates to the guitar.

Learn lots of songs, but also try reading some books. Creative Guitar and its sequel are awesome books, I learned a ton from them. Just remember to take it slow and try to apply the concepts to what you are already playing and new things you're learning. Good luck, have fun!