Comprehensive Musicianship for the Guitarist is a modular method series I created to address the needs of guitar students independent of genre and playing style.
Musicianship is an insight into and appreciation of the elements, skills and concepts that make up music. Recognizing the elements and procedures of music and how they relate to your instrument is fundamental to effectively advancing as a player. Over the past 35 years I have developed and refined a comprehensive method of succesfully connecting musicianship with learning the guitar. Guitar students come from diverse levels of experience and have a variety of goals they wish to accomplish. To address these various needs I have made this method modular so that, after proceeding through to a given point students may move on to subjects that interest them the most. Outlined below are the volumes of this series and what needs to be accomplished before attempting each of them.
This method series provides a pathway for guitar students to advance quickly with a comprehensive approach to musicianship. It does not rely on style and so serves the student whether they are studying Folk, Rock, Classical, Jazz or any other genre of music. The fundamental elements of music and our skill in using them are at the heart of this method. It is preferred that students use this method series in conjunction with a qualified professional instructor. It is certainly possible to use this method as a course of self study. It is my hope that if you choose self study that, at some point, you arrange to have at least a few lessons with a professional. There are elements of technique, specific to style that I do not address in this method or mention only in passing. There is no book or video that can lobserve your playing and tell if you are developing an effective technique. Furthermore, the individual elements of style have a bearing on technique. The type of vibrato a Classical guitarist commonly uses is very different from what a Blues guitarist does. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to learn our instrument.
