EXCERPT: Welcome to the Guitar Clinic!

This book will give you helpful information to clarify and expand on the techniques presented at the clinics I teach. Because of the wide variations of ability in students who attend these clinics, you will find exercises and examples here that range greatly in difficulty. If you have a desire to become an excellent musician (which I'm figuring is the reason you are at this clinic or have bought this book) you need to make sure that you understand and are proficient in all the material presented. Students of any level should make sure that they are not neglecting important abilities like being able to read music, understanding music theory and knowing the names of the notes and where they occur on the guitar.

This book is not meant to be a complete course on mastering the guitar; you should work on the exercises presented and if you have problems with a particular exercise you should look into purchasing the book that the exercise comes from, so that you can work more fully on correcting your weaknesses.

If at anytime you have further questions about your next step or any specific question you can always e-mail me at faq@muse-eek.com and your question will be posted on the muse-eek.com website, along with an answer. As an owner of this book you are also entitled to enter the "members section" of the muse-eek website where there is further educational information in the form of text, videos and audio to help you in the learning process. (See the muse-eek.com website for details.) Note that most of the musical examples in this book can be found in the form of midifiles on the muse-eek.com website.

This book covers the major weaknesses and misconceptions commonly found among guitarists. It will cover the following subjects:

1. Reading
2. Rhythm
3. Music Theory: both chord construction and scale construction
4. Scale positions on the guitar fretboard
5. Chord voicings: both root positions and inversions
6. Walking bass and chords
7. Improvisation Techniques, including Scales (Modal Sequencing),
Approach Note Theory, Chord Reharmonization and Hexatonics.

The improvisation section presents two common improvisational methods and one more advanced type. Of course there are many more improvisational methods available.

Although I present it in detail at all clinics I give, to keep this book affordable I have not included a discussion of ear training with the necessary accompanying CDs. Ear training requires a two part approach of listening and singing exercises. I recommend you look into the following books to develop your ear training skills.

1. Ear Training: One Note Beginning ISBN #1890944122
2. Ear Training: One Note Intermediate ISBN #1890944130
3. Ear Training: One Note Advanced ISBN #1890944149
4. Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training ISBN #189094419X

Please see the muse-eek website for help on what level is best for your current ability. I can't stress enough that developing your ear is of paramount importance to becoming a great musician.

So let's get started. First we need to discuss rhythm. If you already understand how to read rhythm and how music is represented on a staff you can move on to page 7-8 for directions and begin reading the rhythm exercises on page 9.

For those of you who have no experience reading music the following pages give an explanation of how rhythm is presented in written form. If you don't understand what the notes are on a music staff, please see page 22 for help with reading notes on the guitar.