William Leavitt Guitar Method Book | A Modern Method for Guitar Complete Edition Volumes 1 2 3 | Guitar Book, Guitar Lesson Songbook | Advanced Sheet Music with Solos Duets and Practice Exercises Paperback – December 1, 1999

Yeah, it looks cool to know how to play guitar. Or you want to serenade someone with a guitar piece. But what use is that dream if you don't know where to start? Well, guess what? Start with this book.I ordered this book back in April 2011. But due to life commitments, I hadn't picked up the book until a week ago when I got it rebound into spiral binding. This is probably the best book I've picked up in terms of learning guitar and reading standard notation. I wished I picked it up sooner. I regret all that time wasted over 3 years.My background involves piano lessons for 7 years and then quitting lessons and playing off and on for 10 more years after that. I also attended a college guitar class a couple years ago which helped with my beginner guitar skills. Because of the class, I already knew some guitar basics by the time I started using this book. Like many other reviews have stated, this book has no tab whatsoever. I was fine with this concept because I frankly don't like tab. I am used to reading standard notation for many years, so using this book helped me stay in my comfort zone. I know I can't avoid tab forever, because there are some sheet music that I want to play which only comes in tab.This book actually helps to teach technique rather than just learning notes and sightread. I noticed that other reviewers say that there's this "learning curve" once you begin the book. The reason is because you're immediately introduced to strings 1-5 (high E to A) and expected to play these notes along with chords that they throw at you in the first 3 lessons and the first duet. At the same time, this book teaches chord fingering, guitar strumming, and builds finger strength at the beginning. I have a steel-string guitar; it is definitely painful to develop the calluses. As a beginner, it is hard to play for very long. I usually practice for 15 to 30 minutes to 1 hour every day just to get better at guitar.Just a warning for those who want instant gratification, you are definitely NOT meant to rush through this book. I started this book a week ago and I started on page 10 today. I still can't pick the chords perfectly, but I'm very close. (I just get some buzzing on my fretboard because I'm not pressing hard enough.) You are not meant to be stuck at one exercise until you perfect it. If you get the gist of it and can get most of the fingering, strumming, and timing correct, I feel that you can move on. But as the book states, it says to keep reviewing all the exercises as you move on. Which they're totally right about. Playing as much as you can will bring you closer to being a better guitar player. And reviewing and perfecting old exercises become easier in time. That also helps to boost confidence in playing.I'll post an update as I get near the end of volume one of the book. I recommend spiral binding the book. The glue binding is shoddy. With some use, I can expect some pages to just slide out. Do yourself a favor and pay $6 at OfficeMax to get it rebound. It's so much better to read when it's lying flat and not closing on itself. I also recommend playing with a metronome if your timing isn't the best. And if you know someone who has lots of guitar experience and standard notation knowledge, that can help with learning this book too.Overall, I still recommend this book for those are really studious and dedicated to learning how to play guitar. It's a bit dry, but I still enjoy the fact that I'm solidly learning how to play guitar.

I used to play the violin and am now learning the guitar. The style of instruction in Modern Method will be very familiar to those who have studied a classical instrument: gradual introduction of new techniques and musical elements, introduced and reinforced by études ("studies", i.e. technical exercises). The exercises aren't particularly tuneful and the rewards mainly come in learning to play better. Although this book serves as the backbone of a course in guitar, you'll probably want to supplement it with material which is more fun to play (tabs for favorite songs, blues licks, riffs, play-along CDs, whatever). Working through this entire book will require amounts of time and commitment comparable to multiple college courses, so you might as well reward yourself along the way.It is all standard notation (no tab), but it introduces notation progressively, so you needn't already be able to read. Guitar-specific annotations (fingerings, strings, positions, picking) are used, so it's not ambiguous how the pieces are meant to be played. That said, the notation is not busy: the authors annotate a figure when it's introduced, and you're expected to play it without annotation from then on. Since I already knew how to read music, it's hard for me to gauge how difficult it would be to start from scratch with this book. The initial material is beginner-level but I suspect the learning curve is steep if you're simultaneously being introduced to the instrument and to written music. The advantage is that you're learning to be a musician, not just a guitarist. If, however, you're interested in learning a specific genre (blues, rock, metal) which is based on basic chords and/or riffs, this book will definitely not be the shortest route to your destination.There is very little text in Modern Method; it's almost all music. It's pretty clear that this book is meant to be used with a teacher. If you're learning on your own (as I am), you'll need plenty of attention to detail to get the most out of the exercises. The exercises often are meant to instruct you in subtle elements of technique which aren't explicitly stated; for example, it may become clear after looking carefully at a piece that it's designed to be played with very few changes in left hand fingering. If you just play the exercises rather than study them, you'll miss these fine points. It's in these subtleties that the quality of the book really becomes apparent. This kind of detail combined with years worth of material is worth a high rating.One of the other reviewers suggested getting the book coil-bound at a copy shop so it will lie flat. I did this and strongly recommend it; it probably makes this book more convenient than the individual volumes, and it's cheaper overall.