Rhythm Guitar 365

I'm reviewing this now, even though I haven't finished it. But I wanted to jot down some notes since, gah, this is SUCH THE PERFECT BOOK and what I was looking for! For the record (since I may update this review as I progress through the book), I just completed the Week 1 exercises and I'm rating this 5/5 stars (or should I say 5/5 STRUMS?! ho ho ho). YES, 2% THROUGH AND I'M ALREADY 5/5 HAPPY.

So I learned to play guitar in high school and used to be super passionate about it: I played hours and hours every day, I was in the guitar ensemble and a bunch of theater orchestras (community and school), I performed solo compositions during talent show and shit like that. I had big sparkly (but vague) dreams of becoming a, ahem, Master Guitarist, in the style of... John McLaughlin? I dunno. Anyway, then college happened and then life happened and then that dream died. How very sad.

This past month, I busted out my dusty-yet-still-beloved guitars, since I finally had (a) the space to play them and (b) an amp again. YAAAAASSSSS.

BUT. Butt. My knowledge has grown Swiss cheese-like with many years passing. I had my open and bar vanilla chords down, I remembered like one single jazzy chord, I half-remembered parts of a couple scales, and my strumming rhythm was just basically terrible. I needed some STRUCTURE and GUIDANCE. How to find it?! Where to begin again!?! I knew I wanted to fill all these gaps: chords (which I could remind myself through accumulating songs to play), scales (exercise book?), rhythm (exercise book?), and - ideally - some music theory (watching random explainer videos and that one scene from Whiplash?!). I debated getting an instructor, or joining the local music school - but, man, I ain't got time (or budget!) for either of those, really. Also, the guitar playing world seemed to have gotten so chattery with online (charlatans?) guitar instruction websites and Reddits and YouTube tutorials!? WHAT TO DO?!

ENTER THIS BOOK. I actually got a bunch of guitary books for Xmas, all in the service of this de-cheese mission, and I've futzed with several of them. BUT THIS BOOK. OH MAN. It has been the best. IT IS WHAT I SEEK. IT IS WHAT YOU SEEK, GUITARIST OF INDETERMINATE SKILL AND BACKGROUND. Because it really is super handy.

I thought it was just going to be strumming exercises, but it's so much more! First, as an intro chapter, we get a deep end dive into music theory. Honestly, most of this went over my head. I mean, I get that chords are made up of (mathematical?) combos of notes. And... uh... you can make chords in lots of different ways. Then, every week, we get a chord progression for the week. Week 2 is I-IV-V-I, key of A major, which translates to A-D-E-A. Then, every day of said week, you play that chord progression in a variety of styles: funk, jazz, country, folk, classical, metal (!?!). So many ways to skin a cat! Along the way, you learn about rhythm (I shake my fist at you, R&B!!!), but also - again - theory (since you're playing the chords in a bunch of pretzel configurations up and down the neck - I shake my fist at YOU, jazz!!) and ample picking as well (classical guitar, what a pain also!). You're giving both your left-hand AND right-hand fingers an excellent workout, AND your rhythm brain. I didn't think I'd enjoy essentially rote exercises so much but... it's VERY ENJOYABLE? You can practice practice practice and each exercise gets a bit easier. Some (R&B!!!) remain challenging, but that's even better: you're working on your weak spots! And it really is enlightening to see, again, how very many ways one can skin a cat.

Oh yes! Forgot to mention, but a KEY thing is that the book comes with some audio files you can download from the Hal Leonard (who is that guy anyway) website. That is KEY KEY KEY. Having those files on-hand, playing along with them, listening to them first, man, it's like having your personal guitar teacher patiently replaying it to you again and again. For the challenging exercises, I slow it down to 0.5x or 0.75x speed and stumble along. It's awesome.

I'm pumped. I can't recommend this highly enough. I don't know if it'd be good for someone who's just starting out as a guitarist - like, I might focus on having a bit of fun then and just learning a bunch of songs and building up your fretboard calluses. But if you want a comprehensive/holistic approach to the entire beautiful instrument, this book has just been awesome.

(Putting this on my did-not-finish shelf since I don't want to have it lingering in my currently-reading shelf for YEARS, which is how long it would take to legitimately get through all of it.)