Book Two – The Basic Building Blocks Book

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Foreword (excerpt from Book Two – The Basic Building Blocks Book)

For the Love of Guitar, a series of four books. By Rik Emmett
$10
For the Love of Guitar
(Book Two)

Welcome to the second book in a series of four. As the title of this installment suggests, the contents here are focused on giving your hands some basic things to work with, and getting you acquainted with some of the musical concepts that might nurture your budding LOVE OF GUITAR.

If you’re anything like me, you usually skip over all of this introductory stuff and cut to the chase.
So we’ll just take a short cut here, and I’ll bring you on-line by reiterating some of the basic philosophy ‘round these parts. The Alpha and the Omega is a simple love of the guitar. This series of books is dedicated to the proposition that everyone is entitled, every now and then, to just sit back and do a little
pickin’ & grinnin’.

Table of Contents

  • Foreword I
  • Key to Notational Symbols IV
  • Introduction to Modes 1
  • Basic History of Modes 2
  • Modes, Part Two – Fingerings 4
  • When & Where to Use Modes 4
  • Full-Scale Fundamentals, Flexible Future 5
  • Horizontal Movement 6
  • Sublime Potential in Basic Impulse 6
  • Further Horizontal Movement – Scale Formulas 8
  • Shifting & Strumming: Meter Breakdowns 10
  • Keep Mentally Ahead of the Physical Activity 10
  • Hungry Heart, Open Mind 11
  • Introduction to Some Different Chord Forms 12
  • Effective is Acceptable 13
  • Building Songs with Moving Chord Forms 14
  • The Money Chords 15
  • To Speed Or Not To Speed 16
  • Basic Ear Training – Recognizing Intervals 19
  • Power Chords & Chanting Monks 20
  • R&R Power Chords, Part 2: Add-ons and Suspensions 22
  • A Primer on Tension and Resolution 23
  • Back-Bent Knuckle Partial Barres, Part One 24
  • Back-Bent Knuckle Partial Barres, Part Two 26
  • Function Over Form 27
  • Altered Chords – Passing Chords – Voice Leading 27
  • That Chromatic Feeling 29
  • Coming to Terms with Signs & Symbols, Part One 31
  • Part Two: Chord Symbols and Road Signs 33
  • Shapes that Cross Over 34
  • Transpose the Known Into the Unknown 35
  • Fingerstyle Chording 36
  • Some Engaging Fingerstyle Chords 37
  • Light Bulbs, Four Steps & Five Block Shapes 39
  • Donkey Work 39
  • The Shape Shifter’s Memory Patterns 41
  • An Octaves Primer 42
  • Don’t Let Your Train of Thought Stop Here 45
  • The Power of Five – The Pentatonic Scale 46
  • Building Up the Fingerboard with The Five Block System 48
  • The Five Block System, Part Two 49
  • The Five W’s. Who? What? When? Where? and Why? 50