A Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Modern Music Theory for Guitarists

Minas Botsis: It is an excellent but simply written book which helped me to connect guitar playing with the music theory. Following the book it also helped me to improve my fluency with the fretboard. I really recommend it someone who has learned to playing guitar with tabs as well as practically soloing and would like to further learn where and how all this is being put together.

Germany on Mar 02, 2024

Miguel Pagán: I am only about 10-15 pages into this book and I love it. Part of the reason is that the author is a teacher. A teacher is someone who is able to break down something that may be considered complicated and explains it in a way that is simple and succinct to the student. When I am done with this book I will definitely look into others by the same author.

United States on Feb 18, 2024

Kevin J. Cordell: I bought this book on a recommendation I read online in a guitar forum. The book looks intimidating at first and I thought I knew how to read music after playing the clarinet years ago. But I think this book is going to give a good challenge and foundation when I go to read some other music books that are in music notation without tabs. I started reading it and listening to the audio tracks that come with the book. So far I am very impressed with the information and techniques in the book.

United States on Feb 04, 2024

MikeK: Having taken up the guitar after a 40+ year hiatus, and having had no formal training in music theory, I found this book to be extremely helpful. Among the scads of helpful information contained therein I found the discussions of scale construction and harmonization (e.g. why certain chords are played as minors within a major scale progression) to be of particular value to me. And using the accompanying audio files as backing tracks gives one valuable insight into the proper execution of various scales, intervals and chords. The lessons are well-written and easy to follow. Highly recommended for the casual player who wants to improve their skills and knowledge on a solid musical foundation.

United States on Sep 26, 2023

Mark Sneddon: When I first tackled guitar theory my route of choice was random videos videos on Youtube, people I jammed with etc The commonality of these were the disconnect. People would say one thing, while others said others.

This book is consistent, straight to the point, and will help you in your early days of learning musical theory as it related to the guitar.

United Kingdom on Aug 04, 2023

IgnasiIgnasi: Eu gostei do livro pois contem uma guia concisa para quem esta comecando ou ja tem um pouco de pratica com o violão/guitarra. Achei ela bem estruturada e completa.

Brazil on Jun 04, 2023

Chloe: As a semi professional musician, but new to guitar, I am now a huge fan of Fundamental changes and their methods to teaching the guitar. I've been religiously following the exercices with the added audio along with my guitar lessons and I'm starting to finally notice a significant progress in my playing.
I like the fact that the book really encourages you to follow things in order and how clearly things are explained. I didn't have any issues understanding what with my musical background but the great thing about this book is that it starts from the beginning (I do admit to skipping that part as I didn't need it) in a clear and precise manner so you will have no problem mastering the theory side.

One of my weak points is modes, I tend to just play/sing by ear without knowing what I'm actually doing. However, since starting this book I am starting to see the importance of not relying on just your musical ear and instinct, but actually knowing what you are playing and where you are going. Not to mention how its helping me with the fretboard and my dexterity.

I hugely recommend this book, and any other by Fundamental changes. I'll be buying others...

France on Feb 12, 2023

cescas1989: Book is well organized. Good print quality. Still only about halfway through but you should take it slow as there are many interesting concepts and examples to revisit. Will buy more form this author in future.

Canada on Dec 31, 2022

D. R. Greenfield: This book is foundational, and bears reading over carefully several times. Part One is standard fare. There are several things I wish he'd done differently, however. First, since this is a beginner's book, he really should have given the reader more thorough discussion of the Circle of Fifths, both from the major and the minor perspective. Also helpful would have been showing the student how to obtain the notes of any 7th chord (major or minor) by simply following a specific major/minor pattern on the circle. Memorizing the Circle and knowing these two patterns gives you the ability to pick out any 7th chord, major or minor. His discussion of chords is quite confusing as a result of this omission. The student will look in vain for a pattern of some kind to make sense of chord structures. The patterns are found in the Circle, so why wasn't this presented graphically? (Hence the negative reviews I suppose.) Part Two is probably another source of vexation for the beginner, who is apt to wonder why on Earth he should care about modes. Here again, it all goes back to the Circle. And had Alexander paid a little more attention to the Circle and how a mode represents a...

United States on Jan 31, 2021

Chris Dubay: Excellent Book! I have worked with modes and applying practical music theory to my guitar playing for quite some time. I lived in Los Angeles for many years and decided not to go to GIT and understand why Joseph went on his own course. I have for many years. The concepts in this book will be challenging for any guitarist. Church modes are not easy to learn. Instructors will confuse you. You have to set out on a personal quest to learn and master them. (Its certainly worth it) Although, you will have to find new people to play with that can handle what you can do. I have many learning books and dvds and am becoming quite a fan of Joseph's books. This book is similar to to Frank Gambale's book 1 which i love but is confusing and leaves out some very important ideas that Joseph explains easily and clearly. (however read Joseph's book first and the work with gambale's). Tom Kolb has a couple of really good books one on modes, one on music theory for guitar (his music theory for guitar lacks practical application, but a great reference). Oh, Andrew Wasson's modes pdf also. (get all of these books) First buy Joseph's book and then buy all of the others. Your playing...

United States on Jan 25, 2015