A Modern Method for Guitar Vol 1 - Thread Index

[znerken]

Ten pages at a time was a good recommendation. Just work on those ten for a week without to much judgment. That's what was done in these study groups as well.

look at these study groups for whatever lesson you're in, and get a feel for what other people were doing.

None of the study groups thread focused on 10 pages for a week. That would be way too much for me also, and I play several hours every day.

[matt.guitarteacher]

None of the study groups thread focused on 10 pages for a week. That would be way too much for me also, and I play several hours every day.

Sorry. Top of my head. Anyway, really do whatever you feel works. If you want to guide, the study group threads are well thought out.

[znerken]

Sorry. Top of my head. Anyway, really do whatever you feel works. If you want to guide, the study group threads are well thought out.

Ye I use the study groups. If you scroll up, you can see how many pages they worked on. This is the index thread

[matt.guitarteacher]

Ye I use the study groups. If you scroll up, you can see how many pages they worked on. This is the index thread

Last time I was working in volume 2, I guess. It was about 10 pages at a time. At that point, it's really helpful , because the lessons are very diverse in what they cover. Couple pages of chord voicings , couple pages of scale reading, a "piece " for solo guitar , arpeggio page etc. etc. some of that stuff isn't enough on its own for a week, or is too mindnumbing/difficult to laser focus in on. There are no rules with this stuff.

[russmac]

After fumbling around for a few days, I just stumbled onto this site. Still don't know how I did it.


Welcome Fabian.

[znerken]

I wonder, to you who finished this book; after you were finished, in a retrospective view, what did you learn? How did you improve? Not from other stuff you practiced, but as a direct consequence of exercises in the book.

[matt.guitarteacher]

I wonder, to you who finished this book; after you were finished, in a retrospective view, what did you learn? How did you improve? Not from other stuff you practiced, but as a direct consequence of exercises in the book.

It's good solid material all around. Good reading material etc.

For me personally, the rest stroke chord strumming which is basically required for those chord études and solos was tremendously valuable. Really taught me that technique, which I've used constantly ever since. That and the single finger rolls. I learned those specifically from that one and use them regularly as well.

There's nothing wasted in working through volume 1 at all.

[Jazzstdnt]

Not to be flippant, but if you will look at the Index on page 126 then I think that you can say that you will be better at everything listed there.

You will play fundamentals (scales, chords, arpeggios) better. You will read better. You will develop better left and right hand technique. You will learn to render original solo material in an artistic and musical way.

Overall, you will be a better guitarist for having worked through the book diligently. What you won't be is a jazz player, not yet anyway.

[znerken]

Pages 67 to 69 missing?

Yes, @fep, can you add 67-69 to the index?

A Modern Method for Guitar Vol 1 Pages 67 to 69

[georgebanketas]

I know I am late to this party. Thank you for this resource. I started MM vol 1 a few weeks back. I am currently on pg 18. I will start back at the beginning and post in the related threads. There are all these awesome posts about the exercises and how some played through it. I have already gained some good tips going forward from the first thread. Looking forward to going through this all the way.

[Art ”Artie” Storm]

Ok. I did not even know i own vol 1 and 2 from 1966. My godfather gave it to me 10 years ago when i started playing. Never really learned to read music, just some easy songs with piano. Now it is time to do something about it.

[jetaman]

Hey guys I have a question about picking - In the DVD video, Larry explains that he always plays pick rest, taht means he rests a pick on an adjacent string when picking a note. This technique is a bit awkward for me, because i played for many years with free picking. But on the other hand I am self taught and I feel like i have a lot of gaps in my technique, and i want to brush up all my gaps, and start learning the right way. So what would be your suggestion - start re-adjusting and playing rest pick like Larry suggests or keep playing free picking?
Thanks

[matt.guitarteacher]

Pick up new techniques anywhere you can and any time you feel they may be of value. This style isn't "replacing" your free picking technique. Doesn't really work that way. Anyway, when you know BOTH ways, you can basically just choose between the two, subconsciously, by ear, as you see fit.

For me personally, that rest stroke technique was one of the most valuable things I got from the exercises in that book. Those chord solo études, or whatever they're called, are worth the book by themselves. Those particular exercises will benefit greatly from having good rest stroke technique.

My $0.02.

[jetaman]

Pick up new techniques anywhere you can and any time you feel they may be of value. This style isn't "replacing" your free picking technique. Doesn't really work that way. Anyway, when you know BOTH ways, you can basically just choose between the two, subconsciously, by ear, as you see fit.

For me personally, that rest stroke technique was one of the most valuable things I got from the exercises in that book. Those chord solo études, or whatever they're called, are worth the book by themselves. Those particular exercises will benefit greatly from having good rest stroke technique.

My $0.02.

Thanks Matt! That is the kind of advice that I was looking for. May I ask you some more questions since we're on the subject:
I start playing all exercises in 60 bmp and work towards 80 bmp. However, on the DVD Larry plays everything at 80 bmp from the start. I play slower becase it's hard for me to read and play without looking at the guitar. Also, i want to play as clean as possible, without extra noises and sounds from the fingers or strings. So, how much time should be spent on exercises? To what extent should I focus on one particular exercise?

[jetaman]

Hey guys, after Matt's comment that rest pick technique is the most useful thing he learned out of this book, I spent some time practicing it. I recorded a small video and need some review from you guys. So, please check it out and give me your two cents - am I on the right track? Am I holding the pick correctly? Is the rest pick technique working for me?

[djg]

Hey guys, after Matt's comment that rest pick technique is the most useful thing he learned out of this book, I spent some time practicing it. I recorded a small video and need some review from you guys. So, please check it out and give me your two cents - am I on the right track? Am I holding the pick correctly? Is the rest pick technique working for me?

reststrokes and alternate picking usually dont go together well.

[swannod]

Hey guys, after Matt's comment that rest pick technique is the most useful thing he learned out of this book, I spent some time practicing it. I recorded a small video and need some review from you guys. So, please check it out and give me your two cents - am I on the right track? Am I holding the pick correctly? Is the rest pick technique working for me?

I can only offer the opinion of someone else who has been working through Volume 1 for about 1 1/2 years. Your hands seems reasonably relaxed and your hold on the pick seems normal. I'm sure you're playing with a metronome, but the speed studies definitely benefit from rehearsing with a metronome as well as following Larry's advice to play the study with a full bar break between the patterns. Perhaps you could work a bit on your tone on the highest string - I had a big problem with that (in fact still working on it). You should just play slower or only focus on the tone on highest string. By slow I mean slow enough to the spell the scale in your head out loud, if you can't do that, it's too fast. Once you can keep a consistent tone and spell at the same time, I think you'll be surprised that you can bump the tempo in reasonable increments and still get a good sound. Other than stick with it and realize that from what I've read and seen from videos and from my own personal progress - spending a couple years on getting a good rest stroke is pretty normal. Based on the results I've seen, it seems worth the investment - that's a lot of control.

Going back a bit to your earlier posts - I probably got to page 100 and used free stroke for the alternate picking and then I watched the video where Larry said you should use the rest stroke even when alternate picking. So I went back to page 1 and went through everything again. In particular I found focusing on 8th note studies, 16 notes studies, triplet studies, speed studies, and string skipping picking studies important. It now feels comfortable though I can't yet go very fast (150bpm 8th notes before it falls apart). At first it seemed it would be impossible to get fast with the rest stroke but after spending a lot of time on the speed studies - it's pretty clear that just not true. It just takes a lot practice.

My other tip is that I find it counter productive to spend too much time on any one thing in one sitting. With the exception of maybe the chord etudes there's really no value in practicing anything in Volume I so much it becomes memorized / mechanical. In fact, I've now completely stopped caring about "finishing" Volume I. I'll never be finished. I've instead collected all the other Leavitt books as well as a couple of the Real Books. Now what I do is just work on stuff (literally anything of interest from Volume I) that sounds bad for anywhere from 5-45 minutes. Then I "break" to learn/review a Rhythm study, learn a Classical picking piece, or sight read from a Real book. Other times I break and try to learn a Charlie Christian solo / lick. I've also found it often to helps to more or less intentionally "forget" a specific study. When you come back to it much later you'll find that there were things you just couldn't have understood the first time around. I'll probably be properly on Volume II in a couple of months, but I suspect I'll be reopening Volume I for some time to come.

Perhaps one final tip is that I found that the position reviews at the end of the book are really punishing and take a very, very long time if you really want to be able to "feel" the keys and really "know" all the chords. I forced myself to flip back and go through all the chord forms and then spent a lot of time trying different ones to figure out which voicing I preferred. Sometimes this was to minimize movement, other times because of the sound. I was shocked how hard this was, but that was because I had played the chord exercises in a memorized/rote way. Finally, given how difficult they were for me, going over and over a position review became a bit too mind numbing - I found Leavitt's Melodic Rhythm studies useful for keeping up my enthusiasm. You can practice a lot of different chord progressions and can then come back feeling refreshed. Also excellent rest stroke practice because there's so many different rhythm patterns.

[bluestime]

Hello!

I am new here and just working on the last pages of Vol I. Is there a study group for Vol II in this forum?

[jolz]

Same here, I am also working on the last pages of Vol 1, would be interested in joining a study group for volume 2, great idea

[musicturtle]

Hello!

I am new here and just working on the last pages of Vol I. Is there a study group for Vol II in this forum?

Me too!

New here and just into the first 10 pages or so of Vol. 2

I guess we could start our own thread if you all were into it.

[jolz]

I am still working on the last parts of volume 1, it's taking a bit longer than I expected (the chords to the position reviews are really challenging!). I suggest to create threads in the same format as this study group, that is: "A Modern Method for Guitar Vol 2 Pages x to x", and create an index thread like this one where it's linked. I will join in and post my recorded videos as soon as I finish the first exercises in vol 2. Looking forward!

[swannod]

I've started Vol. II around mid-April - as mentioned elsewhere Vol. II just seems very different due to the deep focus on the major scale across the fretboard and triads for the first 60 pages of the book. I think doing these exercises without relating them to actual music seems pretty counterproductive and honestly pretty boring.

My feeling so far is that Melodic Rhythm For Guitar (MR) is intended as a direct followup to Vol. I and to be used concurrently with Vol. II - it uses everything from Vol. I and continues to push you since the reading is more challenging due to the rhythms and utilizes all the chord forms and then some. Leavitt asks you to play the exercises in different positions which is exactly what you're studying in Vol. II.

The Classical Studies for Pick Style Guitar (CS) also seems like a direct follow up to Vol. I and to be used concurrently with Vol. II. If the picking studies didn't sink in from Vol. I, this book will definitely fix that in hurry (or slowly in my case, it's hard). Many of the pieces use higher positions and consolidate various technical problems one encountered in Vol. I.

All this to say, I wonder if the study group for Vol. II wouldn't benefit from just being more open-ended and flexible? i.e. give 4 weeks for each key and people can include the studies plus whatever material from MR or CS (or something else!) they feel demonstrates putting that practice into action.

[musicturtle]

I've started Vol. II around mid-April - as mentioned elsewhere Vol. II just seems very different due to the deep focus on the major scale across the fretboard and triads for the first 60 pages of the book. I think doing these exercises without relating them to actual music seems pretty counterproductive and honestly pretty boring.

My feeling so far is that Melodic Rhythm For Guitar (MR) is intended as a direct followup to Vol. I and to be used concurrently with Vol. II - it uses everything from Vol. I and continues to push you since the reading is more challenging due to the rhythms and utilizes all the chord forms and then some. Leavitt asks you to play the exercises in different positions which is exactly what you're studying in Vol. II.

The Classical Studies for Pick Style Guitar (CS) also seems like a direct follow up to Vol. I and to be used concurrently with Vol. II. If the picking studies didn't sink in from Vol. I, this book will definitely fix that in hurry (or slowly in my case, it's hard). Many of the pieces use higher positions and consolidate various technical problems one encountered in Vol. I.

All this to say, I wonder if the study group for Vol. II wouldn't benefit from just being more open-ended and flexible? i.e. give 4 weeks for each key and people can include the studies plus whatever material from MR or CS (or something else!) they feel demonstrates putting that practice into action.

I think this is a good idea.

Either way thanks for the reference of MR and CS. I am already hooked on those two.

At the moment I am practicing the G major scales up and down the fretboard and the next page in Vol 2. (pp 18-21)

Adding to that the first piece in CS and the first study in MR. Definitely makes it more interesting.

Also agree with one of your posts above that MR provides a good review of chords and rhythm technique.

[Danil]

Speaking of CS.

In Allegro piece by Carcassi William asks for 120 bpm. With his books I try hard to observe scarce instructions and markings as closely as possible - it was not until I stopped leaving out inconvenient things I started to make some progress.

A tempo of 120 sticks out - I can't remember any other occasion of him explicitly setting bpm.

I wonder if anyone has managed to make it sound musical with a pick approaching this tempo with all that wide string skipping? Of course the tempo is the one intended by Carcassi - for a self respecting classic guitar player that. For the rest -
the piece is enjoyable at slower tempos, but this tempo mark looks to be being there on purpose.

[swannod]

Speaking of CS.
In Allegro piece by Carcassi William asks for 120 bpm. With his books I try hard to observe scarce instructions and markings as closely as possible - it was not until I stopped leaving out inconvenient things I started to make some progress.

"Leaving out inconvenient things" - I kind of wish I had realized this earlier when studying with the Method. There's just no point driving anything into the ground, Leavitt consistently introduces new ideas and concepts that won't really be explained or seriously practiced until much, much later. The beauty of this approach, once you accept it, is that review becomes significantly more enjoyable. Earlier pieces still retain a considerable amount of value as you progress.

As to the Carcassi piece specifically - I think I started learning that one 5-6 months ago? I have the notes more or less memorized, but I've found that even at slower tempos it's quite rare that I can play it very well. Definitely not at 120bpm. Personally, I've discovered that to be true for nearly every piece in CS.

My feeling is that the CS pieces are much like the Chord Etudes. They are intended to be revisited over and over and over again. If you ever get to the point where you can play them with ease even after some time away then I think you've probably achieved a pretty high level of guitar technique!