Modern Guitar Method Grade 1, Expanded Edition Spiral-bound – September 2, 2008

The first Mel Bay Grade 1 book I had lacked the spiral binding and the CD, but the material inside was in the style of where I started way back when with learning the trombone - the basics, in other words. I've seen negative reviews about the songs being outdated, but you don't buy a book like this to learn songs, you buy it to learn to read music. There may be more familiar tunes in Hal Leonard books, but Mel Bay has it all covered for learning. I'm on books 3 and 4 now, slowly making my way through, and I've purchased this Grade 1 book for 2 other people so far, that's how much I respect what it has to offer. You have to seek out the spiral binding to make it lay flat while using it, and the CD can be used to demonstrate how the practice pieces should sound. Nobody I know is going to be as good as the recordings right off, but that's true of ANY music book, whether it has standard notation or tablature. Mel Bay's material will give you a solid basis to build on, but a good music teacher can help with the finer points. If I was teaching, I'd recommend this book as a practice source.

this book is great for learning to read music notation. But.... the best part about this book is the scale studies. the scales studies really swings! the first 7 examples is enough to increase the chops of the flat picker and the jazz swing style guitar players.There are, however, original chordal pieces that sounds ok. They could have did better by using chord melody pieces, instead. By the way, in the other series, chord melody are addressed, eg. book 5,6,7.But it is this book that really lays down the ground work for the stuff yet to come. Great flat picking work out with great swing sounding tunes and great chord studies for the ear training, eventhough the chordal pieces aren't worth the time learning to play them. sounds phony and boring to me.Out of all seven books, I would just recommend this one.

I took beginning lessons several years ago using the original Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method, and got partially into grade 2 before life got in the way and my guitar studies fell by the wayside. Wanting to pick it back up, I found the expanded edition (with CDs), which is even better than the original. The expanded edition has many more songs and exercises, which adds a lot of variety and makes the learning more fun. The CDs also help ensure I'm playing the exercises correctly and at the right tempo, allowing me to make the progress I want without a teacher.

Me guitar instructor recommended this book to me. As the old standby it has been around forever, but this revised edition comes with a helpful CD. I've taken guitar lessons for 7 years and have played in a band for 6 years and I still find this book to be a valuable learning tool.

I learned on this system back when I was a kid, so this was something that was easy for me to get my son involved with.

MB series is good, and the expanded edition even better, and of course wish every book had that wire binding. CDs are good but not necessary, so usually opt for book w/o discs. worth buckling down and knocking through the whole series . . . repetition a plus

The print is too small on this version. It is not good for beginners. I wish I had purchased the regular version, which is what I had been using from the library. This has more material but it is too difficult for a beginner to see the staff.

Nice quality book. Purchased for my daughter's guitar lessons. Comes with CD so you can hear the songs as you learn to play them.

I started learning how to play guitar with the DVD course by Steve Krenz "learn and master guitar": without an actual instructor who would show me where to put my fingers on the strings, and who would encourage me, I wouldn't really have started playing guitar just by looking at a book.So, after this very good instructor (appearing to me on video) introduced me to the basics of guitar playing, when I reached lesson 9 in his course, I decided that I wanted to go deeper into the practice of playing chords, and into the learning of melodies that can be played in "first position".After learning the basics, you can go further on your own into exploring the world of music. So when I could play well barre' chords, and after having learned the limited amount of first position songs present in the L&M Guitar manual, I was hungry for more tunes, so I decided to get the Mel Bay's series. (I also got the Barrett Tagliarino's books that will let you explore the fretboard, and the "The Chord Wheel" which has allowed me to create my own chord progressions by understanding major scales in a very friendly, fast, and useful way).I got all 7 books by Mel Bay, and I can see now that this course will provide a more extended explanation of how to read music, filling the gaps or the things left uncovered by Steve Krenz's course (mainly how to read all music symbols, and how to understand chords represented in a vertical line of notes on the pentagram).With this 7 books course, I hope one day I'll be able to read whatever sheet of music I will have in front of me, I will go and play the tunes I really like that for the moment are too complex for me as they are written with too many abstruse symbols, and I will get to know the fretboard better (from first to seventh positon): this is what I need before going into the studying of the pentatonic scales, and the fingerstyle guitar. I will also improve my timing.I have to say that the ancient meldies in book one are so nice that I became addicted to them, I now pick up my guitar with pleasure, and I play them over and over so I am becoming proficient in no time.Music is infinite, so these books are a like a journey to me, or like a good experience to undertake step by step in order to get to the place I want with music, or to reach the level of knowledge I want with my guitar playing.All scales from all places on the fretboard, all "roads" and every approach from every book, will help you put the puzzle together, leading you to the final carousel of music.

In the mid 1990’s while I was still at my primary schools I started learning guitar and my master used the Melbay’s modern guitar method – Grade 1 to teach me guitar. It was not the expanded edition. Guitar and music was never my profession but then the unexpected event happened a couple of month’s back when few of my friends wanted to learn guitar and approached me to be their tutor. For the first few classes I taught them my own syllabus and turned out not to be fruitful enough, my lessons were either too easy or too tough.Without a doubt I decided to purchase this book (Melbay’s Modern Guitar Method Grade 1, 2 & 3) and started their lessons again with the aid of this book and turn out to be wonderful for my students of all ages (men around the age of 35s & kids who are between 5 and 7 years old).Everything is written in detail including how to tune the guitar, how to hold it, how to hold the pick etc.) This is a very helpful reference for any guitar beginners. Carefully arranged step by step lessons will progress the learners from guitar & strings, positions, chord theory, scales, music notation and a lot of stuffs in a neat and beautiful manner. For e.g. before you learn to play the first simplest triad chord in the guitar, you will be tempted to hold the notes in the required manner and play it if you followed all the previous lessons perfectly.The contents turned out to be fruitful for me too. Even though now I play rock, classical guitar, Indian style music and a lot of stuff, I love to revise these books. Long back ago I learned through Melbay’s Modern Guitar method – Grade 1 & 2 and quickly went through the other grades up to 7. But now I want to thoroughly complete all the grades before I start the Carcassi’s classical guitar method which could be really tough to be followed by a classical guitar beginner. Learning all the 7 grades of Melbay’s Modern Guitar method will make anybody a good guitarist with very strong underlying theory and with very good music sheet sight ready capability.I never used the CDs that came along with the book, but I feel that it could be helpful for beginners who want to learn guitar without the help of a tutor. If a tutor can guide the student to complete Grade 1, the student can go through the next 7 grades without any help if they are really serious about perfect guitar methods. And I should say that the expanded edition provides plenty of extra lessons that will make the progression of the learner a bit easier.

This is a fine book and guides you through the mystery of learning the guitar. If you are considering a book, buy this one first,you will not need another. It does not show tablature and this is a positive for anyone wanting to do things in a the correct manner. I was so happy this was spiral bound a must for any tutor book.

The book is in mint condition but it was very difficult to pick what I wanted from the description and picture. It's not quite what I was expecting. Not to worry: a teen's birthday coming soon and this is a perfect fit as a present!

Reçu assez rapidement, bonne méthode pour apprendre à jouer de la guitare, je ne regrette pas cet achat et je le recommande