A Modern Method For Guitar Vol 1 pages 1 to 8

**ten left thumbs** · 01-08-2012, 01:07 PM

good video. There is some especially good pics of picking around 2:50-3:10.

Is it time we officially moved onto the next week's material? Just a few more notes...

Edit: wait, with the chords being played in an arc - it just occurred to me I'm not sure which way the arc goes - I mean in which dimension. Is it a rotation of the wrist or a side-to-side? I think I may have interpreted ronjazz's first explanation wrong.

**va3ux** · 01-09-2012, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by leonard_c

Ok, my initial impression of MM1 in one word: FRUSTRATION! It feels like learning to walk or talk from scratch. The closest thing I can compare it to is learning a foreign language or computer programming. However, the satisfaction of playing music notation is great, even if they are only simple exercises and it's cool to see how simple stuff can still sound good, plus it has opened up a new dimension in music for me. Keep up the good work everybody!

You are learning a new language - and it isn't easy. But it isn't real difficult either. Just yesterday I was reviewing some of Ted Greene's 'Fundamental Lessons' (on his memorial website) and he pretty much says that learning to read music isn't real easy but if you're serious about playing guitar, it's got to be done and it's as simple as that. You'll be happy to know what you're doing right now with the MM1 book - is right on Ted's recommended list. Start at the beginning and keep going.

**oldhead** · 01-22-2012, 03:33 PM

I posted (or so I thought) last night but it doesn't show up, so thought I'd give it another go today. Back from road trip and trying to catch up. this is much more difficult than I anticipated and I probably won't be able to catch up to the group, so I'll just keep dogging along. I've posted Sea to Sea with all the misstrokes, mistakes, etc., because this is basically where I'm at in my playing/reading. If I waited for perfection, I'd probably never post. Should my post from last night show up, someone can delete it. Also, I need to work out the recording part - a lot of noise. I think there's a short in the mic input.
CtoC.mp3 - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

**onetruevibe** · 02-06-2012, 05:15 PM

Hello all!

I'm way late to the MMG game, but I hope to catch up and that folks are still checking in here for late-comers.

Anyway, I've been playing guitar for years but never took the time to learn to read - so I'm really looking forward to this study.

Question - on page 4, when he refers to the "First Position," is he talking about the CAGE system or just the open chord position (which just happens to be for C
for Exercise 1).

So, thanks for any insight!

**fep** · 02-06-2012, 05:48 PM

Welcome aboard onetruevibe.

First Position is the open position where your first finger is at the first fret (just behind it actually).

I hope you'll post some recordings, it's really a good way to test yourself and get critiques.

**Will Glen** · 02-08-2012, 12:43 PM

First, thanks everyone for participating. This is very challenging for me as someone with little experience reading and overall being a strummer of chords playing folk songs.

I am finding that I'm having trouble playing from page 6 to page 7 in Sea to Sea (duet) and think that I'm not looking far enough ahead. I keep accidentally switching from the 2nd guitar part to the 1st guitar part moving from page to page 2.

I am fair playing single notes but throwing in 2 notes at a time and 3 notes is challenging. One thing that has really stuck out to me is the differenet voicings being played within the same barre chord that I'm familiar with. This is awesome. And talk about helping wtih pick control! Wow, I usually just strum like a hack and focusing on only playing two notes or three notes is really great.

The good thing is that I am beginning to see where I am making mistakes and am correcting them as best I can. I am counting out loud as I play to keep in rhythmn.

I plan to post my Sea to Sea Duet here soon. I've learned a great deal reading through everyone's posts and have seen a great deal of things that I have never even considered. This is an invaluable resource everyone. Thank you again.

**jsepguitar** · 02-08-2012, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by Will Glen

...This is very challenging for me as someone with little experience reading and overall being a strummer of chords playing folk songs.

I am fair playing single notes but throwing in 2 notes at a time and 3 notes is challenging. ... Wow, I usually just strum like a hack and focusing on only playing two notes or three notes is really great.

This is my experience too. I was used to either strumming chords or playing single note lines. Going back and forth between 1 and 3 notes is a challenge for me, but I'm getting better at it. You should read the stuff in this post about using the rest stroke technique. It helped me.

**ten left thumbs** · 02-08-2012, 02:22 PM

Hi Will, the two and three note chords are a challenge, but Leavitt does repeat them *a lot* so after a while you get used to the common ones.

Welcome aboard.

**onetruevibe** · 02-08-2012, 02:40 PM

Sorry in advance if this was posted earlier and I missed it.

I also realize that the answer to my question is pretty subjective, but what are folks using as a benchmark for moving forward on an exercise?

I'm currently at 80bpm on the first 3 exercise, but I noticed that Fep took one of his instructional videos on at 120bpm.

Should I continue with exercises until I'm comfortable at 120bpm, or is 80bpm a good enough benchmark to move on, with the intention of coming back to review periodically?

Thanks for any insight.

**Will Glen** · 02-09-2012, 11:09 AM

Sea to Sea Duet.wav - File Shared from Box - Free Online File Storage

I just saw that the file cannot be previewed but has to be downloaded. I will try to figure out how to get the preview to work so the recording does not have to be downloaded as a file.

Here is my entry for Sea to Sea (duet) in the above link. Hope it uploads ok.

This is the first time I've used Box.com to store an audio file. I'm using a pair of computer headphones with a mic attached to it to record on and I used Kristal recording software which is available for free online. I panned right to left. Just put on some new strings. I'm playing with my Taylor 415-LTD acoustic.

This is the first time I've ever recorded a duet like this from reading music and I am learning a great deal.

1) I suck!

No seriously though, I've always known that!

2) I need to better identify where I am not giving the proper value to notes or even playing the correct note. There are several places I can do better in the duet. I will keep coming back and will continue to work on previous material.

3) I slowed down the tempo just a bit on guitar part II measure twenty but failed to slow down tempo on guitar part I. I need to stick to the metronome and just play solidly as I can.

I don't have thin skin you all so if you have time, your feedback is always appreciated and take care.

Will

**onetruevibe** · 02-09-2012, 11:48 AM

Hey Will.

Thanks for posting you work. Sounded good. I plan on recording this over the weekend and listening to your recording gives me a good reference for my own playing.

Question - did you record the two parts as separate tracks using Kristal and then mix them down into one? I'm currently using a hodge-podge of tools for my recordings and am looking for something a little more straight forward.

Thanks,
Brian

**Will Glen** · 02-09-2012, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by onetruevibe

Hey Will.

Thanks for posting you work. Sounded good. I plan on recording this over the weekend and listening to your recording gives me a good reference for my own playing.

Question - did you record the two parts as separate tracks using Kristal and then mix them down into one? I'm currently using a hodge-podge of tools for my recordings and am looking for something a little more straight forward.

Thanks,
Brian

Glad to do it. Really enjoying this book and the forum is amazing. Thank you for your participation as well.

Yes I did. Let me know if you need help using it but like you said, it's very straightforward and hopefully it will meet your needs. Thanks again.

**Marty W** · 02-25-2012, 08:10 PM

I thought I'd post my rest-stroke and muting demos together here to help anyone getting started with the group. We've had quite a discussion on the difficulties of these techniques.

Here are my thoughts on the basic rest-stroke idea:

Here are 2 ways to strum the rest-stroke --slow and fast:

Muting ideas that can be used in the exercises:

**Rick M** · 02-27-2012, 03:33 PM

Hi Gang,

I'm new to the forum and aspiring to play some jazz guitar one day, but at the moment I am a complete beginner. I am following along with the Leavitt Method and I am doing ok with interpreting most of the notes, however I am experiencing some challenges with the chord notation. Has someone by any chance made any chord charts for the chords in the books? For example the 3 note chords in first few exercises. I can't tell what they are supposed to be.

Thanks

**ten left thumbs** · 02-27-2012, 07:30 PM

Hi Rick, it's a feature of the book, you work the chords out note by note. It feels a lot of work at the beginning, but the same chords repeat so much, you do get used to them. There are chord charts later on in the book, if you leaf through you will see.

**Rick M** · 02-28-2012, 11:40 AM

Thanks for the response. I realized that I wasn't paying close enough attention to the exercise. You need to hold down each note and that creates the chord. I guess he was trying to convey the individual notes in the chords. interesting method. The format is quite different from other books I've tried using but I will stick with it since there are many helpful people here I can ask for help or guidance.

Thanks again!

**xaxinho** · 02-29-2012, 01:47 PM

Thank you very much for this study group. I have the book but tried only the first exercises. At the beginning I thought I could learn faster with skills and basic scales exercises, without reading notation. But I read somewhere in this forum that if I really want to play jazz, I would need to begin from scratch. And studying the guitar I began to want more and more jazz, reproduce the music on my mind to the guitar. I have all my life and inocent dedication to learn and appreciate each chord of Sea to Sea. Once again, thank you for this threads about the book

**wrbriggs** · 03-02-2012, 12:13 AM

So, here is Sea to Sea, playing the duet with myself... I am a newbie to GarageBand, and I'm sure there is a better way I could have recorded it. There are a couple bad fumbles, including the final middle C at the end of the second part. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! I'm pretty much a complete newbie at this; I've been playing the guitar off and on for almost seven months now, but haven't seemed to make any progress.
Sea to Sea

**ten left thumbs** · 03-02-2012, 04:10 AM

nice work, sounds good, certainly good progress if you hadn't played before. There's a lot to do in getting it right - notes, rhythm, hitting the right strings, etc. It's good you played with the metronome - sometimes you went a little ahead of the beat, and then corrected yourself. It's worth sticking to the metronome as much as you can bear.

So the secret with this book is to keep going.

Just so you know.

**wrbriggs** · 03-02-2012, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by ten left thumbs

nice work, sounds good, certainly good progress if you hadn't played before. There's a lot to do in getting it right - notes, rhythm, hitting the right strings, etc. It's good you played with the metronome - sometimes you went a little ahead of the beat, and then corrected yourself. It's worth sticking to the metronome as much as you can bear.

So the secret with this book is to keep going.

Just so you know.

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement, TLT! I've been trying to learn from this book for a while now, but I am ashamed to admit that I was really slacking on the use of a metronome. When I sat down to record Sea To Sea, I realized how much I had been speeding up on the easier parts and slowing down on the hard parts. It's much more difficult this way, and I'm basically starting over and promising myself I'll regularly use the metronome.

**salparadise** · 03-26-2012, 07:07 PM

I've just started Leavitt's first book. And altough most people are more advanced in the book, I hope I can still get some help with the first exercises.

I'm now in the Sea to Sea duet, and I know can play both guitars fairly well. One difficulty I'm feeling, is when I use a pick to strum the 3 note chords. I find it difficult so hit the right 3 strings.

Looking at my right hand helps with this, but I think this is not a good method.

Can someone please advise me on some exercises to improve on this?

**As confused as Nigel** · 03-27-2012, 10:33 PM

Hey all, I started with the initial group in Jan. but soon fell behind (possibly due to our new puppy infringing on my practice time). But I'm trying to get back to a regular routine now. Just having a bit of a time with excercise 3 on p. 19, I can't seem to visually keep up with the eighth notes as I'm playing them (I've worked up to 80 bpm on the metronome), but don't want to rely too much on memory (as I'm becoming familiar with the excercise).

Does anyone have any pointers on how to train my eye to register each note more clearly? Although I suspect the answer is really just more practice.

I haven't read posts here in a while so I apologise if this has been brought up already and I've missed it.

Thanks,
Morgan

**ten left thumbs** · 03-28-2012, 03:52 AM

Originally Posted by salparadise

Letting the pick rest on the string after the last one to be played, actually helps me to mentally keep track of the pick position.

I've had the exact same problem, getting the pick only to those strings I want it on, and still do. The biggest thing that helped was visualsing where the pick is. Sometimes, visualzing where I want it to go.

Good luck!

**ten left thumbs** · 03-28-2012, 03:56 AM

Originally Posted by As confused as Nigel

Does anyone have any pointers on how to train my eye to register each note more clearly? Although I suspect the answer is really just more practice.

Hi Morgan,

+1 on everything fep said. If you find you have practised these exercises to the point you have memorized them, it may be good to find some other material - there's been lots mentioned here on the thread, or you may be able to find something. Just try simple tunes with no complications.

As for reading the 8th notes fast you will find you use short-cuts, e.g., that's a step up (line to space, space to line), that's a skip (line to line, space to space, etc). But there is no short cut to the short cut, you just need to keep at it, slowly and accurately, and you will build up speed and fluency.

**andre66** · 05-05-2012, 12:34 AM

Third day in and i've slowed my metronome down to an embarrassing 40 beats a minute but if that is what i have to do then i will do it. I've just started to do the rest stroke today and i can see that it is going to be a useful technique for knowing where my pick is in relation to my strings.
Andre