comments:
Before I launch in, for context, I'm a full time professional musician mostly on piano, but do quite a bit of guitar and have added more and more of that work (much of it theatre, so literacy is involved). I also have had to learn other instruments (like accordion) at a high level... and none of the listed instruments are even one's I started before my late 20s AFTER a degree in music (trumpet as a primary... don't play it any more on purpose). I just have a very unique experience pedagogically as a result of my background. The Leavitt book is great, but when people recommend it as a starting method I can tell that the beginning for them is so far in the rear-view that they've lost the plot. It's the same as people recommending the Mark Levine's "The Jazz Piano" as a starting method for jazz piano... the books is NOT a good method book and pre-supposes and immense amount of prior knowledge. Or when people say to someone who can't sightread the most basic thing in a beginner book... "just practice sightreading Bach chorales" without actually thinking about how reading 4 very independent voices is crazy difficult for a beginner who can't read quarter notes against whole notes. People who are good at things, especially only ONE thing, have a shit time of understanding how to teach someone to build a foundation and they take a ton of things for granted. Now, the fact that you gravitated toward this book and have a piano background means you likely are interested in literacy in a way that most guitarists are not. I'd highly recommend checking out Braford Werner's site www.thisisclassicalguitar.com and checking out his method book. The first volume is free and the book is EXTREMELY well paced from a pedagogical standpoint and takes almost nothing for granted. The book of classical technique is also incredible. Now, this is a classical guitar method and is going to focus on fingerstyle playing. But these fundamentals will make more capable for just about anything. You can also start adapting them for pick work if you choose. I'd still recommend as a supplement to use something like justinguitar. You really should go ahead and learn your basic open chords early on. You are going to struggle at lot, but this is an area where I think facility before literacy makes a lot of sense... and honestly, it's something you'll have to wrestle with as someone who is literate on piano. There are just going to be times you are working on guitar and need to not think too hard about what notes you're playing so that you spare enough mental bandwidth to pay attention to the very fine motor skills you're learning... and then staple on the literacy later... which will be easier for you than most. I also think the Alfred method is a good option. I also think someone like you will appreciate more fairly dry technical stuff to get your technical facility caught up to your musical knowledge. I'd recommend this book and think of it a bit like doing daily scales, arpeggios, and cadences for a beginner pianist. A LOT of Levi Clay's books are actually pretty great if you already have basic music literacy. Most guitarists don't even realize how many amazing resources are out there... if they could only read music and end up being incredibly frustrated because they are just trying to follow a bunch of random youtube videos or learn songs they like by rote "tutorials" and never get a sense of structure. If you tell me a bit more about your goals I can probably give you a few more slightly more specific recommendations. I'll also say, I think the Leavitt book is good... but it makes a mistake a lot of older books make. It moves WAY too fast without enough exercises that iterate on the most recent thing it taught you WITHOUT instantly adding a ton of new technical or theory vocabulary. I think it's a book you should probably revisit here and there as you learn more guitar. Start it over from the beginning each time and notice how much more of you can actually grasp with a bit more foundation. It is a great example of you needing facility before literacy. It is probably one of THE most brutal starting places I've seen for any instrument and it absolutely blows my mind when people recommend it. I mean, the kind of people going to Berklee and working with Leavitt likely were coming from a background where they already had a high level of technical facility and might just be lacking literacy. So it's sort of assuming you're coming in already knowing all of your open chords, basic scale stuff, basic control of the pick, etc. And a lot of people who end up using it or suggesting it are people who played for 10+ year without EVER learning to read music and then dabbled a bit... and finally picked it up and are going in with a huge amount of technical foundation, but less literacy. You are basically the opposite. It's just not good for you (nor was it for me even as an experienced full time working musician even WITH some guitar fundamentals).