Jerry Snyder's Guitar School, Method Book 1: A Comprehensive Method for Class and Individual Instruction

My guitar instructor told me to get this book, as it is the one we’d be using during lessons.The book is well laid out and informative. If I run into problems or have questions between classes, I’ve had a lot of success finding the answer to those questions in this book.It jumps around a bit, but not to the point it will confuse you.Even though I’ve progressed beyond this book, it still provides a resource if I ever need to get a reminder or tip to help me out.Although, it’s not a substitute for actual lessons, It’s a great book for raw beginners. Highly recommended

I recently picked this book up for a group guitar class (Middle and High School Level). I found that the amount of material covered is very nice and the sequential presentation of concepts is quite good as well. My two critiques of the Guitar School Method concern its visual layout and its reliance on tablature in later sections. While there are several foundational concepts coevered (open-string chords, notes in the first position, basic rhythmic and accompaniment skills) these concepts are burdened by too much text. Often, it seems that the author tried to fill as much information as possible at the expense of ease of comprehension and playability. I also dislike the authors reliance of tablature in the accompaniment sections of the book. By this point in the text the students will know the notes in the first position so why show them arpeggios in tablature? Again, this is the authors mistake of trying to introduce too many concepts at the cost of readability and comprehension.I have found that the High School students tend to do much better with this book than the Middle school students, although by spending more time and with repetition the Middle schoolers do understand and retain the material quite well.I would highly recommend getting the Teacher's edition of this book as well if you will be using it in a group setting. The teacher's edition contains several reproducible handouts as well as lesson plans.

I've been teaching private guitar and group lessons using Jerry Snyder's books since 1974. "Guitar School" is his main guitar method book these days.This book is divided into two sections, with the front half devoted to learning chords and various strum and picking patterns and the back half is devoted to learning single notes using standard music notation. Snyder now tosses in a bit of TAB, which is helpful since so many songs are learned on the Internet via TAB.What I appreciate about his approach is that he introduces the student to various styles of guitar playing, using either (or both) picks or fingerstyle. The styles include folk, rock, jazz and classical. Since some of the songs in this book are a bit dated, I always supplement my lessons with additional songs from other sources to keep the students interested.I always stress to my students that learning standard notation is important if one wants to have a career in music. One of my former students worked as a studio musician in L.A. for a few years and I know that his ability to read notation made a big difference.I've used this book with students down to the 3rd and 4th grade. I used the previous edition of this book in guitar classes with both adults and elementary students. It works at all levels.

I am a beginner, teaching myself more or less. I have used several different books. This one is one of the better ones. It lets you practice many different techniques (strumming and picking) including advanced techniques (such as muting) from the beginning. Keeps an adult learner like me interested. Other books may want you to learn all the chords first, or pick all notes first. This book is more diverse.The CD is an excellent addition for someone teaching him/herself without a teacher as sometimes things don't come across clearly in words. Better to just listen to how it is supposed to sound.

The book is great but the ontrac employe did not care if my book woud get ruined. It was rainng and the guy knocked on the door n i was opening the door nand then the guy just threw it on the floor he didnt care that the floor was wet and that rain would fall on it. Great book bad experience with ontrac employee.

I would recommend this book for beginners! My course required it and I still use it today to tech myself some. Very easy to follow and explained well.

A good book for beginners. Also works for group lessons. Compare to the Hal Leonard method.

I have not started this class yet, but I have been learning from the book by myself. It is excellent, easy to follow, great songs, and a beautiful book. A+++++