Guitar Skills for Music Therapists and Music Educators

  • Guitar Skills for Music Therapists and Music Educators
  • Author: Meyer, Peter; DeVillers, Jessica & Ebnet, Erin
  • ISBN: 9781891278563


NOTE: Please visit: https://barcelonapublishers.com/resources/ebook_media/GUITAR_SKILLS_DVD.zip to download the accompanying DVD media.

This book and DVD are the ideal text to be used in functional guitar courses for music therapy and music education majors as well as anyone interested in learning the basics of guitar playing quickly. The text is designed to assist the student in developing their functional guitar skills in a fun and easy to follow format and can be used in both the classroom and for individual self study. The text and accompanying exercises begin with the very basics of guitar playing and expands into more challenging material as the reader progresses through the chapters. Topics covered include basic and advanced strumming patterns, fingerpicking, flatpicking, barre and power chords as well as authentic stylistic accompaniment in styles such as the Blues, Jazz, Rock and R & B. In addition to functional guitar skills, music therapy/improvisational applications are also discussed and demonstrated through modifications including alternate tunings and the use of slide guitar.


Table of Contents

About the Authors                                                                                                      v

Note to the Reader                                                                                                      vii

Table of Contents                                                                                                       ix

Introduction                                                                                                                1

            Parts of the Guitar /  1

            Holding the Guitar / 1

            Introduction to Guitar and Music Concepts / 2

            Practicing / 10

Chapter I: The Basics                                                                                                 11

            Key of G / 11

            Advice on Changing Chords in Time / 13

            Key of D / 16

            Key of C / 19

            Key of A / 23

            Key of E / 26

            Last thoughts on Strumming / 29

Chapter II: I know C, A, G, E and D…now what?                                                    32

            Embellishments / 32

            The Chuck / 38

            Palm Muting / 40

            Staccato Playing / 41

            Some thoughts on 2 and 4 and developing a strong sense of time / 42

Chapter III: Fingerpicking                                                                                         43

            Arpeggio Pick / 43

            Alternate Pick / 48

            Travis Pick / 49

Chapter IV: Flatpicking                                                                                             55

The Bass-Brush or the Boom-Chuck / 55

Hammer-ons / 58

Bass Runs / 60

Bass Runs and Hammer-ons / 63

Flatpicking / 67

 Chapter V: Barre Chords                                                                                           69

            The E Shape Barre Chord / 69

            The A Shape Barre Chord / 71

            More Barre Chords / 73

Chapter VI: Power Chords…Are you ready to rock?                                                            79

            Root 6 and Root 5 Power Chords / 79

Chapter VII: The Blues                                                                                              81

            The 12-Bar / 81

            The 8-Bar /  82

            The Other 8-Bar / 82

            Ice Cream Changes / 83

            Blues Accompaniment / 84

            Pentatonic Scale and Lead Techniques / 96

Chapter VIII: Music Therapy Techniques                                                                 101

            The Modes / 101

            Rules for improvisation / 112

            Open Tunings and Slide Guitar / 113

            Two Handed Technique / 117

Chapter IX: Jazz Guitar                                                                                             119

            Introduction to Chords / 119

            Chord Substitutions / 123

            Jazz Improvisation / 131

            Putting It Together / 136

Chapter X: Funk Guitar                                                                                              138

            Introduction to Funk Guitar / 138

            Bossa Nova / 140

            R & B Styles / 141

Chapter XI: Guitar Maintenance                                                                                143

            Guitar Humidifiers / 143

            Changing Strings / 143

            Set Up / 143