Tag: chord exercises

Exercises 13-14 – Inside The Book: 50 Chord Exercises for Beginners

These two guitar chords exercises are featured in the book 50 Acoustic Guitar Chord Exercises

On this chords exercise sheet, we will be working with four chords: E7, Em7, G6 and Am7.

Exercise 13

E7 is used a lot in Blues music and Em7 can be used as a variation on the Em chord, but it’s not used as often.

The strumming is D 2 DUDU, D 2 DUDU.

The counting is 1 (2) 3 + 4 +, 1 (2) 3 + 4 +

Exercise 14

G6 and Am7 can be used as simplified chords of G and Am but are both individual chords in their own right.

The strumming is Down 2 3 Down, Down 2 3 Down.

The counting is 1 2 + (3) + 4, 1 2 + (3) + 4

Video Lesson


Watch on YouTube

← Exercises 11-12
Exercises 15-16 →
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Exercises 11-12 – Inside The Book: 50 Chord Exercises for Beginners

These two guitar chords exercises are featured in the book 50 Acoustic Guitar Chord Exercises

On this chords exercise sheet, we will be working with four chords: Cadd9, Em7, D and Dsus2.

Exercise 11

Cadd9 and Em7 are 2 very popular open chords, and are used in particular a lot on pop covers using a capo.

The strumming is DUDUD rest, DUDUD rest.

The counting is 1+2+3+(4), 1+2+3+(4).

Exercise 12

D and Dsus 2 are also used a lot on songs using a capo but they are also very common in rock songs.

The strumming is Down 2 3 Down, Down 2 3 Down.

The counting is 1 (2 3) 4, 1 (2 3) 4.

Video Lesson


Watch on YouTube

← Exercises 9-10
Exercises 12-13 →
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Warm Up Tabs for Guitar, Bass & Ukulele – Scales & Arpeggios

We’re still in lockdown in Wales (UK), and we can only travel 5 miles. I’ve been busy teaching online lessons and also have done a lot of DIY projects around the house. I thought I would have had loads of time to update my blogs but I’ve been too busy! However, my students that have carried on have been burning through their grades and practicing more than ever. Here are a few scales warm ups I’ve been adding to their new practice plans, which I’ve been writing with google docs and sending the parents a link to so they can see updated practice notes whenever I add new things to it.

At the end of the post, there is also a bonus chord exercise challend for you to try.

These scales, arpeggios and chords exercises are good for any beginner or intermediate player that has been learning guitar for a while and has the ability to read tab. You might be used to reading proper sheet music, like on the rest of the website, but the tab is essentially the same. You have 6 lines (4 for ukulele), and the top line is the bottom string on the instrument. So the bottom line on the tab is the thickest string on the guitar. You’ll see tab elsewhere on the internet like on ultimate-guitar.com, so hopefully everyone will be able to read these.

Hopefully you can find these an enjoyable way to warm up whilst stuck at home. Run through all of these as a warm up so you’re not neglecting your scales, and then go and learn something else like you would in a guitar lesson. Perhaps learn a song or maybe some chord progression exercises or learn to play a guitar solo from a song you like.

Scales & Arpeggio Warm Ups – Guitar

4X forwards and backwards for each one

E Blues scale

———————————————–0–3–
—————————————0–3———-
—————————-0–2–3——————
———————0–2—————————-
———-0–1–2————————————
–0–3———————————————–

A minor pentatonic scale

Fret 5 = 1st finger, Fret 6 = 2nd Finger, Fret 7 = 3rd finger, Fret 8 = 4th finger

————————————–5–8——
——————————–5–8————
————————–5–7——————
——————5–7————————–
———-5–7———————————-
–5–8——————————————

G major scale

———————————————————5–7–8–
———————————————5–7–8————-
———————————-4–5–7————————
———————–4–5–7———————————–
————3–5–7———————————————-
-3–5–7———————————————————

A major arpeggio

Fret 4 = 1st finger, Fret 5 = 2nd Finger, Fret 6 = 3rd finger, Fret 7 = 4th finger

————————–5—-
———————-5——–
——————6————
————–7—————-
——4–7———————
–5—————————-

A minor arpeggio

Fret 5 = 1st finger, Fret 6 = 2nd Finger, Fret 7 = 3rd finger, Fret 8 = 4th finger

————————–5—–
———————-5———
——————5————-
————–7—————–
———-7———————
–5–8————————–

 

Scales & Arpeggio Warm Ups – Bass Guitar

4X forwards and backwards for each one

E Blues scale

——————————————————
———————0–2—————————-
———-0–1–2————————————
–0–3———————————————–

A minor pentatonic scale

Fret 5 = 1st finger, Fret 6 = 2nd Finger, Fret 7 = 3rd finger, Fret 8 = 4th finger

————————————————
——————5–7————————–
———-5–7———————————-
–5–8——————————————

G major scale

———————————-4–5–7—9—11–12—-
———————–4–5–7——————————–
————3–5–7——————————————-
-3–5–7——————————————————

A major arpeggio

Fret 4 = 1st finger, Fret 5 = 2nd Finger, Fret 6 = 3rd finger, Fret 7 = 4th finger

——————————-
————–7—————-
——4–7———————
–5—————————-

A minor arpeggio

Fret 5 = 1st finger, Fret 6 = 2nd Finger, Fret 7 = 3rd finger, Fret 8 = 4th finger

——————————–
————–7—————–
———-7———————
–5–8————————–

Scales & Arpeggio Warm Ups – Ukulele

4X forwards and backwards for each one

C minor pentatonic scale

——————-1–3———-
———–1–3——————
—0–3————————–
———————————

C major scale

———————-0–2–3—-
———–0–1–3—————
—0–2————————–
———————————

D minor scale

——————-3–5———-
———–3–5——————
—2–5————————–
———————————

D major scale

———————-2–4–5—-
———–2–3–5—————
—2–4————————–
———————————

E natural minor scale

—————————5–7——-
—————5–7–8—————-
—4–6–7—————————-
————————————–

Bonus Chord Exericse

How many times can you play these chords in 1 minute?

Set a countdown timer for 1 minute. Strum each chord once and then repeat when you have done all 3 chords. Count how many times you go around them in 1 minute.

Challenge 1: A, D, E.
Challenge 2: E, A7, B7.
Challenge 3: A7, D7, E7.
Challenge 4: Am Dm7 G.
Challenge 5: C F G.

Sheet 8 – Beginners Guitar Chords – Easy Reading Chord Exercise

Free PDF for this sheet.

On this sheet we are going to use the beginners guitar chords A, D and E.

We are in the key of A and the chords are using the I IV and V (A = 1st, D = 4th, E = 5th) chord positions. The 1 4 5 pattern is very popular and playing them in order like that will sound very familiar.

In the chord exercise, you will need to look underneath the chord diagram to see the strumming pattern, and then play that for the chord. So, you will start with A, strumming 5 strings only (not the top string), and strum Down, Down, Down, Up Down, with the rhythm 1, 2, 3 + 4. Then moving onto the D chord with no gap if you can, or as quickly as you can make it, play the same rhythm for D. Then another quick change to E and this time it’s all 6 strings being played. As there are two E’s in a row, you will be able to easily go from one to the next without stopping because there is no chord change. The rhythm should be continuous, like this: 1, 2, 3 + 4, 1, 2, 3 + 4. Or like this: Down, Down, Down, Up Down, Down, Down, Down, Up Down.

When you have completed the two E chords, you then need to repeat the whole sheet a further 3 times to make 4 times around in total. Again, do a quick change from E back to A with as small of a gap as you can (but don’t go faster – there should still be 1 beat between the last E strum and the first A strum.

 

More sheets like this

This sheet is from an ebook called: Beginners Guitar Chords – Easy Reading PDF Ebook (Premium).

Beginners Guitar Chords – Easy Reading Book

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  • 18 pages (15 sheets with chord exercises)
  • Printable PDF File
  • Guitar book for beginners and teachers
  • Useful for beginners of all ages
  • Exercises with Beginners Chords
  • Chord Progressions
  • Rhythms and rests
  • All of these chords are featured at least once: A, Am, A7, Asus2, B7, C, Cmaj7, Cadd9, D, Dm, E, Em, Em7, F#m, F, G, G6, Gmaj7, G7.

Introduction

This ‘Beginners Guitar Chords’ easy reading book has been written following a year of testing and planning and with the knowledge and experience of over 10 years of guitar teaching.

The book is designed in a large ‘easy reading’ format, to be accessible for primary school age, whilst also being suitable for older children and adults.

The book contains 15 exercise sheets. On each sheet, you read the chords in the same order you would read a book; top left to top right, then bottom left to bottom right. The goal for each sheet is not to leave a gap in between chords, and to play each sheet continuously 4 times in a row. The numbers in the black circles are the finger numbers. These are suggestions as a guide, so other fingers can be used if preferred or more comfortable.

By the end of the book, the beginner guitar player should be ready to start playing songs that have beginners chords in. The student will have build up a good basic understanding of strumming, counting and chord changes.

The book covers most of the beginners chords you need for starting to play songs. It also covers techniques and fundamentals such as strumming, strumming rhythms, rests, repeats, and counting.

Make sure to spend plenty of time on each sheet and try not to work on too many sheets at once if you are new to guitar chords. Get comfortable and confident on each one before moving on and try to limit yourself to no more than 3 sheets per session or lesson. You could tick each sheet as you go along and make notes on the sides where needed. Once you have done more work and practice on the book, you might be able to do more sheets in one lesson or practice session.

The usual info

  • When you purchase this book online, you get a pdf file to keep forever.
  • Please do not redistribute the file or printed book publically or for profit.
  • Teachers can send the PDF file to individual students to practice with.
  • Teachers can print the book or single sheets as required for their students as many times as they like.
  • Feel free to make copies of the PDF file or printed copies, but only for personal or educational use or for keeping backups.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy the book!

Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons

This book is listed on my blog learnguitarforfree.com and sold via payhip.com/tlmusiclessons

1st Edition ebook self published in 2019 by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons.

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(PREMIUM) – Grade 3-4 Ebook – Scales, Arpeggios, Barre Chords and Guitar Solo Exercises

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The Buy Now button will take you to the product page. There you can download a free 9 page preview by clicking the ‘Preview’ link at the top right of the cover image.

3. Contents
4. Introduction
5. Scales & Arpeggios: Grade 3 – Fretboard Shapes
6. Grade 3 Scales in G
7. Grade 3 Scales in A
8. Grade 3 Scales in B
9-10. B minor pentatonic scale exercises (8th notes)
11 . Grade 3 Arpeggios in A, B and G (major & minor)
12-13. Arpeggio Chord Progressions
14. Notes on the Fretboard for Grade 3+
15. Grade 3 barre chord shapes
16. Part 1 – grade 3 barre chord progression exercises
17. Part 2 – grade 3 barre chord progression exercises
18. 12 bar blues solo in G
19. Guitar Solo in Gm
20. 12 bar blues solo in A
21. Fallout Guitar Solo in Em
22-23. Grade 3 Chords, Scales and Arpeggios Exercises
24. Grade 4 barre chord shapes
25. Part 1 – grade 4 barre chord progression exercises
26. Part 2 – grade 4 barre chord progression exercises
27-29. B minor pentatonic scale exercises (8ths, triplets and 16th notes)
30-32. Grade 4 Chords, Scales and Arpeggios Exercises
33. Songwriting Cheat Sheet

Introduction

  • Guitar teachers can print the book or single sheets for their students.
  • Guitarists can teach themselves following on from a strong basic foundation in reading and playing
  • Guitarists that want to build up a foundation in the core aspects of Grade 3-4.

About the book

This Grade 3-4 ebook is a compilation of almost 9 years of preparation work teaching guitar. I have included guitar lesson sheets that I have prepared and revised many times over the 9 years to be the best they can be for use with my lessons.

To create the book I selected only the best sheets from my selection of many more that I created for teaching with. I printed them all out and arranged them into a coherent order. Finally, I created and modified a few more just to make the book run smoothly.

I have included only the sheets, rather than add lots of teaching text you might normally find in tuition books. This is partly to limit the amount of pages for those printing, and also to give teachers using the books freedom to put their own take on the lesson sheets. Personally when I get a tuition book for myself, I tend to go straight to the exercises. This will probably make it harder for self taught players, so to anyone getting stuck reading the book I would recommend giving it a go and if you get stuck, research how to read the parts you struggle with. There are plenty of youtube videos out there and help articles that you will find to help. Sometimes youtube videos lack sheet music and written parts, so you should be able to use this book alongside these popular methods of learning, if you are not learning with a teacher.

Guitar teachers can use this ebook as a guide for their own teaching. These are the core parts of grade 3-4 but it does not nearly cover every aspect of these levels, so you can dip in and out of this book with your teaching. Let the book provide a fundamental knowledge to the student and loosely give structure and a guide to your teaching and allow yourself to go off on tangents as you and the students move through the book. The key thing here is to tailor your teaching to the students, because they’re all different and will require different paths to explore their own style and learning experience.

Each topic in the book is briefly covered. There is much more depth you could go into, and this is encouraged. So far, I have already released another ebook that works more on rhythms with barre chords in chord progressions at grade 3-4 level called 10 Group Chord Exercise Sheets – Grades 1-4.

Free Preview / Buy Now →

10 easy strumming rhythms for beginners

This lesson plan is great for beginner guitarists and ukulele players. The D = Down and U = Up markings are used widely online, and are easy to follow for beginners and all. This sheet is best used by a teacher because they will instantly know how to demonstrate the rhythms. For those self taught players, if there are spaces in between like this “D D D D” then they are one beat each, but if they are joined like DUDU then they are quavers (8th notes), which are half a beat, so they are faster.

For complete beginners, try starting with chords like Em and Am on guitar, and C, Am and F on ukulele, as they can be played fairly easily and learned without reading.

Strumming Lesson With Basic Chords

D = DOWN
U = UP

Practice these chords with each rhythm: G, Em, F, E7, C, D, Dm, A, Am, G7.

Repeat 4x each:

  1. D D DU D
  2. DUDUD D
  3. D DUDUD
  4. D D D DU
  5. DUD D D
  6. D DUD DU
  7. DU UD D
  8. D DU UD
  9. DUDU UD
  10. DU UDU U

(PREMIUM) – 10 Group Chord Exercise Sheets – 3 Ebooks – Guitar & Ukulele

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People that might find this book useful

● Guitar and Ukulele groups can use these as warm ups or practice exercises
● Guitar & Ukulele teachers can print the book or single sheets for their students (unlimited printing)
● Students can teach themselves if they have some reading knowledge
● Supplementary learning material for students that have guitar lessons

Contents Highlights

10 exercise sheets, containing a total of 27 individual exercises. There are 3 books; Guitar Chords (Grade
1-2), Guitar Barre Chords (Grade 3-4), Ukulele (Grade 1-2). The ebook download also includes 108 audio
examples and 10 x Guitar Pro 7 files.

About the book

I have written this book for use with a youth music group called Montgomeryshire Youth Music, and also for
use with my other instrumental music teaching work in schools and outside of schools.
As my students progress up to grade 3 and 4 level they move on to barre chords, so this book has been
made for those players, to play along with the other ability levels in the youth music group. Perhaps there
will be other groups in the world that will find this useful in a similar type of group scenario. For many others,
the books can also be used as exercise books for the individual instrument level, and therefore there are 3
seperate ebooks included in the online download.

Free Previews

Page 3: Guitar Grade 1-2 ebook

Page 3: Ukulele Grade 1-2 ebook

Page 3: Guitar Grade 3-4 Barre Chords ebook

Final Thoughts

I hope that this book provides a useful set of lesson material for guitar teachers and ukulele for grade 1-4
levels. I also hope that it is used by self taught players, or by players that are having lessons and are
looking for extra things to work on. I have included audio examples in case anyone needs help with
understanding the sheet music and tab. I have also included 10 really useful guitar pro files, which have
been made with Guitar Pro 7 . You will need the program to open them, and once you have it, you can
change the tempo of the exercises and loop them for as long as you want.

– Theo Lawrence / TL Music Lessons

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5 beginners Guitar & Ukulele Chord Exercises with E7, D, Em, Am

These exercises are for practicing chord changes using a selection of basic chords. Each quarter note (crotchet) is 1 down strum, so on the first exercise, Em has 8 down strums, then Am has 8 down strums and then you repeat the exercise until you have been aroud 4 times. Take the speed slow to allow time for changing chords. Aim for a steady and slow constant speed before increasing the tempo afterwards. Keep going around the repeats for a while on each exercise.

The guitar and ukulele exercises 2-5 are compatible with each other so you can even play these exercises in groups with guitars and ukuleles together.

These exercises are featured in the Basic beginners book 1 for Guitar & Ukulele.


Related (Premium): Basic beginners book 1 for Guitar & Ukulele.

Exercises 13 and 14 from the 50 Guitar & Ukulele Chord Exercises ebooks

Using the easy open chords, follow the rhythms and down/up markings shown on the sheet.

Exercise 13

Exercise 13 – strum down for 2 beats, then down up down up. The counting would be “1 (2) 3 + 4 +”.

Exercise 14

Exercise 14 – strum down for 1 beat, down up (small space) up down. The counting would be “1 2 + (3) + 4”.

The counting in brackets are where you count but don’t strum anything.

Guitar

Ukulele

 

For all 50 exercises, purchase the PDF ebooks here:

50 GUITAR Chord Exercises Ebook →
50 UKULELE Chord Exercises Ebook →

(PREMIUM) – Guitar & Ukulele Basic Beginners Book 1

Since writing this ebook, I have developed some ‘Easy Reading’ guitar and ukulele scales and melodies ebooks, so although this page says ‘Book 1’, you might want to take a look at those easy reading books first, especially for younger players.

 

2 for 1: The premium download includes 1 book for guitar and 1 book for ukulele.

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People that might find these books useful

  • Guitar & Ukulele teachers can print the book or single sheets for their students
  • Students can teach themselves to learn the basics if they have some reading knowledge
  • Supplementary learning material for students that have guitar lessons
  • Beginner ukulele players and guitarists looking for some easy songs or exercises to get started with

Contents Highlights

17 topics of study for guitar and ukulele that is aimed at complete beginners. The book has a mixture of public domain songs, easy scales, easy melody exercises and easy chord exercises.

Teaching Notes

The books are designed so that even age 5 or 6 could play some of the pieces and exercises, so it starts off very easy with simple melodies such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, that almost everyone can play to some extent in their first lesson. There is however content for all ages in this book and the majority of content is designed to be played by all ages.

The book also takes a while to move onto chords. Like I said at the start of the post, I have developed some ‘Easy Reading’ books recently and at the time of updating this page for a new website launch (Jan 2019), I also have some ‘Easy Reading Chords’ ebooks in the pipeline, which have worked really well with my students. Check out the ebooks section and look for the Easy Reading Chords books – they’ll probably be available by the time you read this.

Example Page from the Guitar ebook:

Full Contents

3. Contents
4. Introduction
5. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
6. Ice Cream
7. Canon in C – 2 sections
8. Silent Night in C – melody
9. 4 finger note / string / fret exercises
10. C major and A minor scales for beginners melodies
11. Canon in C – 3 sections
12. 2 melody exercises in C major
13. 2 melody exercises in A minor
14. Autumn Leaves
15. One Drop
16. Em and Am Chord Exercises 1-12
20. 5 Easy Chord Progressions with E, A, D, Em, Am, Dm (Free Preview)
21. Robin Reddocke – chords
22. C major scale practice with chords
23. Silent Night in C – chords + melody
24. Melody Exercises – A minor scale

About the book

The book is designed for use with teaching students with reading from as early as the first lesson if they are capable. All of the sheets are supposed to be achievable fairly quickly and easily by guitar and ukulele students of any age. Even students from the age of 5 or 6 could play some of these sheets. A teacher using this book would need to gauge the ability of the student. Often having something written down helps the student so even if they cannot read much of the music, they will be able to understand fret numbers and hopefully chord boxes too.

The best thing about these books is that the guitar and ukulele versions are compatible so if you happen to have beginner guitar and ukulele students in the same group, then you will be able to use these books to play along together. I don’t have many of these groups and they don’t always have a lesson together, but sometimes it works really well to have guitar and ukulele students playing together or learning in a group.

Final Thoughts

I hope that this book helps people get started quickly with learning guitar or ukulele and playing along to songs with others. The aim of this book is to progress quickly through it and to provide satisfaction through achieving. I hope to break down the barriers to getting started with learning guitar and ukulele with this book.

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Exercises 9 and 10 from the 50 Guitar & Ukulele Chord Exercises ebooks

Two interesting exercises to try for free here for the guitar and ukulele. Both exercises are a lot harder on the guitar. In the ebook sometimes the ukulele chords are harder – it depends which chords are being used. The rhythms are exactly the same for both so guitar and ukulele players could work on these and play them together.

Exercise 9

This one has a bit of a spooky sound, changing from E minor 7 to E diminished. The ukulele chord shape can just be slid down one fret. For the guitar, a few of the fingers can slide across too – it’s not a huge chord change once you get used to it.

Exercise 10

On guitar, all you need to do is add on the little finger (pinky) for the chord changes. For ukulele, you just need to take one finger off to change to Fadd9. Just watch out for the rhythm on this one because the first note lasts for two beats. You need to count 1 2 3 4 and only strum on beats 1 3 and 4.

Guitar

Ukulele

For all 50 exercises, purchase the PDF ebooks here:

50 GUITAR Chord Exercises Ebook →
50 UKULELE Chord Exercises Ebook →

Autumn Leaves – A Ukulele and Guitar song for kids

Photo Credit: Travis Simon

Autumn Leaves is a Ukulele and Guitar song for kids about the colours of Autumn Leaves and falling from the tree.

The chords are easy for beginners and the words are easy to sing along. There is a basic notated melody, but you can make up your own to suit the singers.

The song is ideal for primary schools, from about year 1-5. You can listen to the audio example of a group of year 5 girls playing the song on guitar here:

GUITAR (EASY CHORDS)

UKULELE

GUITAR

(Premium) – 50 Guitar Chord Exercises ebook – Beginners & Grade 1-2

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Playlist with video lessons for this Guitar book

Contents (29 pages)

  • Page 4 – Brief help with reading notation regarding the strumming hand
  • Page 5 – Exercises 1-20 – Chord Exercises in 4/4
  • Page 15 – Exercises 21-25 – 3/4 Time Signature
  • Page 17 – Exercises 26-31 – 6/8 Time Signature
  • Page 20 – Exercises 32-40 – Picking exercises in Various Time Signatures
  • Page 25 – Exercises 41-45 – Finger Picking Only Exercises (no guitar pick)
  • Page 27 – Exercises 46-50 – Finger Picking and Chords

Introduction

People that might find this book useful

  • Guitar teachers can print the book for their students.
  • Beginner guitar players can work through the book with the help of a teacher
  • Some guitar players may be able to work through the book on their own (reading knowledge needed)

About the book

This book was written following my first two books (released as a set) called 100 Beginners Chord Progressions For Guitar + Struming Rhythms. This guitar version was written after the ukulele version and transferred over very well and therefore they are both compatible and suitable for groups or ensembles of guitar and ukulele.

I started out writing this book in order to solve two problems I found in the first book of chord progressions – which were mainly problems for early beginners. The first problem was that by the time we got through all 4 chords, sometimes it had taken a while to change between chords and we lost the flow of the exercise. The second problem was that the new beginners were not familiar with the chords yet, so we had 2 books and a chord sheet to look at. The third problem was that for young beginners, some struggled to remember the rhythms and therefore got lost flicking between the books, rather than remembering the rhythm and then just looking at the chord progression book.

So, this book aims to solve all of the problems in the above paragraph for basic beginners level, by having the chord diagram and rhythm and tab all in one place and also only focuses on 2 chords at a time so the player can really master those chord changes. I tend to teach this book first and then move onto the 100 chord progressions books, which then get progressed through faster.

The book includes a lot of new content not seen in the first two books, like finger picking exercises and different time signatures. Therefore those who have started with the first books, could also go through this book afterwards and still feel like they are progressing.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, I think this book is best to start with out of the 2 releases so far. The overall aim is to improve those chord changes and build up your rhythm and finger picking skills, preparing you to be able to play songs, to help you progress in general, and it to give you some new concepts for constructing your own music.

I hope you find the book useful.

Theo Lawrence
www.tlmusiclessons.com

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