Beginners Rock Guitar Skills Book

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  • Guitar tab & sheet music
  • Learn the basics of rock guitar
  • 40 rock guitar skills exerecises
  • Learn with an acoustic or electric guitar

This rock guitar skills book is aimed at ages 7-12, who have learned a little bit about how to read and play guitar already, although teenagers and adults could use this book too as a way into learning rock guitar. Their knowledge needs to be very basic, enough to be able to read basic guitar tabs and to be able to push down on the strings to play notes cleanly. Towards the end of the book, the difficulty level rises and the guitarist will need to be able to play chords and to count and play rhythms with rests.

Other books (before/after/similar)

For complete beginners, I would recommend starting with one or more of these books first: First Guitar Book – Easy Reading

Beginners Guitar Chords Book (Easy Reading)

These books are at a similar level, and could be learned before, after, or instead of this book:

Beginners Classical and Fingerstyle Guitar
50 Acoustic Guitar Chord Exercises Ebook – Basic Beginners & Grade 1-2

For the next level up after this book, you could try:

27 Guitar Chord Exercises Grade 1-2 – Book 2
10 Acoustic Guitar & Ukulele Songs – Volume 1 (Audio & Sheet Music)
6 Rock and Blues Play Along Backing Tracks

People that might find this book useful

  • Beginner Guitar students of any age group, particularly from ages 7-12 if the student has already started at a young age.
  • Guitar teachers can print the book or single sheets for their students.
  • Guitar students that want to learn the basics of rock and metal guitar.
  • Parents may be able to teach their children with this book.
  • Some guitarists may be able to teach themselves with this book, especially if they have some reading knowledge.

 

Topics covered in this book:

  • How to read the notation
  • Warm Up Sheet with scales
  • Single String Riffs
  • Basic Riffs with Power Chords
  • Power Chord Riffs with rhythms and counting
  • Riffs with palm muting
  • Basic Rock Chords with rhythms
  • Riffs and patterns using scales such as the minor pentatonic scale
  • Chords with Picking

 

Final Thoughts

This is my 10th guitar book covering beginner levels and I have used my knowledge and experience of this along with my 12 years experience of teaching, to create a niche book that I think will suit so many young guitarists learning how to play rock guitar, at a basic level. Many of which will be learning on a ¾ size acoustic guitar, and that is perfectly ok. They are very easy to transport into school for youngsters and there is no messing around with amps and leads. Perhaps this book could be used by a teenager or adult too as an open door into the world of rock guitar at a very basic level.

\m/ Enjoy! \m/

2 Octave Major and Minor Scales in G

It’s another rainy day in the UK and for some reason I’ve woken up early and I have some time before work to post this. Blueberry porridge with honey, a cup of tea, rain, politics ruining another Christmas, yet we plod on with uncertainty debating on whether it’s too soon for Chirtmas songs. Neighbours are nailing up decs to their facia boards and wrecking them – it’s all very much go.

This half term I’ve been giving this sheet out to some of my beginners that have been doing easy scales and chords, and I’m aiming to get them into harder scales (some of these are from Grade 3) using one finger per fret (and therefore using all fingers for most scales) and eventually alternate picking (down, up, down, up) when they have got used to the scales. Along side any potential Chistmas songs and other things, I’m setting this as homework 1 or 2 times per week, and we’ll also go through some or all of them in the lessons.

Free Downloads

Here is a free printable PDF download of this scales sheet.

Here is a free Guitar Pro 7 download if you have that program – you can play the scales along at any speed.

Sheet 3 – A Minor Pentatonic Scale Practice Exercises Grade 1-3

Welcome to the third sheet in a series of posts on the A minor pentatonic scale, which includes various exercises designed to build up your knowledge of the scales and also to give you ideas and memories of ideas for soloing and melody making.

There are 4 exercises based on the first position of the A minor pentatonic scale. You will need to pay attention to the down and up pick markings to be able to play them fluently and at speed eventually. The first two exercises are all down picks, because they are more like riffs, which sound stronger with all down picks. Exercises 3 and 4 are generally ‘alternate picking’ on the 8th note (quaver) beats, which means ‘down up down up’ continued. It feels wierd at first but keep at it until it starts to feel natural.

There are free downloads availabile for this sheet, a printable PDF file and an awesome Guitar Pro file. Guitar Pro is a program where you can press play on the sheet and it will play the audio of the music. You can slow it down, transpose it, loop sections. It’s really useful.

Free Downloads

Download PDF Download Guitar Pro File

More Sheets

Sheet 1 Sheet 2

Sheet 2 – A Minor Pentatonic Scale Practice Exercises Grade 1-2

Welcome to the second sheet in a series of posts on the A minor pentatonic scale, which includes various exercises designed to build up your knowledge of the scales and also to give you ideas and memories of ideas for soloing and melody making.

In this second sheet, we jump in straight to the exercises. Go back to sheet 1 to learn the A minor pentatonic scale that we will be working with.

Then there are 4 exercises based on the first position of the A minor pentatonic scale, which all finish with an A minor chord to finish off the exercise and practice changing from the exercises to the chord. You will need to pay attention to the down and up pick markings to be able to play them fluently and at speed eventually. The patterns are generally ‘alternate picking’ where possible, which means ‘down up down up’ continued. It feels wierd at first but keep at it until it starts to feel natural.

There are free downloads availabile for this sheet, a printable PDF file and an awesome Guitar Pro file. Guitar Pro is a program where you can press play on the sheet and it will play the audio of the music. You can slow it down, transpose it, loop sections. It’s really useful.

Free Downloads

Download PDF Download Guitar Pro File

More Sheets

Sheet 1 Sheet 3

Sheet 1 – A Minor Pentatonic Scale Practice Exercises Grade 1-2

Welcome to the start of a series of posts on the A minor pentatonic scale, which includes various exercises designed to build up your knowledge of the scales and also to give you ideas and memories of ideas for soloing and melody making.

In this first sheet, we will first play the A minor pentatonic scale that we will be working with.

Then there are 3 exercises based on this scale. You will need to pay attention to the down and up pick markings to be able to play them fluently and at speed eventually. It feels wierd at first but keep at it until it starts to feel natural.

There are free downloads availabile for this sheet, a printable PDF file and an awesome Guitar Pro file. Guitar Pro is a program where you can press play on the sheet and it will play the audio of the music. You can slow it down, transpose it, loop sections. It’s really useful.

Free Downloads

Download PDF Download Guitar Pro File

More Sheets

Sheet 2 Sheet 3

12 Minor Pentatonic Scale Exercises – Featured on the Guitar Pro Blog

This lesson has been published on the Guitar Pro Blog, so for the full article, click here.

The scale exercises are written for anyone that has learned (or is learning) the 2 octave minor pentatonic scale shape, and are ideal for anyone studying for grade 3 or grade 4 guitar. Those 12 concrete examples are aimed to widen your soloing chops and skills.

To read more and download the guitar pro file, use the following link:

http://blog.guitar-pro.com/2015/04/12-minor-pentatonic-scale-exercises/