I never considered myself to be a musician when I was growing up.In fact, I was thoroughly convinced I did not have what it takes to be able to play music.I took cello lessons and failed miserably. I took piano lessons without making much progress. I sort of learned to play the recorder in school, if you can call playing hot cross buns playing.What I’m getting at is that I was a terrible musician. I couldn’t sing, I couldn’t keep time, I couldn’t play an instrument, the list of things I couldn’t do with respect to music is long. I found this particularly frustrating because my father is an absolutely fantastic professional saxophone player. I figured somewhere in me there had to be an inherent talent for music.I was very wrong.What I realized as I grew older was that my father didn’t have an inherent musical talent either. What he did have was an unstoppable drive to succeed.It took me a few years to get over my false idea that I could never be a good musician. My father had bought me a guitar years before as a Christmas present. It was sitting in a dusty case in my room, neglected. I had recently met a man named Jacob, another amazing musician. Jacob’s talent was with string instruments, particularly the bass. I asked his advice about what I should learn first.He told me to learn music theory, so I went online and began to read. I read a lot and started to teach myself scales. I was still really terrible at the guitar for awhile, but I kept at it, and slowly I improved.I stress the word slowly.I asked Jacob to teach me guitar, and he said he would, but I quickly found out that Jacob is a wonderful player, but a horrible teacher. His problem is that he cannot think like a beginner, he cannot break down the knowledge and present it in bite sized pieces that are easy to swallow and digest.I wrote this book with that in mind.During the process of teaching myself the guitar, I learned a lot about how to teach guitar. I applied what I learned to write this book, which is intended to help you understand the guitar and memorize the fretboard. This book is designed to be the first step on the road of music. I begin with a short explanation of Musical Language, then I explain the Strings and Fretboard. The following chapters are exercises.I’m still learning today. Music is extremely complicated and eclectic. I know for a fact that I will never master music, but that’s not my goal. My goal is to be able to play with other people and enjoy doing it. I can do that now, and if you work hard, you too will be able to have fun with music.
All the best,Scott J. Harris