FastTrack Guitar Method - Book 1 (Fasttrack Series)

(Fast Track Music Instruction). For electric or acoustic guitar - or both! Teaches music notation, tablature, Full chords and power chords, riffs, licks, and scales, and rock and blues styles. Method Book 1 includes 73 songs and examples.

Customer Reviews:

GREAT! Read my last two paragraphs for a great tip for more practice

By Nathan Cates - October 26, 2009

Ok, there have been many reviews talking about how great this book is. And they are right. I recommend every one of my students to begin with this book and teach out of this book in the beginning. The greatest thing about this book, in my opinion, is the fact that the student learns how to read music. Let's face it, TAB is not really a good thing. Any one can post up tabs for a song, and you just play the tab. Music notation is so much easier once you learn it. Your fingers "see" the notes without you having to think "ok 6th fret, 5th string..." Learning how to read music and play is a must for all musicians.

I will say that you do learn other things: basic chords, basic power chords, and some basic rhythms. Which these are the building blocks that everyone needs.

I have already stated this, but must go back to it. You learn how to read music! You basically learn how to sight play anything using your first four frets. Imagine, most "guitar players"... read more

The Fast Track Is The Right Track

By Wilhelmina Gaudy "coolartsybabe" - April 21, 2005

There are books that only focus on playing chords. And then there are books that convert notes into that easy to read tablature. But there isn't much sheetmusic or many songbooks written in tablature.

I don't want to count strings and frets for each note. I just want to look at the notes on any sheet of music and know what to play. That's what I do when I play piano and it's what I want to do when I play guitar. This book teaches you how to do just that in addition to reading tablature and chords.

The CD makes practice more fun. Even the simplest exercises sound great with a little backup music. And if you aren't having fun...what's the point? Buy this book and start having some of that fun!

affordable way to learn the basics

By nick ropes "nick" - July 4, 2005

I bought my guitar over a year ago and wanted to learn how to play but couldn't afford to pay for guitar lessons. So I bought this book. It's amazingly clear on what to do and even shows you how to hold your hand for different chords and which finger to use for various notes.

You don't even have to be able to read a note of music to get started with this book: at the very beginning of it, before you actually start playing the guitar, it explains measures, whole notes, half notes, quarter notes (etc.), time signatures, which notes are on which lines and spaces, what a clef is, etc. Eventually (towards the end of the book) it gets into tablature.

It comes with a cd so that you know what sort of a sound you're going for and to make sure that you're doing it right... plus it's fun to have some background music to play along with. Yes it is very sappy in that the book changes the names of songs from "ode to joy" to "ode to joyful rock" and "johnny be good" to... read more