Joe Pass Guitar Chords is a compact but powerful book for any guitarist who wants to understand jazz harmony through the eyes — and hands — of one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time. What makes it stand out: Unlike many chord books that just list endless diagrams, Joe Pass explains how to use chords musically. It’s not about memorizing shapes — it’s about understanding how to move…

Are There Any Guitar Method Books You Recommend?

This is perhaps the one of the most common questions I get with regards to guitar lessons and it is a loaded one.

There are numerous factors to consider when it comes to picking the right guitar method books, and there are no easy answers.

I’ve outlined some considerations below to keep in mind when you’re looking for a book to supplement your lessons.

Here are four things you need to be thinking…

8 Major & Minor Guitar Chords

Basic Guitar Lessons for the Beginner GuitarisT

Just off of the Kindle presses and now available for Kindle by author David Batterson comes “8 Major & Minor Guitar Chords: Basic Guitar Lessons for the Beginner Guitarist“. This book takes you through everything a beginning guitar player should know. From stringing your guitar to cleaning it, tuning it and then learning first, the 3 major chords…

Kid Kilowatt Guitar Method (1996-1999) Second Nature/Hydra Head, 2004

There’s a point when you exist in a group of friends that are almost all musicians where you realize that some of your free time searching for something to do might be spent just playing music for the fun of it. Usually I don’t pick up my guitar without having an agenda for doing so, rarely is it ever just to explore my instrument or god forbid practice. Considering the group of people that I know it’s a little off-putting that we’ve never gotten together to “jam”. What would actually happen if you played just for the sake of playing?

So, though I hate using the term “supergroup”, it’s what best describes Kid Kilowatt. Featuring members of Cave In, Converge, and Piebald, they combine their ideas about songwriting and make a product that is infinitely more accessible than most of their other separate material. Guitar Method is very driven in ways that you wouldn’t expect from a band that existed in such a limited way. Largely based on the songwriting of Steven Brodsky, Kid Kilowatt found a place that in some ways makes a total mockery out of the process of being a band. Not necessarily in a bad way, but listening to some individuals make music part time that is so much better than most career bands is borderline insane.