Hi there! I’ve been trying to learn guitar and I’ve basically only used justin guitar and I wonder if I should vary my learning. Use supplements perhaps. Been eyeing the hal leonard books at my local long and mcquade and wonder if I should use that as sort of an “on top of” practice when I can. I wanna do as much as I can to retain my motivation through my beginner journey (i’m early into the 1st course) as I tend to dwindle with hobbies if I don’t sense anything happening that’s new or exciting.
Any ideas if Hal Leonard ones would work? Or any others to kinda act as “extra material” along side content?
I’m purely self teaching this stuff and I’ll be going to uni in the fall so definitely can’t afford teachers so I want to maintain some novelty while learning new stuff.
Please advise, thanks!
Did I read right that you’re early in Justin’s grade 1?
I didn’t find any books that helped at that stage - if anything, they detracted. If you want extras, I’d suggest Justin’s apps, and learning as many songs at your level as you have time for. Justin has plenty of recommendations through the course. That would probably give you the most variety.
Hal Leonard are pretty solid materials. Some songs in the older editions though, can be pretty dated though, so check the contents.
If you’re off to uni, and are so inclined, books can be a great way of adding to your learning, or just exposing you to new stuff; while on the bus for 20 minutes; on the grounds between classes etc. Depends on how you roll.
Stick close to Justins lessons though; they’ll get you far.
Cheers, Shane
try Justin guitars beginner song book you may find it on Ebay or amazon I’ve had one for some time and it goes with the lessons lots of great songs Beatles included.
I used Mel Bay’s - Modern guitar method and William Leavitt’s - Modern method for guitar. Although there is a word modern in both, they are actually a traditional way of learning guitar. I believe Hal Leonard method follows the similar approach.
You will start from C major scale, you will learn proper notation in the first position, you will play some melodies using notes from the scale, you will then combine notes into triads over all 6 strings, you will then combine triads into full big chords. After finishing C major, there will be Am scale (relative minor) with the same approach, then G major, etc. You will be asked to play all beats with down pick, all off-beats with up pick which will force pure alternate picking to become default. Only later there will be introduction of triplet picking, economy picking etc. This is roughly what you can expect.
I used this early on in parallel with Justin’s beginners course and it was very beneficial to me. You coming from the violin background might find this useful as well.
However, we are all different and as JK mentioned, it was a distraction to him. If you have limited amount of time or you like clear focus, use only Justin’s lessons.
I bought a bunch of Hal Leonard and Mel Bay books about 20 years ago, in one of my failed attempts to learn guitar.
Justin’s course is so much better… ike, 10 to 100 times better! I think it would be far better to go through all the Justin lessons, and ask for help here if you get stuck.
i see i see. do you think they’d add on later on?
do they ship to canada? looked them up an you can only get them on websites based in the EU and UK? [andertons and musicroom]
and they are MIGHTY expensive… i attempted to go through check out via Andertons (just to see final costs) and 40 euros is $60 CAD for ONE book with tax + shipping (shipping is really expensive on top it’s like 19 euros) and that’s not exactly the price range i was hoping for… i thought they’d be 30-40$ CAD at most… are they worth the $60 you pay for them?
Stuffing you head full of knowledge when starting out will not speed up your learning. It takes time for your fingers to catch up to your brain. Follow Justin’s Beginner Course will be the fastest way to learn to play the guitar. If you need to fill your head with knowledge take Justin’s PMT course the first 2 grades are free.
https://www.justinguitar.com/classes/practical-music-theory-course-fast-hands-on
I’d looked into that course, I’ve definitely been thinking on brushing up on music theory for sure and I’ll probably come to that course if I’m in the mood to really learn it. My current knowledge is based on my violin experience, and it’s sufficient to get me through the current course material
Justin’s PMT is gear towards Guitar so it’s not boring like regular Music Theory it’s actually useful.
For your question, yes, the JustinGuitar Beginner Songbook is available at Amazon Canada. I see it at 28$ CAD free shipping. Also I see some used options cheaper.
It’s a tab book to learn songs with your guitar in hands, not something to read in the bus though.
I’ve used a handful of books, not heaps. The ones I’ve found most useful have exercises in them (accompanied by audio tracks), or songs. I used to have a book that went into the history of guitar & guitars as well, that was interesting - can’t remember the name of it.
I haven’t found them as useful for learning playing techniques though. Probably because books are head knowledge and guitar is finger & ear knowledge.
You might take a look at Desi Serna’s books that are oriented toward music theory as it applies to guitar.
Everyone is different but for me, I found enough content in Justin’s course to keep me going without straying to other material. As mentioned above, you can supplement what you learn and practice in the lessons with some other useful additional material. Justin has the music theory course but also the strumming sos. They are useful things to do in parallel and the
strumming course will be directly useful. Then supplement that with learning songs and you might have enough to feel you are progressing.
sorry for this bit but as a university professor, I had to say it 
If you are about to start university, you are about to have a lot of novel experiences and a lot of new things to learn in your courses, so realistically you might not have much time for more than just following the Justin course without overloading. But everyone is different.
Another less structured option than books is that at university it will probably be easy to find other young people to play with and that will introduce you to new guitar things, especially if they are a little above your level. That could be very motivating.
Best, Ian
As a retired university professor, I’ll second this. As a first-year student, no one will be reminding you to go to class, to do the assigned work. It’s very easy to go belly up the first year. Keep your priorities straight.
Just pushing back on this a bit: many people enjoy hobbies or other (non-course work) activities in college. I played sports 3 hours a day for most of my uni years. I also slept until noon nearly every weekend day for a few years there.
As you say, everyone is different and perhaps some folks really have to dedicate almost all their attention to course work, but many do not.
what about wikibooks?
Agreed. Hobbies/non-academic activities are a really important counterbalance for some students. It was much easier for me to handle a high course load if I was also devoting serious time to developing and practicing non-academic skills purely for enjoyment, back when I was an overachiever. As I’ve discovered the hard way in my post-college life, devoting considerable energy and attention to personal fulfillment activities should actually be a high priority for me, because my health and productivity suffer when I don’t give personal fulfillment goals enough attention.
Back on the original topic, @marsmakesthings, I haven’t tried the Hal Leonard guitar books, but I have found their ukulele books helpful used in tandem with other sources, as they provide additional practice options and exercises I can use alongside what I’ve gotten from other sources.
I figure, when I was in school for music it would have been quite silly to try to stick to just one course, one teacher, or one source of musical information. My fellow music students and I all took multiple related music courses with many different teachers at once, even the students who were studying only one instrument, so I see using multiple books and courses in a similar way. As long as I keep practicing and learning, why not draw from any source that gives me useful information and helps keep me engaged?
If you’re going to university, actually, the university itself may have musical resources available for students even when they aren’t music majors. I know my college had all kinds of hobby-related resources available for students — equipment and practice spaces available to borrow, workshops, clubs, etc. The university library might have guitar books, too, so that you can take a look at them and see which ones, if any, work for you without spending any money at all.
Agree. I had a lot more free time in university than now (full time work and young kids).