Rhythmic Lead Guitar - Solo Phrasing, Groove and Timing for All Styles: Musicians Institute Private Lessons

I have been a regular reader of Barrett Tagliarino's guitar books. "Guitar Fretboard Workbook" being my all-time favorite. The amazon.com link to that book is: Guitar Fretboard Workbook Barrett Tagliarino is one of those rare authors who explains theory as well as technique in the simplest and most efficient way. Theory and technique are the two areas that one can broadly breakdown any learning activity into, whether its learning the guitar, other forms of music, or any other activity in life. In a sense, theory and technique can be thought of as science and art. And very few writers realize that as well as Barrett does. "Rhythmic Lead Guitar" is a great addition to Barrett's repertoire of very well-written guitar books. This book/CD pack focuses on a most critical super-specialization element within lead guitar: the rhythmic aspect of playing solos and riffs. This is an area that seems to have traditionally been ignored by all other guitar authors or teaching methods. The book takes a systematic and interesting step-wise approach to perfecting this rhythmic element. A beginner can hope to turn master by studying and practicing these lessons sincerely. It breaks down and explains beats in a way that makes it easier to grasp even the most complex of patterns, something beginners, intermediate and advanced players alike will surely find most useful. In addition to gaining mastery in playing all kinds of melodic patterns, you will also develop complete rhythmic control over bends, slides, legato articulations and grace notes. Bottom line, it will ensure that you gain a very strong sense of rhythmic and melodic motif development. Aspiring master lead guitarists, do yourself a big favor. Buy this book now.

This is my 3rd book by Barrett Tagliarino and is a perfect compliment to his other two. This book will help you tremendously with Rhythmic phrasing and syncopation by following simple examples by the author. This book also helps you develop your timing not only through your ear but by using your whole body as well. You will learn how to breathe properly as well as sync the tapping of your foot with the beat so that your body can always recognize where you are in relation to the music. I've always been amazed at how the greats can pull off a rapid flurry of melodic notes and smoothly land on time with the perfect note. This book can help you achieve that (along with Chord Tone soloing for the perfect note part). The Author always has a way of giving you small building blocks to digest and before you know it you look back and realize that he's helped you build a solid foundation and you are left to unleashing creativity without limits. IMHO He is without a doubt the best guitar lesson author that i have come across. He has an ability to break things down for you into bite size, easily digestible chunks and once you delve deep enough into the book, you'll realize how much progress you've made. Honestly, if you are like me and have always wondered why the scales that you play over and over just don't sound right when your trying to play and in comes your buddy "Joe Shred" and has this sense of timing that you think you have to be born with, pick up this book and you'll see that with some discipline and hard work you can learn it like any other aspect of the guitar. I'm currently working through this book and already can hear, play and feel music in a different light. If you have played the guitar for years without getting far or are a beginner who has the basics down, you will be doing the best thing for yourself by picking up this book as well as Chord Tone Soloing and The Guitar Fretboard Workbook. I can't even begin to describe what those books have done for me as well. These three books will take you really far and separate you from being the average "bedroom" guitarist to being able to hang with the professionals. Money well spent in my opinion.

Rhythmic Lead Guitar is a very practical book dealing with rhythm and timing and can be used by anyone at any level, starter to professional. Even if you know nothing about rhythm or how to count beats in a measure, this book will help you out. If you are like me and are a bit more advanced, there are still many concepts that are yet to be mastered. (Can you play a 16th note shuffle?) The book walks you through different rhythms, one by one, with examples that are written out and recorded so that you can play along with them. He starts you out by simply tapping your foot to a metronome and then moves you through different rhythms that become increasingly complex and advanced. The approach is very effective. I strongly recommend this book, no matter what level you are at (or perceive yourself to be at). Without a good sense of timing, you are wasting your time. This book will definitely help you to build the proper foundation and to build the proper habits when playing.

After reading Rhythmic Lead guitar, I am twice the lead player I was this time last week. I must confess, I am not painstakingly going through the book and doing all of the exercises, but let me briefly tell about the insight this book has given me. I am a pretty good chord-tone guy (check out Barrett's Chord-Tone Soloing book), and unlike most pretenders, I do reasonably well over diatonic progressions, especially major key stuff. My problem was really the opposite of most players--my theory is rock solid and my fretboard mastery is good--but for some reason unknown to me, my phrasing was always a choppy train wreck when it came to everyday minor pentatonic wanking. Well, no more. Rhythmic Lead Guitar made me really sit down and analyze the different available beat subdivisions, and it also helped me realize the differences between a shuffle (my band plays a lot of three-chord boogies) and a straight feel, and more specifically, between straight and swung 8th notes. I have a Fender G-Dec amp and first practiced all of these subdivisions with a metronome at different tempos and then practiced soloing over a looped shuffle for hours. Like a lightbulb coming on after 15 years of frustration, I literally and figuratively found my groove like a seasoned pro. I think I had been trying to play straight eighth notes over shuffles, and my use of triplets was underutilized. From there, I moved on to songs with a straight feel, which too have always given me fits. My main problem with these songs is that my 8th-note phrasing stunk because I tried to use too many notes. I thought great players just "played faster" than the rest of us. Well, they do, but I realize now that it is all about fitting those faster notes into each beat in a rhythmically even way. Another side effect of analyzing different beat subdivisions is that when playing fast triplets or sixteenth notes (still very difficult) that could only be accomplished with hammer-ons and pull-offs, I was forced to examine all of my pentatonic boxes for different options, and within a day, I was seeing and connecting all of the shapes like never before. Unbelievable! Some of the material in this book is beyond my scope and my interest, but by just focusing on the beat subdivisions (and hearing examples of them) and by learning the difference between a swung eighth note and a regular one, I have started on the fast track to becoming the lead guitar player I have always wanted to be. Thank you very much, Barrett.

This book provides an excellent way to focus your practice on timing and rhythm. It is structured in a step-by-step approach to develop both an understanding of and feel for timing. If you want to devote some of your practice time to timing and rhythm, this is definitely an excellent book. I have enjoyed working through the first several chapters and have seen good improvement to my playing.

I've purchased another of Tagliarino's guitar methods, "Guitar Fretboard Workbook," a year ago, purely based on customers' reviews on Amazon and other sites. (I'm somewhat of a beginner at guitar theory.) The method proved to be very effective for me, providing simple, sensible music theory and guitar explanations on "mapping" a guitar fretboard and recommendations for exercises that do help you increase your playing skills. Tagliarino seems to be right on target: master "mapping" the fretboard, and your guitar playing and music theory, for that matter, takes off, obviously depending on your perseverance. And Tagliarino provides plenty of incentive for you to persevere. I now look forward to sitting down and practicing playing my guitar all the time. I recently received Tagliarino's Rhythmic Lead Guitar, and right from the beginning, I can see that the same sensible, straight-forward teaching methodology was used. It will not replace a guitar instructor, but it will provide a more solid foundation to help build your understanding and skills, saving you money on guitar lessons, pushing the guitar lessons to when you really need them, when things get complicated. I highly recommend both methods if you are a beginner to intermediate guitar player seeking to better understand the fretboard and build/improve your playing skills. It's a small investment for big returns, as long as you are willing to work hard on it. Hope this helps.

Rhythmic Lead Guitar is my second Barrett Tagliarino publication. I have also worked through Chord Tone Soloing, and I have recently purchased his Guitar Reading Workbook. This is an amazing resource - plain and simple! It is very well organized. Rather than going into specifics about what the book covers, I can tell you how it has helped me as a musician. I am now beginning to understand music on a completely different level than I ever thought was possible. Music is really starting to make sense for me because of this book. Barrett's cd, Throttle Twister, is full of amazing guitar work, and this book unlocks the mystery behind how the songs were created. There is a lot of information to process in this book. I can now read the rhythms of extremely complicated licks that are presented in the book. This allows me to use a metronome to nail the lick at a slow tempo. I was familiar with basic rhythms before, but I can now play difficult licks with confidence instead of listening to the recording at nauseam. If you're stuck in a rut and want to put some effort into this book, I highly recommend it!

I recently purchase this book and happy I did. I've seen many books and purchased books on lead playing, soloing/improvising and what not in guitar playing. This books gets into the nuts and bolts of playing lead guitar consciously dealing with rhythm....not just playing a lot of fast notes, as in, writing sentences with a lot of run-ons no punctuations. It's a study that will help one improve, in my opinion, not a reference book necessarily but can be. As my first guitar teacher said to me if you do not have rhythm in your playing...you have nothing. Rhythm is everything he said. Reminds me a quote that Jimi Hendrix said EARLY ON when he heard Eric Clapton play live (which is hard for me to believe. I hope the quote is true) that Hendrix was going to burn Clapton because Clapton didn't have any "rhythm" in his guitar playing! Hard to believe that quote, but that is the quote I read. I believe a lot of regular guitarist need to focus on rhythm and phrasing to improve our playing and it certainly looks like this books offers excellent instructional guidance in that department of guitar playing and more. Thank you very much for Mr. Tagliarino in sharing his knowledge by taking the time and effort in writing this book. I don't believe I've seen a book written this well and comprehensive in it's nature.