These 27 short etudes were composed to provide music suitable for study or the concert stage. The etudes present a colorful palette of moods and musical textures and incorporate various picking techniques and lush harmonies. They are extremely useful in developing tone and a lyrical feeling to a guitarist’s style. These etudes will work well as concert preludes or encores or may be played in groups to create more extended performance repertoire. They are guitaristic and highlight the beauty of the plectrum/flatpick guitar style. The etudes are written in notation and tablature. Includes access to online audio.

This book in the Guitar Picking Tunes series presents 29 favorite hymns arranged for guitar solo. The material spans the centuries, but reflects a deep faith, including lyrically-beautiful hymns such as “Just as I Am”, to the powerful “Crown Him with Many Crowns”. These solos work well as preludes, offertories, communion hymns and even recessionals, or simply for enjoyment. All solos are written in standard notation and tablature. Includes access to online audio.

Rob MacKillop presents 20 classic lute transcriptions; the "greatest hits" of the Renaissance and Baroque lute repertoire arranged for pick acoustic, electric, or classical guitar. MacKillop has for many years played all these pieces on the lute, and has created sensitive guitar arrangements that lose nothing from the original scores. Composers include Bach, Weiss, Dowland, Spinacino, among others. Finally, we have a book of lute-to-plectrum guitar transcriptions by an arranger who is deeply familiar with and respectful of both instruments. Includes access to online audio for every item recorded by Rob MacKillop in plectrum style.

A collection of all time Gospel favorites scored for guitar melody. Chords, tablature and lyrics are included along with a companion audio. A Glorious Church; All the Way My Savior Leads Me; Angel Band; Blessed Assurance; Blessed Quietness; Death Has No Terrors; Drifting too Far from the Shore; Every Bridge is Burned Behind Me; Every Day and Every Hour; Glory to His Name; Hallelujah, We Shall Rise; He Abides and many more. Includes access to online audio.

In this book, journalist, composer, songwriter, teacher, and 2003 Winfield Flatpicking Guitar Champion, Jeff Troxel, delivers a masterclass in arranging fiddle tunes for flatpicking guitar. These 20 themes and variations on favorite bluegrass melodies are designed to improve overall musicianship and augment your own arranging skills. Ideal for the intermediate to advanced flatpicking guitarist, the author reveals techniques for enabling readers to create their own theme and variations settings. Suggested rhythm guitar chords and light left-hand fingerings are also provided. Troxel points out that one of the unexpected benefits of learning and memorizing themes with variations is that the process will ultimately facilitate linear and harmonic improvisation. It would be a painstaking process to learn this skill from a teacher or a harmony textbook, but once memorized, the scale and arpeggio patterns within these tunes and variations will set you on a viable path towards original improvised lines. As a bonus, the author includes a generous appendix containing several of his Flatpicking Guitar Magazine articles that deal with aspects of musicianship that every guitarist should know. While written in standard notation and tab, if you have relied solely on tablature and recordings in the past, this book can provide the key to understanding essential music theory and reading standard notation. If you’re not quite ready to learn to read standard notation, you can still use the tab and the author’s excellent online recordings to learn these delightful arrangements. In any case, it will be fun to get these settings of standard bluegrass tunes “in-hand” and use them in future jam sessions.

(Note this has standard notation only. There is a version with standard notation and TAB available, also)From the Foreword: Guitarists around the world are faced with a common set of obstacles when learning their instrument. When distilled, the essence of these obstacles becomes knowledge of technique vs musical knowledge. While both are important, the balance of the two disciplines is the key to being able to freely express one's musical ideas and operate at their creative peak. Whether composing or improvising, it is necessary to cultivate a broad musical vocabulary with depth and variety. In theory, once accomplished, one can use their technical ability to decorate the spaces in time with all of the colors of their musical knowledge.Noel Johnston, a brilliant guitarist in his own right and the author of this book you are now reading, was clever enough to identify and organize some of the most useful strategies for learning the "colors" of the modes. He has pulled back the curtain on the often confusing topic of modes by systematically exposing their personalities with fresh sounding etude exercises and a game of rolling the "modal dice." He devised a sportive way to explore their sounds during practice while intuitively ingraining them into your playing and writing. When you roll the modal dice you enter a world not dissimilar to muscle confusion in physical training. To make gains in physical exercise one must vary their training methods in a way that promotes new experience for each muscle group. By rolling the modal dice you also train yourself to adapt to a new creative environment which leads to being better prepared in any improvisational situation. The combined elements of this modal practice approach also improves one's ear training and pitch recognition.Noel Johnston's modal dice method reveals all guitarists' strengths and weaknesses while simultaneously providing fun ways to improve their overall musicality. This is by no means an insipid "Life Hack" guitar book nor is it a judgmental "Theory Wizard" treatise. This is a comprehensive way to enhance your understanding and appreciation of the modes and what they offer you as a guitarist/musician. If you have ever found yourself saying, "I wish there was a way that I could identify and understand why I like the sounds I hear in music" then this book is for you. Use it to your advantage and make the best music you can make. Thank Noel when you see him!(Dweezil Zappa - 2019

This is a collection of 22 old-time gospel favorites arranged for solo flatpicking guitar. All arrangements are in notation and tablature with chords included and work well when played with another guitarist, banjo, or mandolin player.

The Perpetual Beginner is part memoir, part musical instruction manual. Relating stories of his experiences as a young musician and music student in 1980's New York, author Dave Isaacs describes the key lessons that shaped his musical life and how they can help any aspiring musician at any age. The title refers to the average music hobbyist with more enthusiasm than skill or time to practice. Many people play for years without developing more than rudimentary abilities, and some become so frustrated by the struggle that they stagnate or quit. The stories in the book and the musical lessons they impart give these "perpetual beginners" the ideas, techniques, and encouragement that will help them begin to progress again. The title also references the Zen concept of "beginner's mind", a way of approaching any endeavor with the openness and zeal of a beginner regardless of experience. Maintaining a beginner's mindset removes many of the self-limiting beliefs and inhibitions that hold many people back, thus enabling the learning process - hence the book's subtitle, "A musician's path to lifelong learning." Author Dave Isaacs is a musician, performing songwriter, and teacher based in Nashville, where he is known as the "Guitar Guru of Music Row".

Featuring standard notation and tablature, this new book & audio package introduces basic accompaniment patterns, how to use the thumb and fingers, Travis" picking, and much more. Readers learn the applications of folk, blues, ragtime and new age styles to solo guitar while learning beautiful new chord voicings."

This book provides a master source for building agility, flexibility and speed while playing with a flatpick, as well as a repertoire source for the plectrum-style guitarist. the studies are designed to build reading ability and clarity of sound in a variety of styles, as well as agility in cross-picking and the playing of rapid linear passages. Includes over 100 original and jazz etudes, fiddle tunes, and a great number of classical guitar pieces transcribed for plectrum guitar. Written in standard notation and tablature.