Folk Guitar for Beginners- Paul Howard

For music lovers who always wanted to play folk guitar but have been put off by traditional guitar methods, this book will get you playing right away, without having to pick through heavy theory and music-reading lessons first. Enduring and beautiful folk songs are taught in a clear and easy-to-understand fashion that is perfect for every beginner. You'll learn basic strumming, fingerpicking and a variety of accompaniment styles. Lyrics to the songs are included.

This book deals with North American folk guitar styles. There are many other beautiful folk styles from South America, the British Isles and many other ethnic traditions and nationalities. Although they are beyond the scope of this book, they should definitely be on your list of music to hear. Learning to use the chords and techniques in this book creatively and imaginatively will bring you hours ofjoy. It will also point you in the right direction as you begin your journey of discovery into the world of folk music and guitar. This book is mostly concerned with using the guitar as an accompaniment instrument for singing. The melodies of all the songs are written out in standard notation (see appendix). The guitar parts are only written in tablature, so a knowledge of standard music notation is not necessary.

This is an Enhanced CD which offers two methods of supplementing the accompanying book. Audio CD - You may listen and play along with this same CD using any standard audio CD Player. The stereo recording will allow you to hear each piece exactly as it should be played,with or without an instrumental accompaniment.

Media Song Player - Using the CD in a windows compatable PC allows you to play along with the same songs as the audio CD with several additional features. Using the Multimedia Song Player you may:

1) Follow along with the music on the screen.

2) Adjust the tempo of the accompaniment using the tempo slider.
Slow the play back down as you are learning each song and
gradually increase the speed until you reach the performance tempo.

3) See how each piece is played. The Multimedia song Player shows you graphically how each song should be played on your instrument.

4) Mix the volumes of the lead part, the accompaniment, the rhythm and the click track separately to to customize the accompainment to your liking.

5) Record your performance! By plugging your electric instrument or a
microphone into your sound card to listen and critique your progress.