Fretboard Logic SE: Volumes I & II Combined

There are a lot of positive reviews for this book. Here's another one.I've been playing on and off for 16 years. Took lessons a long time ago and have read countless books on the subject. Nothing comes close to accomplishing what this book did for me in 2 days.I am familiar with music theory but on a very basic level. I never commmited certain things to memory (modes, circle of 5ths) but I can name the notes on the fretboard.I had never heard of the CAGED method but was quite used to viewing chords as patterns on the neck as opposed to individual notes. This book took that fact and explained it in a way that had me playing all over the neck after ONE night studying it.It will show you how there are only a few basic chord SHAPES that when played in a certain order will repeat themselves moving up the neck. For me, seeing this fact instantly opened my eyes to the layout of the fretboard and has given me the knowledge to greatly improve my playing because I can now move all over the neck and hit the right chords in ways that allow for easier soloing around them.Some comment that this book is no substitute for conventional theory education. I'll agree to that (especially if you will be playing with assorted musicians) but firmly believe that there is also no substitute to this book and the method it lays out.Everyone learns at a different pace and some things 'click' better for some people. For me, the CAGED method in two nights completely changed how I view the instrument, and has allowed my playing to open up considerably.

I have been playing the guitar for two years now and thought I was making good progress until I tried to play with other experienced guitar players. I realized that I had a long way to go about mastering the guitar. Rather than really learning the guitar, I was just practicing songs and thinking real progress was being made. Promptly after my failed attempt of playing with my experienced friends, I bought this book and the light came on. I mean, it was like an explosion that lifted me to an entirely different level. I have never learned so much from any book Ive ever read - and Ive read a lot of books. All of the others are difficult to follow and assume that the reader is familiar with profound guitar theory knowledge. Edwards, on the other hand, takes all of the confusion and hones in on the most fundamental aspects of the guitar. The CAGED method is absolutely the best way to learn the guitar. If you follow this book from page one and really work on it, you will begin to notice drastic improvements and everything will begin to make sense - I mean, you will have an epiphany one day and say, "I've got it!" I have never written a review for a book until now - this is how strongly I feel about the knowledge you will take away from this book. Best guitar book ever published.

Fretboard Logic SE is a great book that manages to distill a vast amount of information into a very concise and usable form. In a way, it's like a Rosetta Stone for the guitar. As I read the book, I "felt the light go on" over and over as bits and pieces I'd picked up over the years clicked into place and I began to understand how they related together. It covers a method called the CAGED system, which uses barre forms of the C, A, G, E, and D chords (thus the name). These chords are movable as a block to anywhere on the neck, the benefit being that you always know how to find a chord near where your hand is currently on the neck. Building on the CAGED system are various major and pentatonic scale forms, so that you can easily play runs - which are the basis for solo, riffs and improvising. It gives sensible explanations of music theory and how it pertains to playing the guitar. Building upon this he shows how to form the common chord types - (major, minor, sevenths, etc) in any key.It's opened up the guitar for me. I've only been playing my acoustic guitar a couple months, and I can sit and watch a guitarist on TV now and understand what I see him doing. I may see his hand on the fretboard and notice that his hand is making an E form, moved to the 8th fret. Sometimes I can make out that it's a 7th by hearing it. That's something I can reproduce immediately or later. Or I can (slowly) improvise along with a song I hear by using the pentatonic scales I've learned. I can hear and see the chord progressions from I to IV to V and back. You'll still need lots of practice to toughen and strengthen your fingers and hands and to make them quick and limber, but Fretboard Logic SE is a great book to start with or to brush up with if your more advanced. It will save you a great deal of frustration and make your learning quicker and more productive.

Learning guitar is an odd process. You're supposed to practice, practice, practice. You learn chord shapes. You have lessons. You dissect solos note by note. There appears to be no master plan. Somehow, through a variety of methods, you're supposed to learn. Eventually, you're assured, by some means you're not aware of yet (osmosis?), you'll "get it."This book is the "it" you're supposed to get.Far too many books assume that the common methods work. Many an aspiring student has put the guitar in the closet in frustration at something that doesn't address the basic question - What note do I play next?Bill Edwards has taken the idea of positional relationships to its highest point. If I play a C chord with a barre at the eighth fret, where will I find a convenient F and G position? What shape will I need to play, and what fret should I start from?This seems to me to be a basic question yet it hardly gets a mention in most books. It seems that if you practice long enough and don't get bored to death, you'll know this.Bill Edwards shows that the five major chord shapes (C, A, G, E, and D) follow as you move up the fretboard, so you quickly learn that if you're playing a certain shape at a certain fret, the chords you're going to need will be in a specific other shape a specific number of frets away.This is independent of what key you're playing in, so if you start a 12-bar blues with a A-shape, you can drop down a couple of frets and play an E-shape for the next chord.I've made it sound far more complex than it is. You'll need the book - make no mistake - and in just a few hours you'll have learned a huge amount of useful stuff.But this is just the first seventeen of over a hundred pages. The idea of positional relationships is used to describe scales and then the pentatonic blues scale, so you can build solos and know immediately where the next notes are.Fretboard Logic pulls all the useful stuff from other learning methods together. It shows you *why* you play the notes you do.I was suspicious of the other reviews here (mainly reprinted from the book's cover), because they sounded so good they couldn't be true. Then I saw the book recommended on the Fender Forum, so I decided to take a chance. Yeah, you still have to practice. Your fingers won't get supple until you do. But imagine practicing where you're constantly trying something new, and where the musical inspiration flows. That's what you'll get if you study Fretboard Logic.