A Modern Approach to Naming Guitar Chords 4th Ed.

Book excerpt: Finally—an intuitive, single-source standardization for naming guitar chords in the 21st century! A honing of guitar theory as a subcategory of music theory. Commonsense approach to all things guitar chord, including how to label alternate chord voicings. New concepts, including natural harmonics chords, unison chords, and octaval chords. A massive Instructional Glossary with clear and precise definitions, benefiting both guitarists and music theorists alike. Appendices containing 747 graphical guitar chord boxes and definitions for several guitar tunings: • Standard • Open Major A/E • Open Major G/D • Drop D • Double Drop D • Bruce Palmer Modal “Band of Witches” sample song sheet. Procedures for registering a copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office. Introduction to U.S. copyright law’s fair use doctrine, including a comparison of mechanical and sync licenses. Presented in an easy-to-read, connect-the-dots manner. An absolute must-read for the guitarist wanting to transcribe new sound-creations into guitar chords. The only textbook needed for a Progressive Guitar Theory 105 course. Though geared toward the needs of a seasoned guitarist, this book contains a wealth of information that will benefit anyone, from the casual campfire-strumming enthusiast to avid music theorists looking for a greater understanding of the challenges facing non-sight-reading guitar players. Book Review: "A soup-to-nuts guide for guitarists looking for a comprehensive way to name and notate chords. Music theory and practicality are sometimes at odds. For example, theory dictates that a chord must have three or more notes, but as debut author Davis explains in his introduction, guitarists play two-note formations frequently, which they must then label as chords when transcribing. As one gets deeper into theory, the conflicts can get more complicated in terms of where a “root” note might lay in a chord sequence, or how a chord might fit in a particular scale. Davis seeks to solve that quandary with a practical standard for working guitarists. It’s a complicated task, and this book provides a lot of context for readers to consider, explaining pitch, tuning, scales, and intervals, and even providing information on copyrighting musical works. Along the way, he takes a lot of advanced ideas into account, such as unaltered nonextended chords, unaltered extended chords, suspended nonextended chords, and the like. Chances are that any guitarist who’s attracted by the title of this book already knows enough to follow these theoretical aspects. The author offers a process to make these concepts clearer, [to Gatekeeper: my rewrite attends to the rest of the sentence & the next one] but it’s not a basic, numbered list of steps. Readers with no education in theory may have to read passages several times to put the level of detail into proper perspective [to Gatekeeper: this ends the portion of the Review I "fixed."]. A weekend warrior who’s happy banging out basic G-C-D or E-A-D progressions, for instance, won’t find much use for the theory, but those looking to move forward will find value in the first, basic chapters and the massive appendices, which feature definitions of everything from Travis picking to truss rods. For guitarists who write, the most useful aspect of this book may be the chord guide, which includes voicings for both standard and alternate tunings. A complex manual for guitar players who want to keep learning new things." -- Kirkus Indie Reviews