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Melody Score
Ensemble CD Track
Ensemble Score
Flatpick CD Track
Flatpick Score
Fingerstyle CD Track
Fingerstyle Score
Rhythm Duet CD Track

Rhythm Sampler CD

This website is a many-faceted resource for learning about music and learning to play the acoustic guitar. The focus of this website is on a 24-volume collection of self-instruction music books called the visualinear tablature guitar series. The series is so named because the music contained in these books, which spans a wide range of classical and non-classical styles, is all arranged for the guitar, and written in a new and simpler form of notation called visualinear tablature.

While they are books in a strict sense, owing to the prohibitive cost of printing, binding, and mailing, the books of the visualinear tablature guitar series can only be purchased in PDF format. No less importantly, any of the 350 guitar arrangements contained in the two main Catalogs (the Guitar Ensemble Core Catalog and the Rhythm Guitar Core Catalog) can be purchased individually in electronic format. This important feature allows you to hand-select the pieces you would most like to learn, and eliminates the need for purchasing compilations that include pieces in which you have no particular interest. To assist you in this selection process, detailed listings and audio for these 350 arrangements are included on the corresponding pages of this website, and can be reviewed at any time. This website also contains an uncommonly large amount of supportive textual content that describes the books of the visualinear tablature guitar series in great detail.

The two manuals for the series are Melody Guitar and Rhythm Guitar. Neither of these manuals assumes any prior knowledge of music, and their study can be undertaken in either order. Melody Guitar is a general introduction to the study of music, and a guide to playing melodies effectively on the guitar. It is followed by the Guitar Ensemble Core Catalog, a collection of 190 guitar ensemble parts arrangements, which are similar to choral arrangements except that all the parts are played on the guitar rather than sung. Rhythm Guitar is a comprehensive introduction to rhythmic (chord-based) styles of play on the guitar, with an equal emphasis on flatpick styles and fingerstyles. It is followed by the Rhythm Guitar Core Catalog, a collection of 160 rhythm guitar arrangements that are accompaniments to ensemble arrangements contained in the Guitar Ensemble Core Catalog.

D. L. Stieg, Founder Twelvemonth Music

There is no quick and easy way to become a musician and a competent guitarist. But if you are seriously intent on learning about music and learning to play the guitar, or increasing your understanding of music and improving your playing skills, this website will allow you to reach those goals in a self-directed fashion, and at a very modest cost. The key to the value of this website is that it can enable people to change themselves for the better by bringing the joyful and rewarding experience of understanding and playing music into their lives. In developing this website and the books of the visualinear tablature guitar series, I have been constantly guided and driven by my lifelong love of music. That love can have no greater expression than to awaken such a love in others in a way that is meaningful and lasting.