• Adobe Reader
• Melody Guitar Exercises
• WinZip
• TefView Score Reader
• TefView Primer
• Catalog Contents lists
• CD playlists
• 18 Common Chords
• Blank Visualinear Tablature Score

Adobe Reader

The Adobe (PDF) format is a widely used technology that allows for the conversion of documents and manuscripts into electronic form. The Adobe Reader is required to read PDF files. Most of the learning materials offered for sale on this website can be purchased either in printed and bound book format or in PDF format, which is considerably more affordable. The Adobe Reader can be downloaded free of charge from the Adobe website.

Melody Guitar Exercises

The Melody Guitar Exercises consist mainly of simple familiar melodies. The last three Exercises are examples of ensemble arrangements in two (duet), three (trio), and four parts respectively. The e-scores for these Exercises are an interesting and effective resource for learning to read the visualinear tablature notation for this music, and for learning to play the music. Besides their obvious usefulness to readers of Melody Guitar, these e-scores can be of use to more experienced players as well.

By reading through these e-scores, an experienced player can quickly become familiar with visualinear tablature, with the e-score format, and with the guitar ensemble format. This will allow for an informed choice regarding the possible musical benefit of learning to play other guitar ensemble pieces. Ensemble music in a wide variety of musical styles can be learned affordably, and in a self-directed manner, by individually selecting the ensemble pieces you would like to learn, and ordering them in the e-score format.

WinZip

WinZip is an archive utility that allows users to zip together a number of files into a single file, or to unzip files that have been zipped together. Since the individual files for the Melody Guitar Exercises are zipped into a single file, WinZip or a similar archive utility is required to open them. The same is true for any orders of more than a few e-scores, which are delivered by means of a single zipped file that is attached to an e-mail. An evaluation version of WinZip can be downloaded free of charge from the WinZip website.

TefView Score Reader

All of the e-scores and printed scores for the guitar ensemble component of the visualinear tablature guitar series were made with the TablEdit Tablature Editor music notational program. The e-scores, also called .tef files (TablEdit Format), can be read either with the TablEdit software or with the TefView Score Reader. TefView is a freeware program that can be downloaded free of charge from the TablEdit website.

TefView Primer

The guitar ensemble e-scores and the TefView Score Reader make learning to play melodic music on the guitar, and learning about music in general, more interesting, more enjoyable, more interactive, and more universally accessible than ever before possible. There are a number of features of the TefView program that can enhance the effectiveness of the e-scores as a learning tool. The use and value of these features are discussed in a collection of short topics called the TefView Primer, which can be downloaded free of charge from this website.

Catalog Contents lists

The listings on this website of the contents of the Guitar Ensemble Core Catalog (GECC) and the Rhythm Guitar Core Catalog (RGCC) contain various categories of information that are included to better serve the learning needs of individuals with a wide variety of musical backgrounds. The simplified Contents lists provided below contain only the titles of the selections included in the various volumes of which these two Catalogs are comprised.

CD Playlists

If you elect to purchase any of the downloadable CDs from the Rhythm Guitar Core Catalog (Noel Duets, D. L. Stieg II, Mixed Duets, and the Rhythm Sampler), you can download and print a CD playlist by using the link provided below.

18 Common Chords

The 18 common chords comprise a small vocabulary of basic chords that are used with relatively great frequency in rhythm guitar music. These common chords are referred to in visualinear tablature scores solely by means of the chord symbols by which they are identified, and are not diagrammed beneath the tablature. The 18 common chords, and the suggested fingerings for these chords, are referred to repeatedly in the Study Notes that are included in the score write-ups for rhythm guitar arrangements. A close familiarity with the 18 common chord diagrams, which are included in the Quick Guide to the score write-up format, is therefore essential to making use of the tablature scores and the Study Notes. If you plan on completing the course of study in Rhythm Guitar, the Twelvemonth Music manual on rhythmic styles of play, do not download these chord diagrams, since this course of study includes detailed instructions as to how to derive these chords yourself, given only the names of the chords.

Blank Visualinear Tablature Score

Figuring out how to play familiar melodies on the guitar, and then notating them in visualinear tablature, is an effective way to develop musicianship and to become better acquainted with the guitar and with the tablature. Notating melodies you compose, unless you have the means to record them, is the only way to ensure that you will not forget them. The same is true of any rhythm guitar arrangements you devise. The first step in the notation of either melodic or rhythmic guitar music is to determine the meter so you know which blank tablature you need to use (in 3, in 4, or in 6). Music in 9 or 12 can be notated in 3 or 4 respectively by placing a 3 at the left end of each line of tablature. The 3 indicates division of the beats into three sub-beats, and notes or groups of notes that are sounded between beats are notated and timed at either one-third or two-thirds the interval between beats.

Notating music correctly sometimes requires a more exact understanding of the music than is required to play the music. For example, the notation of complicated rhythms, even for music you can already play competently, often requires slowing the music considerably and breaking the rhythmic patterns down in terms of beats and sub-beats. The most important consideration in the notation of rhythm guitar music is the accuracy of the chord diagrams showing the fingerings for all the chords. The names by which unusual or experimentally derived chords are called are reasonably unimportant, since an incorrectly named but correctly fingered chord is in any case a correct chord.

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