All about Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1
Frequently asked Questions
Welcome to the FAQ for our most popular beginners book, Modern Guitar Chord Styles, Book 1. Whether you’re new to the guitar or need to refine your current skills, we’ve compiled answers to the most common questions about this much loved book. For over 20 years students at our studio in Melbourne, Australia have learnt to their favourite songs using the techniques inside!
Here, you’ll find everything you need to know about who MGCS1 is for, how to use it, and what you can expect to gain from using it.
“As an adult DIY player I had a few bad technique habits and timing was a real problem. Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 really did help me a lot; it fixed my timing and filled in the gaps in my chord knowledge”
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Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 is designed for beginner to intermediate guitarists. Beginners will find it easy to get started with MGCS1 ; the carefully graded chord and rhythm exercises build your finger strength and timing understanding in a clear step-by-step manner. Intermediate players will benefit by refining their rhythm techniques, exploring new strumming patterns and learning arpeggio styles. MGCS1 provides a structured pathway, road tested and proven by years of successful results from students and teachers alike.
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Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 covers the essential skills you need to learn to reach a proficient intermediate standard. This means being able to play full versions of songs, phrasing them so they really do sound like the song in question. And, by extension this means you have developed a practical understanding of timing and rhythm and good stamina in your fretboard hand. ‘Essential skills’ include rhythm time values, common open-position chords, alternate strumming, common chord progressions and rhythms, chord-change techniques, embellishment chords, essential bar-chords within the first five frets, capo use and transposing, arpeggio picking and common finger-style patterns.
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Most beginner guitar books start students off with the challenging task of learning to read music notation. Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 concentrates on the importance of chords, strumming patterns and rhythm guitar; a core job for guitar that is often overlooked, under-valued, or too simplified in beginner resources. MGCS1 combines must-know chord forms with practical rhythm exercises to develop and consolidate your right-left coordination. This is the most important thing that needs to happen for beginners and leads to being able to learn solo guitar techniques. MGCS1’s structured approach has provided this essential grounding for thousands of aspiring players. Most importantly, it prepares students to be able to play whole, recognizable songs, within the first 20 pages.
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Yes, that’s one of the big things it will do for you. MGCS1 includes numerous exercises specifically designed to improve your chord transitions whilst being able to maintain a steady rhythm. This applies equally to finger-style accompaniment patterns as well as rhythm strumming.
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No, Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 is designed to be usable for complete beginners, as well as players with some knowledge and ability who realize their skills will benefit from some structured work. Whilst some familiarity with basic guitar handling and tuning is beneficial, MGCS1 is an excellent starter text for all guitar beginners over 12 years of age.
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Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 introduces chords in a unique sequence based on developing finger strength and aural recognition (hearing) of fundamental harmony. It features many exercises based on progressions that habituate the student to changes based around a common finger/note. This creates the kind of repeat practice that promotes independence and flexibility in the fret-board hand. For the strumming/picking hand there several excellent rhythm exercises that focus purely on timing and accuracy of rhythm action.
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Yes, ‘music theory’ is imbued within the exercises and progressions of Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1. Whilst not ‘a theory book’ MGCS1 is written around progressions that create the practical application of music harmony. If you are learning, or have learned some music theory you’ll find representations of essential harmony are all through the book and, the last three pages deal specifically with ‘diatonic chords’ theory in a plain-speaking, accessible way.
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Yes, Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 introduces bar chords as part of its focus on expanding your chord vocabulary, but only once you have developed sufficient finger/hand strength. It’s important to build up to bar chords as, in the physical sense they are one of the hardest things to do on a guitar.
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Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 is designed to be used with both acoustic and electric guitars. The information contained within it, the order and style of presentation make it an excellent starter text for all steel-string guitar learners. Though not specifically written with nylon-string guitars in mind MGCS1 is certainly usable for beginners using a nylon-string guitar.
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Yes, Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 includes a section on arpeggio finger-picking. It appears later in the book so that you’ve had time to develop your chord changing coordination before adding another layer of complexity. Essential finger picking information and common picking patterns are then introduced and applied to sample progressions. This gives you the basics of finger-picking but, for a more in depth treatment on the subject of finger-style guitar Check out our companion book - Modern Guitar Fingerstyle 1 for more!
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Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 also includes a section on how to use a capo and to transpose songs. A capo can change the pitch of open chords, allowing players to perform in different keys without altering familiar chord shapes, or a pattern specific to that one song. This is really useful for playing along to recordings, finding the right key for your own performance, and accompanying singers. MGCS1’s capo section explains key transposition and demonstrates how to adapt familiar chord progressions to suit various keys.
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Whilst it doesn’t feature full songs, Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 is chock-full of song-like examples. These are progressive, ranging from simple progressions to more complex, nuanced examples. These will prepare you for real-world songs and the end of the book includes some useful lists of suggested songs that have progressions and rhythms suitable for students. Also, check out our free song charts area of the website. You’ll find lots of suitable charts here!
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Yes, Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 is structured for self-study and includes step-by-step instructions, diagrams, and tips that make it suitable for independent learners. That said, it must be stressed that if you are a novice beginner (ie; no prior musical experience) you will certainly benefit from taking some starter lessons with an experienced teacher. A professional guitar teacher will offer you insights from seeing, and hearing your efforts and describing to you what is not working well, and why.
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Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 provides advice on all aspects of foundational guitar technique, including how to grip the pick and to develop good plectrum strumming technique. MGCS1 suggests a medium-gauge pick for beginners, which is easier to control and produce a good tone with.
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Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 is generally suitable for beginners aged 12 and older, but is not recommended for younger children, as many of the chord shapes may be too challenging for young hands. For those 12 and up, especially those who already have some guitar experience, the exercises and techniques should prove manageable and understandable but best results will be gained with the guidance of an experienced teacher.
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Embellishment chords, such as sus2, sus4, and 7sus4, add color and interest to basic chords by substituting or adding notes. Chord embellishments are common in most popular music styles, providing melodic variations to the sound and enhancing progressions without changing the overall harmony. Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 teaches a wide range of embellishment chords and provides plenty of good examples of their uses.
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The book comes with a CD and a link to download MP3 recordings to practice along with. The recordings are also included with the digital download.
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This depends on several variables; your age, prior experience, time commitment, whether or not you have a teacher. All these affect how effectively you will progress through MGCS1. As a general guide, 20–30 minutes daily on the exercises in the book is recommended, especially for beginners. As your skills develop, and the range of songs you can play increases you could find less daily time on the book material is suitable for you. Keep in mind though it is consistent practice that ensures steady progress!
“The Modern Guitar Chord Styles series soon gets students’ chord vocabularies overflowing and playing in so many different musical styles. With these books, learning Rock progressions becomes a breeze and learning pop songs becomes straight forward and effortless! Highly recommended!”
GET STRUMMING WITH MODERN GUITAR CHORD STYLES
Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 : This is a very helpful book for entry-level players and those who already know the common chords but are still having trouble putting a full song together. If this reflects where you are up to, even just a few weeks of the technique building work in MGCS1 will consolidate your skills and have you putting full songs together with confidence.
