Reading Studies for Guitar: Positions One Through Seven and Multi-Position Studies in All Keys

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I never feel like I can stick with music books (I chalked this up to having no attention span), but I committed to sight reading at least 2 pages of this a day, and now I'm hooked. The progress after about a month is real and measurable. Excited to go back through it a 2nd time!

I've been spending 20-30 min/day reading through this book with a metronome for about a month now and I can already see a difference in my sight reading ability. Leavitt does a great job covering all the key signatures (even the really gnarly ones with 6-7 flats/sharps) and they'll change in the middle of an excercise which keeps you on your toes. I'd recommend this for anyone who wants to improve their reading/fret board familiarity. I plan to eventually get second volume (covers positions 7-12, this volume covers positions 1-7).

I delayed learning upper position reading for far too long. Don't do the same! Or if you have, start to catch up. This book is a good aid to use *after* you've done some basics of higher positions and scales in a method such as Mel Bay, Nick Manoloff, or Leavitt's own Berklee method.If you've done the basics and have more than passing familiarity with notes and scales on the upper frets, then this is a great book to solidify that knowledge and bring your reading to the next level. The exercises in general are a challenge. They have twists and turns and require going out of position at times. But they are thorough; all keys and positions (through seventh) are covered, and the next book in the series will give you the rest.Don't expect easy going or fast going. As in most things in life, you'll get out of this what you put into it. But the hard work (at times really hard; I'm not joking about this) will be rewarded. I'm surprised (okay, not really surprised) at how many players and even some of the reviewers here want things to be easier. "Easy" doesn't move the needle to the right, so to speak.The book is not perfect. While it contains many exercises and is very thorough, the handwritten staves and notes are messy and sometimes hard to read. There is no excuse for not having done decent typesetting and I take a star off for this.There are brief instructions in the front, which are clear enough, but still some confusion might arise in actual application. You'll have to work your way through this. Trust me, it gets better with practice.I've still got a long way to go but I know my reading is improving with this book. Again--- this is *not* a "first" book for reading upper positions. But it is a super second book.

This book will help.Realize that this book, in no way, explains anything about scales. It doesn't even list the notes that each scale has (I had to figure them all out)... But, it shows every finger position needed to do every scale at the top of the fret board by the nut. That is the magic. Those are on pages 4 and 5.For unknown reasons, no other book ever does this.Plus, the rest of the book consists of work sheets that, if you do them, you'll certainly be able to do any scale after that (and read sheet music).So, you will also need books on how to read sheet music and you'll have to figure out on the fretboard what the fingering numbers mean. It's not hard because, generally, if it says 1, that means fret 1. If it is finger 2, that means fret 2, if it says 3, that means fret 3 and if it is 4, that generally means fret 4. There are only a few exceptions to that.Thus, you will (in the end) be able to play any scale in any key, you'll be able to use only the top four frets to do that, up by the nut, (generally) and you'll be able to match those notes to where they reside on guitar sheet music.

Fantastic. The only complaint is that sometimes it is unclear which finger is supposed to be used to play the note. I think he does this to make you always think outside of the box. Super confusing tho. He will also change the key signature on the fly and then cancel it for the very notes he just changed lol. But yep after working through it a couple of times my sight reading is definitely improving.

Being a professional musician, I tend to collect music books. Almost every book has something in it that justifies the price. This one certainly does. It is what it says it is: a reading studies book.

If you do not sight read at all on guitar, this is not the book for you, and you'd be advised to start with a primer. I started with Chris Buono “Guitarist's Guide To Music Reading”, and it prepared me nicely for this text. It's still a tremendous challenge and I've not gotten completely through it yet, but it's been a fulfilling work in progress.

Only just getting to grips with this, but going ok so far

Si no sabes cómo estructurar una rutina para mejorar la lectura a primera vista, este es un buen libro para empezar. Los ejercicios son bonitos y van cambiando de tonalidad para que vayan apareciendo diferentes alteraciones sobre la marcha.

Studi a note singole e di accordi, in tutte le tonalità. Una faticaccia, ma ripaga. Per variare, consiglio l'alternarsi con Melodic Rhythms for guitar, sempre di Leavitt. Quest'ultimo contiene studi piú melodici, forse anche piú semplici, e senza dubbio piú divertenti (diventerete bravissimi a suonare le sincopi). Tuttavia, questo Reading studies vi farà migliorare molto di piú col suonare in tutte le tonalità e con le modulazioni all'interno dei brani.

Para quem já lê partitura e quer aprimorar seu conhecimento musical em leitura à primeira vista no violão esse é um ótimo complemento!Pode ser simples para quem já está acostumado, porém para quem está começando é algo sensacional.Muito prático e direto!

The perfect sight reading practice for guitar