Publications

The KIDZ ZONE: Book 1

The KIDZ ZONE: Book 1 gives the introduction to guitar playing. Aimed at young children, the book breaks down every little detail of playing the guitar into fun colourful cartoons and introduces characters based on musical or guitar concepts, that continually make appearances throughout the series.

The concept behind the KIDZ ZONE book was to easily open the guitar up to children as young as 4. Every explanation is detailed yet extremely simple and therefore easy for a child to understand. In-fact we’ve even had parents who don’t even play, work through the book with their children and still be able to work through it with them (let alone learn to play themselves).

The book separates “Grades” by strings. Book 1 covers grades 1 & 2 as it covers the E and B strings. Each grade includes theory, rhythmic and practical lessons, Songs & exercises and a plethora of worksheets to ensure every concept is digested by the student.

Every exercise and song in the Kidz zone books are new, original pieces. They have been composed to challenge the students in their skill level while still giving them attainable goals. Each piece uses all the concepts that have been covered to date while still providing strong melodic content.

At the conclusion of each grade, there are “test notes” for the teacher as well as a checklist for the student, teacher and parents to track their ongoing progress. Certificates and exclusive guitar pics are available separately.

Book 1 teaches students:

• the parts of the guitar
• how to hold a guitar and pick
• Semibreve, Minim and Crotchet rhythm values
• How to write notes on a staff
• Notes on the E & B strings
• Read individual notes and 2 notes together on the staff.

The KIDZ ZONE: Book 2

The second book in the KIDZ ZONE book series covers grades 3 and 4.

Keeping the same themes and lesson structure as the first book, book 2 introduces new characters to walk the students through all new concepts.

In this book we cover:

• Music Symbols
• Notes on the G and D strings
• Introduction to chords (C, G & D major)
• Quaver rhythm values
• Duet performance

The pieces in this book push the students forward in their sight reading skills while introducing chordal concepts to allow students to begin exploring contemporary music.

Like the first book, the grading system provides test notes for teachers and checklists. Certificates of completion and exclusive pics are available separately,

The ULTIMATE CHORD GUIDE – Volume 1

The ULTIMATE CHORD GUIDE – Volume 1 is not just any chord book. It is the first step in developing a completely new approach to chordal playing and chordal improvisation. The aim of the guide is to provide the reader with:

1. Multiple voicings for each chord

2. Provide some alternate chords that can be used as replacements for standard chords and shapes

The Guide draws upon key elements that you learn in our courses to give you an easy to understand library of shapes in every key. Each chord has 4 positions to play with an additional 2 shapes known as “Cool Substitutions” that can be used instead of the chord. The book gives you the necessary chords to start playing most contemporary songs immediately. Each chord is easy to find,  separated by chord, then type. Volume 1 covers five types of chords. These chords are:

Each chord type also shows you the Common Symbols used for it when charted. You are also provided with the notes contained within it, as well as its scale degrees.

To help out with some of the theory knowledge, we’ve also included detailed articles taken from our Preliminary Lessons course which includes:

 Notes on the Fretboard

 Key Signatures

 Circle of 5ths

 Notes on the staff

Available in a PDF E-book, the ULTIMATE CHORD GUIDE – Volume 1 is easy to carry around on your laptop or mobile device to ensure you have it when you need it.

The ULTIMATE CHORD GUIDE – Volume 2

When one’s not enough!

The Ultimate Chord Guide – Volume 2 is a study in mind mapping and chordal improvisation.

Focusing on four note chords, this book breaks down the theory of how chords are constructed, where they live within the harmonized scales, multiple voicings of every chord shape and most importantly how to recall every chord on the fly.

The concept is best described in the introduction of the book.

“I recall my first semester of college. I walked into one of my classes and my teacher spent the entire lesson writing 60 chord shapes on the whiteboard. As everyone in the class madly wrote down the shapes, our teacher proceeded to tell us that we had to know them, in all keys by the next day.

For years after the fact, I asked myself why it was such a challenge to learn only 60 chords in all keys, especially when I already knew a bunch of them.  After much deliberation, I realised that the challenge wasn’t the shapes themselves or even the number I had to learn. It was the way I was categorising them in my mind to commit them to memory. A large volume of chords can be rather intimidating to learn especially if you’re thinking of them as individual shapes. I found that it was much more effective to think of all the chords as  a family. They were all related to one another.

The entire experience greatly influenced me in the way that I passed on chord voicing’s to students. I wouldn’t teach just the shapes. I’d teach a process that would help a student understand every aspect of the chord. I’d show the students how to categorise the chords, and how to commit them to memory with relative ease.

When I started conceptualising the ULTIMATE CHORD GUIDE: Volume 2, I wanted to write a book that gave an outline of how I mapped chords in my own mind. The order of keys, the order of chords and the order of shapes, even the information that’s provided on the shape itself are all part of how I think. Every bit of information will assist you in the process of learning and more importantly improvising around the 1,680 chord shapes in this book.

If I can give one bit of advise. Read all the theory pages, and work through the chords and keys one at a time.  Always keep in mind that these shapes are 100% moveable, and knowing the chord degrees that are listed above each shape are just as important as the shape itself.”

Chords are shown in every key in 20 different positions.

The chords covered are: