I have made it through chapter 8 and I am learning more than I have during the past 20 years of playing. I wish that I had done this sooner but better late than never. This is a great book to go through before attempting to start the Music theory book by Tom Kolb, which I will start next.

If you ever wanted to see the neck as one topic, this is the book to have. If learning guitar was like basic training, this book would be your PT shorts.

I have some of my advanced students use this book as a way to reinforce the fretboard and music theory.

I bought Sololow's Fretboard Roadmaps, the Fretboard Logic SE book, and this workbook at about the same time. Of the three, this one was the most useful and best written. It would be even better if they released a software version so you could "drill" practice on the patterns. But for $15 I think this is a great resource and should be one of the first 5 things new guitarists put in their "library".

This very helpful book provided me confidence to tackle a partial refret on my 12 yr old washburn D34S (wideneck: 12 fret). It's a scary moment when you start pulling frets out of the board, believe me! I will say that no book is completely thorough in describing such work, but this is one of the better resources I have found.

There's no substitute for knowing what you're doing when you are learning an instrument. This book will take you a long way but you must be willing to put in some time with it. Personally, I find it almost addictive with it's worksheets. My son calls them puzzles.

Figure on taking a year to work through the material. Getting in a hurry will cause confusion and you'll just have to back up and start again. I find that for me I absolutely have to finish each worksheet several times before it really takes root. My routine is to spend maybe fifteen minutes or so a day in the Guitar Fretboard Workbook and then go on to my regular practice.

This is highly recommended. If I had found it years ago I wouldn't be struggling with my playing now.

I bought this book to help my husband learn how to better play his guitar. This book has truly helped him learn and better understand other tools he has. He is very happy and excited. I can now enjoy hearing him rehearse:-)
janbustr:-)

Great way to build a road map around the fretboard. Builds precept upon precept, one building block after another till you have a good grasp of the neck. My eyes are opened!

MI's Guitar Fretboard Workbook, written by: Barrett Tagliarino is the second workbook I have studied out of. I immediately noticed how the pictures and diagrams were so intuitive. It took a lot less effort to memorize the concepts simply because they made much more sense. Tagliarino removed the mystery, and immediately made it easy for me to grasp, and memorize the five root shapes with his diagram in the workbook. Ultimately this is why I bought a workbook like this in the first place. Great job, Barrett!

I do not know this author. Just really like his book.

-Shane

Since 1969 when I first started learning guitar, I have accumulated (count 'em!) about four feet of instructional books. Despite hours of pouring over this stack, I STILL didn't have a sense for the fretboard. Most of what I play are chords to sing along with and a few pieces I have memorized.

I'm on vacation studying Tagliarino's book and in a few days feel like I FINALLY have a sense for the fretboard. It is rare to find a great teacher, and even rarer to find a book that is thought out to meet the needs of the learner.

This book presents in an orderly manner that gives one a sense for patterns inherent in the fretboard a stepwise approach to learning the fretboard. There are multiple 'homework' assignments with an answer key in the back. Tagliarino's suggestions for practice are also exactly what I have wanted for years.

So, add this 5 star review to the chorus. As far as I am concerned, if it isn't already, add this book to the classics of instructional classics

I am trying to find a book that will explain how to position your fingers for different cords, maybe show you how to play a few songs, and perhaps show you how to strum the guitar in an effective manner, said that. this book is not at all what I was looking for. even you are a good guitar player you wont be able to make heads of tales of the material on this book.

This is an actual workbook on the fretboard of the guitar. I enjoy using this book and suggest it to anyone over 13 that is serious about learning to play guitar.

I'll keep this short since there are already so many 5-star reviews for this product.

This book is the one. If you want to learn the notes on the fretboard and all minor/major scales and modes and chords and practical music theory, this is the book to get. It's not terribly long, but it has a lot of useful information and doesn't waste any time. Many times through the book, it will have you fill out a series of 8-10 fretboard diagrams with some new idea you just learned, then it will ask you to play what you just wrote. I really think this is such an effective method, yet it's so simple. It also asks you to say important ideas aloud so as to learn them better.

This book would be a lot better if it explained things more thoroughly and relied less on the reader drawing scale diagrams. Doing the work is fine but the book just doesn't explain the topic very well. Also, I found several errors in the first 30 pages--diagrams wrong, explanations wrong, answers wrong (like, where is E#????), etc. It does a poor job of explaining the relative relationships between scales. I gave it two stars because of the root positions diagrams. These were very useful. Could have been a lot better.

VERY informative. Geared towards intermediate level. As a beginner-intermediate musician, I found it easy to follow with lots of exercises to cement the information in your mind. I would have liked more "secrets" or tools to finding notes on the guitar neck, but still an excellent read.

This workbook succeeds in assisting memorization of the fretboard, something that I've spent literally years working on. Even better, I can do the written exercises in the book when I am away from the guitar - such as waiting on a computer render at work - and the lessons learned stay relevant when I am able to get back on guitar.

The book was great going, till it hit chapter #7. Suddenly, without explaining as to how, it asked to create boxed major scale patters on root pattern theory , and i was all lost.

I would still recommend this book to everyone, as it really gives you confidence that you know something about theory, and gives you a feel for your fret board. But, be aware, that sections of this book might require some external personal lessons, or online research.

I know it says workbook in the title but I never gave it much thought until it arrived. It is a workbook just like in high school.

For example, here is an empty fretboard diagram, put a circle where all the A notes should be.

It wasn't exactly what I was looking for but the information and exercises are definitely worth doing. It is neither a waste of time or money. I've been playing for 25 years and I learned things.

I do recommend it and do believe it is one of the better things out there today for learning guitar. "Chord Tone Soling" is certainly worthy of 5 stars so you might check it out also.

I've purchased a dozen or more books of this genre. This is the first that'd recommend enthusiastically. The "workbook" method outlined here is the fastest and most enjoyable I have experienced. Each building block is learned via a slick combination of visual "tricks" and vocal/written exercises that cement and connect them.

This and "The Guitar Cookbook" are what I would now suggest to a niece or nephew moving up past simple chords.

This book is effective in explaining the layout of the fretboard. It covers methods of identifying notes, scales, and chords. It employs a combination of explanation and workbook exercises as well as instructions for practicing new concepts on the guitar.

hi i just purchused this book and its great, i just began to reed it and i already learn a lot of things, and its great for all level it has from the most basic things for a begginer and how to understand the scales for more advanced levels.
it works form, i hope it works for you too ! ! !

Good instructional for learning fretboard patterns. Follow the step by step workbook and you'll quickly become very familiar with note positions and virtually every scale in every key.

It would be better if the name of this book is "The best introduction to guitar fretboard".

I purchased this because it was "suggested" by the "others who bought, also bought" feature on Amazon. WOW! I'm glad I did! From the first page I was navigating the fretboard in a 'new' way. A great supplement to any other fretboard techniques you might be using now. Quick paced instruction and self testing that I think would be relevant to any guitarist who still considers him/herself a student. I'm very glad I purchased this and feel my playing has improved substantially since I started studying this book.

I found this book to be very through and I am able to move through it at a nice pace. You can tell it was put together by a teacher with years of experience. He has provided the tools and the explanations to go with it. I highly recommend this book to any guitar player that does not know the fret board. I have been playing for 30 years and am finally learning what the notes are that I'm playing. This book has provided the missing piece to my ability to learn songs much faster.

If you ever wanted to learn the guitar fretboard this book will get you there. So bite the bullet and take a step back to move two steps forward, you won't regret it. I wish I had done it 30 years ago, better late than never.

I'm a "middle aged" student that has been playing cowboy chords for years, but never got much beyond first position. I've wanted to learn scales, arps, triads and other techniques to bring out more expression and to be able to solo anywhere on the neck with confidence. I started and stopped several other guitar courses because at some point the author made leaps or assumptions I simply wasn't ready for. This is by far the most logically designed and naturally progressing course I've seen for learning the fretboard. It's very well written and very clear in communicating the unique structure of the guitar. I would strongly recommend this to any beginning or intermediate student--or even those who have been playing awhile--but want to go back to basics and relearn it the way it should be learned. There's a lot of material here, so don't expect to complete it in anything short of many months to a year. I'm about six weeks into it and have already learned basics about root and chord positions, scales and theory that other courses--and several teachers--have not been able to make clear to me. I don't know if it's a function of age, limited practice time or sensory overload from job and household duties, but retaining a lot of abstract information does not come as easy as it used to. But using the author's methodical way of learning this material, it gets dialed in pretty quickly and it stays there! Highly recommended!

This books makes it clear: this is just the beggining! However once you've completed it, you know you've made a step forward. It gives you very good tips to find your way around the fretboard, and deserves its name of workbook: it is like a crossword book! Full of exercices, you feel like you're playing a game! However, if you're looking for a theory book, that's not it. The advices at the end of the book to make you keep on going mastering the fretboard are very interesting, it is overall a very good tool, a good a start or, for people like me, another reason to say to yourself "why didn't I figure this out before"!

This is a great book for someone like me that doesn't have a clue about the notes on the guitar fretboard. It's easy to use and understand.

This title popped up while I was ordering something else, looked interesting so I grabbed it. Within 1 day I already had the technique the author illustrates for finding notes down packed and am now working my way through the rest of the material.

This book is easily the best beginner-intermediate guitar book I have grabbed to date (and I've grabbed quite a few) and illustrates clearly why you are doing something, and what you can expect to know when you do it - something most books tend to leave out.

Having the reader revert to pen and paper exercises is superb, and really drives home the information you need to learn - and allowed me to continue guitar studies while commuting!

In short, this book is clearly written by someone who knows how to teach, not just someone who knows how to play. Not only that the author knows how to teach well, and reinforce the learning's. I have no doubt that I will make significant improvements in my playing by the time I reach the end, and have the basics down packed - by clearly illustrating basic fundamentals that I have struggled to comprehend from other publications, and from teachings.

If you're a beginner or intermediate student, this book is a must. If your advanced and don't understand the concepts in this book - buy it !

This is a great book for learning to really understand the fretboard. It's pure excercises though. To me a 5 star book has to have you learning while you also enjoy what your playing. A lot of this is rote stuff that you just drill til you get it. The book does pay off though and I recommend it to a serious player willing to put in the time.

i use this book for refernce all the time and it has proven its worth. this has really helped me a lot, and as i continue to learn i continue to come back to this book almost week. this book has been the staple of my guitar playing experience.

I've been playing guitar on and off for over ten years, and I wish I would have found this book right when I started playing. It has helped make guitar playing interesting again, I am blown away by how much I did not know. This is a very useful book for everyone not just beginners.

This book has been great. It's not one of those "I have all the answers. You are bad at guitar, and this is how to play correctly." It's a very friendly and simple book. It essentially makes you learn from VERY basic (yes, I admit, I flew by a good number of chapters at the first) to the little particular things that I had never really noticed before. This book makes you think. It makes you look at the fretboard differently, which is a GOOD thing. It makes you take all the knowledge of scales and intervals, chords and notes and it pounds it in your brain like no other. A GREAT buy for guitar students (listen up guitar teachers! this could really help a student!) and anyone who wants to explore the fretboard a little more. Thanks, Amazon!

I would recommend this book for any serious guitarist interested in better understanding chord triads up and down the neck. There is also explanation of major, minor and pentatonic scales. Those with advanced understanding of music theory may find this book too elementary, while beginners may find it overwhelming. For the intermediate or accomplished guitarist looking to better understand music theory, however, this book is an excellent resource manual.

I would recommend this book for any serious guitarist interested in better understanding chord triads up and down the neck. There is also explanation of major, minor and pentatonic scales. Those with advanced understanding of music theory may find this book too elementary, while beginners may find it overwhelming. For the intermediate or accomplished guitarist looking to better understand music theory, however, this book is an excellent resource manual.

I have played the guitar for many years and perfromed in a number of bands and was completely self taught. I decided it was time to se what others had to say about the ogranization of the fretboard. Of all the authors I have seen, this guy get it right; is approach is also uncluttered. The book is well organized and builds from the basics of where the tonics are (the first note of the scales), through major and minor scales and arpegios and then into the more exotic scales and a arpegios. His approach of writing, memorizing and playing is sound. I recommend this for any level of player who is serious about learning the fretboard.I have played the guitar for many years and performed in a number of bands and was completely self-taught. I decided it was time to se what others had to say about the organization of the fretboard. Of all the authors I have seen, this guy get it right; is approach is also uncluttered. The book is well organized and builds from the basics of where the tonics are (the first note of the scales), through major and minor scales and arpeggios and then into the more exotic scales and arpeggios. His approach of writing, memorizing and playing is sound. I recommend this for any level of player who is serious about learning the fretboard.

I'm a professional player and guitar instructor and having read both Fretboard Logic and Guitar Fretboard Workbook, I feel I'm in a position to comment accurately and fairly on both titles. It is interesting that so many reviewers of this book make comparisons and references to Logic. Granted, I bought Fretboard Logic first, and since then it has become the gauge by which I measure all other guitar books. There were MANY "aha!!" experiences in the Edwards books, but sadly, none in the Tagliarino book. Before you buy, you should know that it is a "workbook," which means you are supposed to illustrate all the chord and scale patterns referenced with a pen or pencil, building from, of all things, intervals. You should know, illustrating what is known as the "pattern organization of the fretboard" interval by interval, is as much fun as watching paint dry. Boooooring and teeeeedius. My students would rather be playing than scribbling. Worse still, this approach totally disregards the irregular matrix of the guitar's playing area which is the cornerstone of the FBL approach. If you want to actually play guitar and improve both your ability and understanding, I recommend Fretboard Logic rather than this mess. At one point this "guitar" book actually uses a keyboard illustration and according to Edwards, if that is the case, it means the author doesn't really understand the fretboard all that well (and I agree - you don't need a keyboard to understand a fretboard.) The guitar really is different from other instruments and Edwards was the first one I ever saw explain the how and why. The Tagliarino book appears to be an attempt by the publisher to capitalize on the success of the Logic series by offering a "me too" fretboard book, but it simply does not measure up - not even close. The Fretboard Logic books are highly structured and cover the basics of the fretboard and the tone groups short and sweet, so a player can move right on to applying what he or she's learned in actual playing situations. I enjoyed the blues and rock sessions on the DVD the most, but that's just me. This workbook gets you mired in the subcomponents as they were the be-all and end-all of music. It really is like trying to build a toothpick bridge and being handed a two-by-four and a pocket knife. Another thing that really got me: this author actually refers to inversions in this text as if a fretboard were no different from a keyboard. It's square peg vs. round hole. I would only ask him this: Invert along which axis? A fretboard is a matrix, remember? Edwards proved 20 years ago that their is another way of looking at this issue. Yes, it is easy to build chords and scales on a one-dimensional keyboard using intervals, but a guitar's fretboard is fundamentally different from a piano's keyboard and a violin's fingerboard. This book makes no attempt to differentiate and in fact muddies those waters. After Logic, it is hard NOT to see the patterns and how they relate to everything you see and everything you hear. After "GFW" frankly, It is hard to see why it has gotten so much praise unless you consider the source. It would appear that most are from MI grads and alumni. There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING covered in this book which was not explained better and more accurately in Fretboard Logic. The whole thing looks a little fishy. Really want an understanding of the guitar fretboard? Get Fretboard Logic and you'll get that and much much more. I'm glad I did and sorry I got this one. I'd give it zero stars if I could.

I've been playing guitar many years, and along the way have made some ill fated attempts to learn the fretboard. This book is the one that finally taught me what I wanted to know. That little switch in my brain that was stuck off finally got turned on. If you work step by step through this book you WILL make progress. Give it a shot.

Because of the way a guitar is tuned, it makes it confusing to try learn all the necessary fingerings required to have full mastery of the fretboard. I've had the Fretboard Logic books but still didn't really grasp the concept of the CAGED system. Then I got Don Latarski's Guitar Theory Basics DVD and the light bulb came on. It was a simple concept, but I needed to see it demonstrated and applied.

This book uses the same CAGED concept but expands upon it. It forces you to logically think through the CAGED process of mastering the fretboard by writing down 5, and only 5, fingerings for each scale, arpeggio, and chord that guitarists play. Once you see there are only 5 basic fingerings for everything, the guitar fretboard isn't to intimidating.

I've had guitar teachers at the local state college where I studied music before transferring to Musician's Institute in California (I'm a GIT grad), that told me I needed to learn 1001 different scales fingerings, a 1001 different chord fingerings, and 1001 arpeggio fingerings and practice them in all 12 keys until I committed them to memory. My guitar teacher basically threw a huge reference book at me and said "go at it" and walked away. This way of learning your guitar fingerings doesn't work because it isn't systematic. If you've suffered though trying to learn guitar with one of those kind of guitar teachers, you'll know what I'm talking about. You'll know how defeating it is.

Barrett Tagliarino's method book is progressive and systematic and is extremely methodical. It is not just an avalanche of information like many books out there. The step-by-step process this guitar teacher uses has obviously been carefully thought out, tested, and tweaked to perfection in the Musician's Institute classroom.

Howard Gardner, a famous educational psychologist, asserts that some of us are mainly visual learners and learn best by visualizing. That's why the CAGED system is so helpful. It is a visual way of cataloging information. Most of us retain information by the physical act of doing, and writing down concepts presented in this book will commit the fingerings to long term memory. Once completed, you can use this book as your primary reference book for looking up fingerings you may have forgotten. Oh, and PLEASE give it to the guitar instructor at your local state college.

This book is gonna blow your mind. The first 2 chapters alone will teach you more than many entire guitar books. You will be doing a lot of applying what you learn through drawing and playing, which really brings the lessons home and aids your understanding enormously. This book comes highly recommended for guitarplayers of all skill levels. GIT have done it again!

This book is great to understand the fredboard logic and play guitar more easily, specially when you're beginner.

the 5 octeve positions patterns is great to know how ever school book formate I did'nt care for.

First off all I can say on this book is praise.

Having recently started playing around on a guitar I've taken a look at counless 'beginner' websites and lessons out there on the net and have purchased quite a fair number of books for the learner that claim to be for those of us who are starting out from little to no musical background. And I can't knock them, they all will have and do have their place in my learning. Three of them that I highly recommend to the novice:

-'Guitar For Dummies' is quite humourous and is currently helping me practice proper technique and learning the chords.
-'Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method' is quite nicely laid out, and is making musical notation not seem so daunting. Sure TAB is wonderful but this book is really a great read and makes notation a bit easier to grasp and relate to the strings.
-And then we come to this book, 'Guitar Fretboard Workbook'. And that'll be the focus from here on.

This is an amazingly well put together lesson book. I was a bit skeptical about all the positive reviews and everybody claiming how it magicly helped them understand the fretboard. But I must say this is my favorite guitar book. The author really knows just how to put words to the concepts that all of us can understand, even those just starting out in the musical world.

Every turn of the page brings a new lesson and a new excercise for you to work on. And these arn't monotonous pages, each one brings a new concept into play and ties into the previous pages. Truely the author speaks to you and knows just how to grind the basic concepts of the guitar/fretboard into your memory, both mental and muscle memory, all while you are actually enjoying what you are learning.

Other books I have tried while very usefull do have the feel that you ARE working to learn the instrument, where in 'Guitar Fretboard Workbook' you keep wanting to practice your lesson so you can turn the page and keep building.

This book is well worth it's weight in gold if you are starting your guitar experience and want to get a very well written intro into the insturment and to know what exactly you are doing when all those other books are telling you to put your fingers on certain points of the neck instead of just nodding your head and putting your fingers where the dots tell you.

It has 22 lessons including 59 exercise at the end of each lesson ready for you. The solutions to the exercises are given at the end of the book. It covers materials from location of the notes on the fretboard to scales, modes, and arpegios. It worth every penny!

Excellent!This is one if not the best book I've found so far that uses exercises and explanations that are understandable. I feel I should get rid of the other books I've purchased and stick with the folks from Musician Institute

I wish I found this liine of books 8 years ago...I would have been able to progress at a much faster rate with more understanding. I bought this book a couple weeks ago and began studying it immediatly. The method the author uses is very effective, whcih he calls draw/describe/play. using this method, he illustrates patterns that show where all the notes are, allowing for a more easier method of learning and understanding the fretboard.

if you are a beginning guitar player, get this book, it is essential

I started playing at 18...I'm 26 now and I am still stuck at the beginner/intermediate level...I practiced with books but got frustrated with my lack of progression....I bought this book last week and began putting it in practice and I'm already noticing a difference..I can lable all the C Notes on the FB and replay them simply by doing what he said...this book makes me want to play more because I'm learning new things that eluded me for 8 years

it's essential, and I will definately be buying more books from Musician's Institute

Another gem from the pros at the Musician's Institute! This book is billed a "complete system for understanding the fretboard" and PLAIN and SIMPLE, that's what it is!! Buy this book, then depending upon your current skill level, dedicate just 10 minutes a day to its study. It does not require the ability to read music. Take your time, don't rush it. Don't put a "time" frame on this study, just rest assured, you WILL know the fretboard and be a MUCH better guitar player for your efforts. You will learn the various shapes, patterns, positions and theory of the fretboard. Using a three pronged attack methodology of draw, describe and play, this no frills approach to the fretboard cements this much needed knowledge into your subconscious mind, brain and fingers. With this information at your fingertips, your playing abilities gradually begin to expand simply because you KNOW what you are doing and why! YES, you have to do some pencil work, for this IS a workbook! But a workbook that is AGAIN, worth the effort. Knowledge of the fretboard is one of the holy grails for any guitar player, this book will lead you to that promised land.

This book is great. Especially considering its less then ten dollars. I would buy this book for four or five times that price.

Barret Tagliarino shows great wisdom in this 3-tiered method of storing information for necessary recall. Speaking, writing and touching really helped me to put the notes of guitar music together logically and quickly. I know I can now find any note on the fretboard, and, with a little consistent practice, will be able to do so "on the fly." As with any learning program, Tagliarino's will take time and practice, but if there is a better way to get the fingerboard down, I've never seen it.