John McCoy's "Comprehensive Guitar Method"

John McCoy's "Comprehensive Guitar Method" is not just another boring method book.  This book contains much more interactive text explaining how, why, and what the various skills, techniques, and theory is leading towards.  The book comes with a FREE download of audio files that  cover 90% of the books musical contents with both the student part and the teacher accompaniment parts included.  The book has a modular design with six different sections covering and exercises/scales, chord section, note reading, finger style section, theory section, and pentatonic scales.  Since every one learns different elements of music at different rates because of past musical experience, hand size, and different aptitudes, the modular design of this book allows for a huge amount of flexibility.  This book covers the beginning level of guitar all the way through strong intermediate levels.  With completion of this book a student will find that they are well rounded and ready to pursue whatever style(s) they are interested in.

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E-Book & Audio

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Attention to Teachers and Retailers:  McCoy's Music offers discounts for multiple orders.  Contact us directly for SPECIAL ORDERSJohn McCoy's Comprehensive Guitar Method Book is used at Legend HS in Parker Colorado.  It is also used by several other Parker schools as a reference book.  Many teachers in the Denver Metro area use this book as their main method book with all of their private lessons.

John McCoy's "Magic Modes for Guitar" NOW AVAILABLE!

Heard of Modes but find them Mysterious or Vague? Here is the Answer!

John McCoy's "Magic Modes for Guitar" book is subtitled (Understanding Lead Improvisation and Chord Structure), and this sums up the content and goal of the book very well.  Many intermediate and even advanced students know some pentatonic scales and mode scales but really don't have a grasp of how to apply the scales in the correct chordal context.  John McCoy's "Magic Modes for Guitar" book gets rid of the mystery and confusion on how rhythm guitar and lead guitar are interconnected.  The book does cover how to play the scales and the theory of their construction.  Also, the application of chordal scales is explained in great depth which is the building of chords from the notes in various scales.  Each of the 14 songs contains a thorough commentary highlighting what each mode offers stylistically and artistically from the viewpoint of the composer.  Modulations, cadences, altering scales and chords for specific effects, and borrowing chords from other keys is covered.  There are two recorded versions of each song included with the book's companion MP3 audio files.  One version of each song has all the rhythm instrumentation included, but there are no leads.  This is perfect for the student to improvise all of the suggested lead scales in all of the different locations of the neck.  This allows the student to develop phrasing and correct application of the scales by understanding how and why different scales can be played over certain chord progressions.  The second recorded version of each song does have John McCoy playing his improvised leads over the chord structure.  The purpose for this version is to have the student play the rhythm chords using the supplied song charts and keep up with the MP3 audio files to master advanced chords and various rhythmic techniques.

It's Available as a Digital Download (a 94 page PDF Book with 28 MP3 files), or purchase as a hard paper copy with download codes for the 28 MP3's

Your will be sent to the download page after payment

E-Book and Audio Files

includes shipping & handling in USA and download codes e-mailed to you

Click Here to Purchase the Book

Book Review of Magic Modes for Guitar by Josh Schwisow

Joshua Schwisow from Guitar Insights:  http://www.guitarinsights.net/ 

Magic Modes for Guitar

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Josh

 

Jazz, Blues, and Rock Guitar is often based in large part on improvisation. Such improvisation is never wholly without structure and the reason that improvisation “works” is due to the inherent structure that lies behind various scales and chordal structures. Music, even in forms that contain much improvisation, shows an incredible amount of structure and order. Many guitarists are not fully aware of this musical order and how it can benefit and grow their playing. In this book, Magic Modes for Guitar, professional guitar instructor John McCoy seeks to correct the lack of knowledge that some guitarists have in the area of improvisation and chordal structure.

 

In this almost 100 page ebook, McCoy carefully and clearly shows the connections between rhythm and lead guitar and teaches the student a variety of chord structures and lead scales along the way. The first portion of the book is devoted to musical theory reviewing some of the basics including major and minor scales, triads and seventh chords, and then moving into the composers chart, the cycle of fifths, and the nature of modes. Section 2 provides a number of charts providing the student with many scales to memorize including pentatonic scales, blues and country scales, mode patterns, and harmonic minor and major phrygian scales.

 

Section 3 includes a number of songs with performance notes in various modes and keys allowing the student to apply this new knowledge in a musical performance context. After all, with all that heavy lifting in the music theory, one better be able to have some fun at the end! And this is exactly what the student will find, much enjoyment in their increased knowledge of the guitar and more confidence in using the guitar to engage in musical creativity. McCoy also includes 28 recorded mp3′s in various modes and keys that include recordings with chords only allowing the student to improvise and recordings with leads allowing the student to try their hand at rhythm guitar.

 

Having learned much of this material with John McCoy many years ago, I can vouch for the usefulness of this material as well as the lucid presentation that McCoy provides in this book. For only $15, you get almost 100 pages of material in addition to 28 recordings designed to help the student apply this musical knowledge in a real playing context. I highly recommend this work for guitar students and teachers!