Methods Every Guitarist Should Have In Their Library, Thomas Amoriello

Methods Every Guitarist Should Have In Their Library

Thomas Amoriello Flemington Raritan School District tamoriel@frsd.k12.nj.us

This article is offered to bring to light some guitar publications that I have frequented as an instructor of the instrument for the past 25 years. There has been no scholarly research on my part, just what I feel my students have enjoyed, felt a sense of accomplishment with and have built confidence in their playing. My suggested books serve a purpose of introducing or encouraging the student to further explore new styles of guitar playing. On my part, there have been many “lesson plans” that I extracted from these listed publications, as every individual or group instruction should have a plan or be goal oriented. Over the years, I have taught one on one private lessons in a variety of settings such as music stores, not for profit community schools, music academies, community colleges and larger group instructional classes at K-12 private and parochial schools. These students have ranged from inner city kids on financial aid to college level music majors in the affluent suburbs. The information and approach can easily be modified or offered “a la carte” to serve the specific needs of the student as they learn to become better players. Areas that I feel offer a balanced musical diet include technique, repertoire, theory, scales & chord study and others (improvising, songwriting, composing & technology). There are methods that range from heavy metal playing stylistic tricks to concert stage classical guitar repertoire, each specific to the area that the student may have expressed an interest. Also, for the 2015 year, I made a personal resolution to add a new guitar method each month to my library to help me avoid stagnation, thus promoting new ideas and dialog with students, so here are some publications that you may want to try next school year. Some of these books could be listed in a few different categories and even though there are only 19 listed here, it would take several lifetimes to master the information presented.

Technique: Guitar Secrets by Joe Satriani; Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar by Troy Stetina; Pumping Nylon by Scott Tennant; The Natural Classical Guitar by Lee Ryan; and Learning The Classic Guitar (Part 1) by Aaron Shearer

Repertoire/Performance: Easy Guitar Recital by Benjamin Verdery; 8 Dreamscapes/8 Discernments by Andrew York; Guitar Repertoire by The Royal Conservatory; Perennials by David Crittenden; The Art and Technique of Performance by Richard Provost.

Fretboard Theory: The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick; Chord Chemistry by Ted Greene; Guitar Lore by Dennis Sandole; For Guitar Players Only

by Tommy Tedesco; The Guitar Arpeggio Compendium by Scott McGill

Guitar Activities/Style: Book of John by John 5; The Right Touch by Steve Lynch; 10 Hour Guitar Workout by Steve Vai; Everybody’s Jazz Guitar Method by Mark Tonelli & Philip Groeber; Breaking Ground/Building Skills by David Crittenden; Music Theory: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask by Tom Kolb.

For further dialogue about this subject please attend my “Survey of Guitar Method Publications” workshop on Friday, February 19, 2016 at the NJMEA State Conference at the East Brunswick Hilton in East Brunswick, NJ. This session is an open forum to discuss the current Guitar Methods used for instructional class as well as private lessons from Bach to Rock! Participants are encouraged to bring publications that work best in their classrooms and studios. There will also be a variety of publications available to survey.

Thomas Amoriello currently teaches guitar classes at Reading Fleming Intermediate School in Flemington, NJ where he has introduced the instrument to over 5000 students and counting. He earned his Master of Music in Classical Guitar Performance from Shenandoah Conservatory and Bachelor of Arts in Music from Rowan University. He resides in Lambertville, NJ. You can learn more about Tom by visiting www.tomamoriello.com