The Role of Guitar in Music

The guitar plays one of two roles in music.

1. Melody or lead guitar. Playing single notes that may function as a melody, harmony, solo or interlude.
2. Rhythm accompaniment. Playing chords to establish a rhythmic and harmonic foundation to accompany a lead instrument or vocalist.

Rhythm guitar is an art. There are countless ways to use the guitar to accompany a lead instrument or vocalist. Here are some examples:

1. Strumming specific rhythms using full chords or partial chords.
2. Finger style guitar.
3. Playing bass notes with strum or finger style guitar.

This book teaches rhythm accompaniment: the chords, and the strumming patterns that bring them to life.

Play-along tracks

The printed book comes with play-along tracks. Each song in this online book plays its track beside the title and shows its track number from the book.

• Each track has a two measure click lead-in.
• For songs that have pick-up notes (notes that are played before the first full measure of the song), the click will be heard along with the pick-up notes.
• If a song has a time signature of 4/4 time, you will hear 8 clicks before strumming.
• If a song has a time signature of 3/4 time, you will hear 6 clicks before strumming.