The Little Guitar Book That Could

This LITTLE GUITAR BOOK THAT COULD showcases the stock C A G E D guitar chords and scales exclusivly in the FIRST POSITION for all to see and use. But, before thumbing through this book, there's some subject areas that the guitarist might need reminding of...even though he or she may have played for years. For example, in this book, six is the exact number of consecutive frets involved in the FIRST POSITION (the open strings count as one fret) and each guitar position spans a full two octaves plus a perfect fourth when in standard tuning. Also, the second and third fingers on the fretting hand remain stationary in their respective frets, initially, as their stationary qualities allow the fourth finger to stretch that additional fret. But what of the first finger one might say? And it is here before we go any further that one must understand something quite important; and that is this...when playing guitar in the FIRST POSITION there isn't a first finger stretch. There is in every other guitar position, yes, but here, the open strings take care of that making it an exception, the FIRST POSITION is, to the rule. And this exception, just by chance, makes things much easier to play here. It is very important that the guitarist understands this. As for the picking hand, a very useful picking pattern occurs down by the sound hole or bridge. This pattern involves every other string and is best evidenced in the FIRST POSITION when the C A G E D main root note sequence is plucked alphabetically, starting with the G root on the first or thinnest guitar string. Start by picking the G there (first string, third finger); then A (third string, second finger); C (fifth string, third finger); D (second string, third finger); E (fourth string, second finger) and conclude with the G (sixth string, third finger). The one-three-five, two-four-six string pattern naturally fits the picking hand fingers and is looped, forwards or backwards (six-four-two, five-three-one) as the G root notes found on the first /sixth string(s) are deemed interchangeable. To conclude, there are three musical terms that need some brief clarification for the purposes of THE LITTLE GUITAR BOOK THAT COULD...those being main root notes, octaves and unisons. What are main root notes? Generally speaking, main root notes are a specific set of root notes that fall or cluster together under the second and third fingers of the fretting hand. They are used to help orientate the finger work involved. And once the placement of each is learned in the FIRST POSITION, the attention then moves to their octaves. An octave is defined as the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its own frequency. Some correctly call the interval a "perfect octave", and in guitarland, octaves are usually "one string one fret away". This fact helps to memorize their location, however occasionally there will be two strings and or two frets involved. Please be aware of this. Las...