Meyer, P., DeViliers, J & Ebnet, E. (2010). Guitar Skills for Music Therapists and Music Educators. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona. 143 pages. ISBN: 978-1-891278-56-3 (paper) $32.00

Abstract

Meyer, P., DeVillers, J & Ebnet, E. (2010). Guitar Skills for Music Therapists and Music Educators. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona. 143 pages. ISBN: 978-1-891278-56-3 (paper) $32.00A cursory search by the author for available functional music (voice, piano, guitar, percussion) resources for music therapy students yielded minimal results. For this reason, Cuitar Skills for Music Therapists and Music Educators by Meyer, DeVillers and Ebnet is a welcome and essential addition to the music therapy literature. Although the text is not written solely for use in a basic college or university guitar class, this writer will review its usefulness in preparing music therapy students to utilize the guitar as an accompaniment instrument.Lead Author Peter Meyer, an accomplished musician, clinician, and educator, has facilitated numerous guitar skills workshops with standing room only attendance and repeat customers, substantiating the need for this type of instruction. With a text that is readily accessible and a DVD that provides further clarification of the written instruction, the authors succeed in providing the reader with a comprehensive educational experience.It is clear Meyer knows his trade. What's more, the authors' first- and second-person, conversational style of writing engages readers in feeling as though an instructor is present with them and puts them at ease. In addition, the DVD is useful in lieu of live instruction. It provides an ample substitute with capable demonstration by the authors. The only thing missing is immediate feedback and reinforcement of proper learning and redirection of mistakes, which can only happen in the presence of an instructor.Guitar Skills for Music Therapists and Music Educators is thorough. The few available guitar instruction books that are geared toward music therapy students and professionals tend to cover a smaller range of topics and spend more time going into depth in each area. In contrast, Meyer, DeVillers and Ebnet have chosen to focus on a breadth of coverage of subject matter while still maintaining an adequate depth for each of their topic choices. Thus, readers get the sense they are receiving a rich learning experience. It bears mentioning, however, that there is a complete lack of attention to note and tablature reading and playing, which could be considered a deficit for student learning.Divided into eleven well-conceived chapters preceded by an introduction, Guitar Skills for Music Therapists and Music Educators covers interesting chord progressions (not typical I- IV -V -I here!), many different musical styles, and greater than typical varieties of strum patterns and embellishments. It also delivers excellent instruction on barre and power chords and delves into modes and improvisation as well as the different tunings possible. It is left to the reader to determine what songs will fit with the chord progressions supplied in the exercises although hints and allusions are provided. It would have been helpful to include a list of the potential songs that the authors might have had in mind as being applicable to the chord progressions they presented.For visual learners, the diagrams and pictures are very effective and helpful, and the spiral binding is a nice touch. One frustration is with the setup of the book. Often the introduction to a song or instructions on playing a chord progression or strum pattern are at the bottom of one page, and the diagram or music notation for that instruction is at the top of the next page, which means the reader has to flip the pages back and forth to make sure they understand the concept.The overall organization of the book flows well from one topic to another. Beginning with an introduction, which covers some basic music theory, Chapter 1 addresses chord progressions in the keys of G, D, C, A and E along with varied strum patterns. Chapter 2 moves the focus to creating interest in accompaniments and provides instructions on more advanced strumming techniques, such as embellishments, chucking, palm muting, and staccato playing. …