Well this book is going to keep me busy for awhile. But what a resource, I don't know of another book that so thoughly covers the chords on the 4 upper strings of the guitar. The chord progresssion at the back of the book have been great too. It hard to memorize so many chords unless you can hear them used in real music.

This CD has markedly improved my ear. I've been using this and the Key Note Recognition CD on alternating nights, 20 minutes a night, 4-5 nights a week. I found these exercises much harder than those on the one-note CDs: at first, the two notes sounding together would establish a new key center and obliterate my memory of the reference pitch. Even with the reference pitch in mind, it was difficult to isolate and thereby identify each of the two notes. However, with practice, I'm now able to identify about three-quarters of the two-note pairs on the CD. In contrast, during my initial attempts 4 months ago, I had much less success, identifying less than one-quarter correctly.

One strength of this method is that it emphasizes all twelve notes equally. (When I tried to improve my ear using the more traditional method of transcribing music, I got better with the diatonic notes and common chords, but got little practice and saw little improvement with the chromatic notes and more unusual chords.) Furthermore, by using the `random play' feature of my CD player, the order of the exercises keeps changing, which prevents me from inadvertently memorizing their order, which would effectively halt my progress.

A skeptic might ask whether my ear is really improving as a result of this CD, or whether I am getting better only at the (admittedly esoteric) exercises on this particular CD. I think my ear really has improved, since I'm listening to music with greater awareness of pitch. Also, I just started with Vol 2 of the two-note series, and the improvement resulting from Vol 1 seems to have carried over. Instead of starting with a one out of four success rate (as in my initial attempts with Vol 1), I typically get around half correct.

So far, I've had great results with Vol 1 and the Keynote Recognition exercises, and I'm looking forward to seeing improvement in Vol 2.

I progressed twice as fast on Vol. 2 (thirds) compared to the previous volume (fifths). Presumably, this is because of my increased familiarity with the individual notes gained from Vol 1. Recently, I tried transcribing a couple of bebop heads. While I had to use a half-speed recorder at times because of the fast tempos, I was able to identify each note without referring to a guitar or piano, in spite of all the borrowed chords and modulations. I attribute this to my greatly improved sense of relative pitch, acquired from these CD's. Mr. Arnold's equal emphasis on all twelve notes is challenging but crucial to my progress. Previously, I improved my ear through transcription, which left me familiar with the diatonic notes but less prepared for more chromatic music like bebop or Jobim. I'm looking forward to humiliation and eventual improvement with Vol 3.

Hey Folks this book is great. I'm using the audio examples from muse-eek's website which plays these exercises using a midifile player. What a great concept, I don't need a teacher to know whether I'm right or not!

This book is great! I can download audio files from the muse-eek website and then sing along with it. I'm really starting to learn how to sing harmonies and how to hear them. I highly recommend getting Mr. Arnold's Ear Training CD's along with this book. The combination of both is really helping me.

This is a wonderful book if you are interest in Irish art or history, or the role for a strong, independent, single woman in early 20th century Ireland. Mainie Jellett is a now obscure Irish artist who was an advocate of the abstract cubist movement, a movement which quickly fell out of favour with the rise of Picasso. But she left her mark on Irish art.

I highly recommend this book. Mr. Arnold presents you with 22 scales, explains each one and gives you chord progressions to use to apply the scale. The publisher's website gives you cool midifiles of each chord progression with a whole band playing them. I've been jamm'in away with this stuff and it is very enlightening.

This is THE book to turn to when fixing up your home to sell, or even if you are just looking for inexpensive fix-ups--this book covers everything, from each room individually, to the house as a unit, to even how to make the best of a bad view from the windows. Also, there is an extremely good section on how to decide whether you should or shouldn't use a broker to sell your home, how to conduct a home tour, etc.

Best of all, not only are most of the suggestions at or under $100, even though the book is a bit old ('86), they are things that anyone can do--not major undertakings which require a contractor.There are black and white photos of before and after rooms, which really show how just a little money, spent wisely, can make a huge difference in how your home will look to a potential buyer. Using this book as a guide, any home can show (and sell!) like a model home.

I loaned my copy out once and never got it back. Luckily I was able to purchase a used paperback copy (for $2 more than the original price!!), but there is a reason why it is priced $$$ on ZShops. This book really needs to be in print again--the other books on the market are a waste of money compared to this one.

"Bruce Arnold has found some intriguing ways to deal with reading hurdles. Follow his tips, and you'll be reading like a pro in not time."

Guitar Player Magazine December 2000

Bruce Arnold is an accomplished jazz guitarist and educator. I reviewed three of his instruction books: 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist; Chord Workbook for Guitar; and Music Theory Workbook for Guitar.

I also listened to an incredible jazz music album he provided for my listening pleasure. As a player, he is awesome. As a writer of instruction manuals, he is very good for the more advanced student. I compared his books with the Mel Bay series, which I use for my students (and on which I learned). His go into much more depth than those I'm accustomed to. Ideally, I would introduce his material after a couple of months.

I am eager to see some of the other books he has in his series of over thirty instructional manuals. I believe depth is the best term to describe what this educator has to offer. He takes on some of the more difficult aspects for guitarists and digs deeply into the subject material. I would have killed to have manuals like these when I was in college.

I have found nothing better than this, but you have to know that music theory is tough stuff. I am sure I will be entirely a better person if I can get through this book. I will certainly be a better guitar player. I actually love it but find it hard and slow going. This may say more about me that the book, but there you are. I have been learning blues and folk guitar for 18 months and feel I need this stuff.

I'll admit, I got into playing guitar just to learn the songs of my favorite bands. But, after awhile I got bored, and decided to really sit down and try to begin to master this instrument. Bruce Arnold's book is a great place to start, with Chord Workbook Volume One being a great supplement. In this book you'll learn (by endless practice) what notes make up what chords on the guitar, this process and knowledge may not seem important now, but if you stick with it, you might just start noticing patterns in guitar music. Knowing what notes make up the chord voicings you use, will, if you practice and stick with it, open up a whole new world of guitar playing for you: where you can improvise and solo and go off whenever you like, because you know what chords/notes go where. Give it time, and good luck!