Godfrey Guitar System
The Godfrey Guitar System is a series of Melody and Rhythm Guitar books designed to take you from a beginning level to early advanced. The Melody Guitar books focus on playing and reading melodies in standard notation, and the Rhythm Guitar books teach chords and accompaniment patterns. Along the way, you'll become a solid music reader with good foundation for any style of music. My books are available on Sheet Music Plus. Follow the links below to purchase your copy. These are all digital downloads, which means they are much less expensive than comparable print versions. As PDFs, these books can be conveniently stored on your computer or tablet, so you can take your books anywhere.
Melody Guitar Series
Melody Guitar Book 1: Getting Started
Learn to play and read melodies on strings 1-3. For beginners or experienced chord players interested in improving their music reading skills.
Melody Guitar Book 2: Strings 4-6
Picks up where Melody Guitar Book 1 leaves off. Play melodies on all six strings and continue to learn important music reading concepts. Also includes duets you can play with a friend or a teacher.
Melody Guitar Book 3: Beyond the 6th String
Continue to advance with even more challenging melodies and musical concepts, plus major, minor, minor pentatonic, blues, and chromatic scales. Includes duets you can play with a friend or teacher, plus exercises to improve hammer-ons and pull-offs.
Melody Guitar Book 4: Exploring the Fretboard
Learn to play melodies anywhere on the fretboard. Bridges the gap between 1st position and positions higher up the neck. Most of the exercises are fairly simple so you can focus on fretboard memorization without worrying too much about technique.
Rhythm Guitar Series
Rhythm Guitar Book 1: Rhythm Guitar Basics
Your introduction to rhythm guitar starts with easy chords that mostly involve just one or two fingers. In addition to chords, you'll learn how to read lead sheets, rhythm charts, and basic rhythms.
Rhythm Guitar Book 2: Open Chords and Comping Patterns
Learn full chords and useful strumming and fingerpicking patterns. Starts with full versions of the chords you learned in Rhythm Guitar Book 1. You will also learn how to decorate your comping patterns with hammer-ons and bass runs. The useful reference section in the back includes a page of open chord diagrams and several pages of accompaniment patterns.
Rhythm Guitar Book 3: Moveable Chords
Learn how to use a handful of moveable shapes to play chords all over the neck. With its emphasis on fretboard memorization, this is the perfect companion book to Melody Guitar Book 4. This book is especially useful for players looking to get into jazz and blues. When you're finished with Rhythm Guitar Book 3, you might never use a capo again!
Technique and Theory
This concise book explores a handful of useful moveable chords: major, minor, dominant 7, and power chords. You'll be able to apply the concepts from this book to add more moveable chords to your vocabulary on your own. This book is for the guitarist who has learned open chords and now wants to learn how to play chords anywhere on the neck.
Take the mystery out of jazz guitar chords with a system of practical, powerful 3-note chords called shell voicings. This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn to play jazz band guitar parts or Real Book chords. Includes effective jazz comping patterns and a crash course in reading jazz band parts and jazz lead sheets.
Learn how music is put together, how chords are built, and how to play chord progressions anywhere on the neck. Written specifically for the guitar player, this book includes plenty of fretboard diagrams showing how music theory can help you unlock the entire fretboard. Before starting Guitar Theory Modules, you should know how to read standard music notation, and you should know (or be learning) the notes on every string up to the 12th fret. This is an excellent companion to Melody Guitar Book 4.
Duet Books
Guitar Duets 1: 10 Duets for Beginners
These little gems include original compositions and folk melodies. All duets include optional chords for a teacher or more advanced player. Correlates with Melody Guitar Book 1.
Guitar Duets 2: 24 Duets for Intermediate Guitarists
Original compositions, Irish tunes, Christmas carols, and more! All duets include optional chords for a teacher or more advanced player. Correlates with Melody Guitar Book 2.
Guitar Duets 3: 21 Duets for Advancing Guitarists
Original compositions, folk melodies, Bach, Chopin, and more! All duets include optional chords for a teacher or third player. Correlates with Melody Guitar Book 3.