The Musician Institute Approach
This book an introduction to the Musician Institute (MI) approach to teaching guitar. The author, Barret Tagliarino has been a guitar instructor there since 1989 where his classes are in high demand. His books, co-published by Musician Institute and Hal Leonard are used as part of the school’s curriculum.
Musician Institute (formally known as The Guitar Institute of Technology) is a vocational school (initially uncredited technical school) founded in 1977 in Hollywood California by jazz guitarist Howard Roberts and businessman Pat Hicks. The school was established to provide “ready to work” musicians to then burgeoning Los Angeles music studios scene and national-touring acts. In those days, the industry was growing and competent “one-take” musicians were rare often shared by several artists. Roberts’ idea was to use the CAGED system to teach note intervals, scales, chords & arpeggios. Emphasis was put on improvisation and being adept at many music styles (jazz, rock, blues, country, R&B, reggae) as opposed to sight-reading and remembering classic pieces. Roberts did not invent the CAGED system, but he had been using it to perfect his own playing and successfully taught it to private students.
Throughout the book, the term “root shape” is used instead of “CAGED” because it is less confusing to the beginner. For example, saying “G major chord in root shape 1” is more accurate than “G major chord in C position”. The later’s “C” could be mistaken for the key or mode as there are no C note in a G chord.
Book Structure
The philosophy of the book is resumed in the following phrase:
“A three-pronged attack will cure this problem: draw/describe/play. When you can draw a diagram of a chord or scale by yourself and verbally describe the locations of the notes, only then should you start to play it.”
This is done so that the patterns presented in this book are better embedded in your long-term memory.
All chapters work the same way: after being introduced a musical concept, you have to fill incomplete fretboard diagrams and look at the answers in the back. The book is starts right away with an explanation of the 5 root shapes at the center of the CAGED system. From there, you learn scales, chords and arpeggios that “fill” the root shapes.
The book end with other common scales and chords, then a final assignment to create your own notebook of patterns to expand on what you’ve learned.
It’s important to note that the book does not try to present every fingering and every possible permutations of scales, chords and arpeggios. Instead, it gives you enough information to fill in the gap as needed and a framework to understand other concepts in the future.
Everyday Use
One thing I found is that scales and arpeggios are optimized for comprehension, not for speed. For that, it’s best to use 3-notes per string scales and modified arpeggio patterns. This is OK because you still “see” the correct patterns — you just play them differently.
At a moderate pace of 30 minutes a day, it takes about a year to assimilate all the material in this book. This is a realistic, no-pressure timeframe that encourages long-term memorization through practice. Limiting the scope of the material to what is specific to the guitar results in more clarity and focused learning.
Practicin’s Take
The Practicin app is designed as the perfect companion for practicing the content of this book. You’ll find the CAGED root shapes in the “Playing Guitar” interactive e-book.
This book is a great introduction to serious guitar study and made for guitarists of all levels who wants to truly learn the fretboard without having to learn too theory or sight-reading before starting.
You get right down to playing and by the time you’ve reached the end, you realize you have learned quite a lot of music theory along the way.
I highly recommended and the best 10$USD a guitarist can spend.