Find and Play Acoustic Guitar Sheet Music Song Books
Whether you're first learning guitar or are a seasoned professional, a well-written book of sheet music will help you improve your craft. From the simplest beginner songs that involve notes on only one string to incredibly complex classical acoustic guitar pieces, there's sheet music for everyone. You can find many sheet music songbooks for the acoustic guitar on eBay.
The different genres of acoustic guitar sheet musicThough most musical genres can easily be transcribed for guitar, there are specific genres that you're far more likely to find in songbooks. These genres include:
- Classical: Acoustic guitar's main use for a long period of time was in classical guitar where composers such as Bach, Vivaldi, and more wrote beautiful pieces specifically for the instrument. Because of the immense body of classic work for the acoustic guitar, it's likely that you'll find songbooks filled with great pieces.
- Country: More recently, country music has emerged as a common genre for acoustic guitar. You'll find everything from bluegrass to contemporary country music and accompanying chord charts in songbooks.
- Flamenco: This Spanish genre utilizes acoustic guitar heavily, and with intricate solos, flamenco sheet music is an absolute necessity. You'll find many complex flamenco pieces in songbooks.
There are a few aspects you should consider when picking out an acoustic guitar songbook to ensure you can actually enjoy it.
- Skill level: You should take a moment to objectively consider your current skill level. If you're just getting into the instrument, it may not be wise to pick up a complicated book of technical acoustic songs. If you've been playing for years and are searching for harder pieces, then you may want to pick up a more complex book of songwriter-specific tunes. You should also consider your potential skill level as how hard you will practice determines what pieces you'll be able to play in the near future, so picking up a book that's slightly above your current skill level might be a good idea.
- Genre: The songs you purchase should be within a genre you enjoy playing. If you don't enjoy country music, for example, then you may want to steer away from songbooks that include that genre of music.
- Song type: One caveat of guitar songbooks is that they're not always filled with songs meant for acoustic guitar first. Some may be transcribing bass tabs for guitar or simply converting piano lines. Make sure you take a look inside the book to get a feel for the type of music you'll be playing.
After you've purchased and received a songbook, the first thing you'll need to do is understand how to read guitar tab. This may take some getting used to as it incorporates both finger numbers and notes. Once you've mastered the guitar tab, then you can optimize your practice time. Start by picking out a song that's relatively difficult and break it into segments. From here, practice each segment until you have the correct finger positions down. As you become more comfortable with the individual parts of the song, you may be able to start piecing them together into a more cohesive tune. Eventually, you'll be able to play the entire song with ease.