Styles

Memorize the fretboard before you play another note! Here’s why…..

A fully memorized fretboard is one of the most underrated skills in the guitar world. It’s not expected from a beginner, nor is it taught in the normal course of guitar learning.

But the smartest and best guitarists in the world know why fretboard knowledge can be the secret to being good at guitar.

Why memorize the fretboard?

Apart from sounding extremely cool when you say “Oh, you played a C instead of a C#”, it amplifies every area of your guitar playing:

Area #1: Guitar scales won’t be just patterns on the neck:

Guitar scales are simply a couple notes repeated all over the fretboard. If you understand this simple concept and have the fretboard memorized, you won’t need to memorize those endless patterns all over the fretboard. Simply get set and solo!

Area #2: You’ll unlock 1000+ guitar chords:

Chords are combinations of specific notes too. You can hold these notes anywhere on the fretboard to get chords in different contexts. And if you know the chord formulas (which we teach in our other books) you just unlocked the gates to the world of harmony – without having to memorize them all!

But it starts with – you guessed it – fretboard knowledge.

Area #3: Song writing becomes child’s play:

Break free from common chord shapes and sounds to venture into the wild west of music writing. Add your own chords to popular songs, change the key or simply be more creative.

Granted this is an advanced skill, but the shortest path to get there – fretboard memorization!

Area #4: And the biggest benefit of them all – improvisation!

Improvising is natural to a person who knows the fretboard! New note combinations, unorthodox melodies, playing fluently with a backing track or even writing new melodies. Nothing works if you can’t pick out the notes on the fretboard in an instant.

So, fretboard knowledge allows you to solo better, improvise better, play better harmonies and write songs. That’s a major chunk of guitar right there!

Why more people don’t memorize the fretboard.

It’s hard! It seems impossible! It’ll come with time!

And we agree with all of that. Memorizing 24 frets across 6 strings is not the easiest thing in the world. And most guitarists only ever master it after 1000s of hours on the guitar.

But we want to give you a cheat code!

Inside this book, we’ve simplified this process that takes a “lifetime” into 5 easy steps. Using these, absolute beginners have memorized the fretboard in less than 24 hours. Some even in as little as 5 hours!

Wondering how we do it? Simple!

We combined pattern recognition with memory techniques and games to create a system that will show you patterns hidden in plain sight and give you short memory phrases like “Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie”. This will take the layout of the fretboard right to the brain – WITHOUT any sort of blunt memorization.

With over 700 5–star reviews, this book has helped over 39,000 guitarists shorten their learning time and gain the skill of the guitar gods – in under 24 hours!

And it costs less than a pack of strings!

So, scroll up and click ‘buy now’ to gain the unfair advantage of the pros in under 24 hours!

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Rough Trade Book of the Year
Resident Book of the Year
A Rolling Stone Book of the Year
A Mojo Book of the Year
A Sunday Times Book of the Year

Formed in 1988, Lush were part of the London gig scene during one of the most vibrant and creative periods in UK music. Now, Miki Berenyi tells all.

From the bohemian ways of her father’s social circle to the privileged glamour of her mother’s acting career, Miki’s young life was a blur of travel, celebrities and peripatetic schooling. But frequent relocation, parental neglect and the dark presence of her abusive grandmother resulted in crippling shyness, mental-health issues and a vulnerability to exploitation.

The route out of this hole was music – a passion shared by schoolmate Emma Anderson. The teenagers began attending gigs together and would ultimately go on to form Lush. Talented and exuberant, the band became hot property, swiftly transitioning from shoegaze icons to Britpop darlings.

Re-living the tours, recording sessions and music-industry madness they experienced along the way, this uncompromising memoir documents Lush’s thrilling rise and untimely fall. Yet at the heart of the book are Miki’s own battles: the conflict between her mouthy public persona and her thin-skinned private identity; the trials of being a woman in an infuriatingly male world; the struggle to find a middle ground between ‘safe’ indie obscurity and ‘sell-out’ international success. Miki also explores her complicated relationship with Emma – one that has fluctuated between camaraderie and rivalry over the years – and addresses the devastating tragedy that led to the band’s split.

Told through frank confession, wry humour and searing emotional honesty, this is the incredible tale of a trailblazing woman and a seminal band.

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‘Literally changed the course of my life’ James Murphy

‘The chapter on Larry Levan alone transformed me into wanting to be your favorite DJ’ Questlove

‘The original and still the best’ Gilles Peterson

‘We can’t tell the story of dance music without speaking the names of Sharon White and Judy Weinstein, so I welcome this vital update’ The Blessed Madonna

When someone says, ‘You have to know your history…’ this is it. This classic book is the whole unruly story of dance music in one volume. It recreates the dancefloors that made history, conjuring their atmosphere with loving detail and bringing you the voices of the DJs and clubbers at their heart – from grime, garage, house, hip hop and disco, to techno, soul, reggae, rock’n’roll, and EDM. Whether musical outlaw, obsessive crate-digger or overpaid superstar, the DJ has been at the spinning centre of nightlife for a century, making parties wilder, pushing clubbers harder, and driving music into completely new shapes and styles. In 1999 this was the first book to do justice to the DJ’s rollercoaster ride. Twenty years later, it’s fully refreshed, carefully updated and filled with even more stories, including two brand new chapters. This edition comes with a new foreword by James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem).

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A Telegraph Book of the Year

As a renowned recording-studio maven, Trevor Horn has been dubbed ‘the man who invented the ’80s’.

His production work since the glory days of ZTT represents a veritable ‘who’s who’ of intelligent modern pop, including the likes of ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Pet Shop Boys, Seal, Simple Minds, Grace Jones and Yes – among many others.

This book is Trevor’s story in his own words, as told through the prism of twenty-three of his most important songs – from the ones that inspired him to the ones that defined him.

This play-by-play memoir transports readers into the heart of the studio to witness the making of some of music’s most memorable moments, from the Buggles’ ground-breaking ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ to Band Aid’s perennial ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’, via hits such as ‘Relax’, ‘Poison Arrow’, ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ and ‘Crazy’.

Offering unrivalled access to the dark arts of the producer’s world and the even darker arts of the music business itself, prepare for some adventures in modern recording…

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The complete lyrics from cultural icon and bestselling author Nick Cave, spanning his entire career to date, with a new foreword by Andrew O’Hagan

From Nick Cave’s writing for The Birthday Party, through highly acclaimed albums like Murder Ballads, Henry’s Dream, DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! and Ghosteen, this is a must-have book for all fans of the dark, the beautiful and the defiant – for all fans of the songs of Nick Cave.

‘The greatest living songwriter’ NME

‘A glowing wire, a mainline to meaning ad feeling and art’ New Yorker

‘Nick Cave is a true lyrical master. He can conjure empathy and hope out of thin air, light out of darkness’ Cillian Murphy

‘His lyrics – so rich in the toils of love, so committed to memory and everlasting presence – are the best-made of his generation’ Andrew O’Hagan

‘A poetic craftsman’ Will Self

‘Alternative rock legend’ Billboard

‘Cave’s genius rings loud and clear’ Evening Standard

Cover art by Aleksandra Waliszewska

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‘In the Spring of 1989, shortly after my twenty-seventh birthday, as I stood in the sleet at a bus stop in Colchester, it dawned on me that I had probably, all things considered, failed in my mission to become Sting. At least, for the time being.’

Lost in Music is about growing up with pop music – about hearing it, buying it, loving it, and attempting to play it in public for money. A brilliant combination of the confessional and the unapologetic, this is a book for anyone who has ever treasured vinyl, or sung into a roll-on deodorant in front of the bedroom mirror and dreamed of playing Wembley.

Praise for Lost in Music

‘Very, very funny . . . Giles Smith is a wonderful writer’ Nick Hornby

‘A wonderfully funny pop-music memoir . . . You don’t have to know who Nik Kershaw is to laugh out loud at the chapter about him’ Sebastian Faulks, Spectator

‘One of the best books about music that you will ever read . . . It is impossible to read Lost in Music without laughing out loud’ Daily Telegraph

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A Times Book of the Year
An Uncut Magazine Book of the Year
A Waterstones Music Book of the Year
A Virgin Radio Book of the Year
A Louder Book of the Year

‘Probably the best Bush book to date.’ – Record Collector

Kate Bush: the subject of murmured legend and one of the most idiosyncratic musicians of the modern era. Comprising fifty chapters or ‘visions’, Running Up That Hill is a multi-faceted biography of this famously elusive figure, viewing her life and work from fresh and illuminating angles.

Featuring details from the author’s one-to-one conversations with Kate, as well as vignettes of her key songs, albums, videos and concerts, this artful, candid and often brutally funny portrait introduces the reader to the refreshingly real Kate Bush.

Along the way, the narrative also includes vivid reconstructions of transformative moments in her career and insights from the friends and collaborators closest to Kate, including her photographer brother John Carder Bush and fellow artists David Gilmour, John Lydon and Youth.

Running Up That Hill is a vibrant and comprehensive re-examination of Kate Bush and her many creative landmarks.

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The Island Book of Records brings the early years of this iconic record label to life. A fifteen-year labour of love, the volumes will fully document the analogue era of Island. Offering a comprehensive archive of album cover design and photography, together with the voices of the musicians, designers, photographers, producers, studio engineers and record company personnel that worked on each project, the volumes show in unique depth the workings of the label, covering every LP. Featuring material from recent interviews and from media interviews of the time, and each including a comprehensive discography of 45s, the books are lavishly illustrated with gig adverts (very many at venues which no longer exist), concert tickets, flyers, international LP variants, labels, LP and 45 adverts and other ephemera. These LP-sized editions are a collector’s dream, offering a truly unparalleled resource for those interested in music history and a perfect gift for any music lover.

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Celebrate 40 years of WHAM! with the Sunday Times bestseller from one half of the world’s most famous bands

‘I couldn’t put it down. Such a fantastic book’ Chris Evans, Virgin Radio
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School mates. Band mates. Soul mates . . .

When Andrew Ridgley took George Michael, the new boy at school, under his wing, he discovered a soul mate.

In Wham! George and Me, Andrew tells the story of how they rode a rollercoaster of success around the world while making iconic records and surviving superstardom with their friendship intact. It is a memoir of love, music, the flamboyant 1980s and living in a pop hurricane.

No one else can ever tell their story – because no one else was there . . .

Forty years on from their explosion into pop music, Andrew Ridgeley tells the inside story of Wham!, his life-long friendship with George Michael and the formation of a band that changed music.
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‘A joyous celebration of the Wham! years. For anyone who was a teenager in the early 1980s, it will take you on a nostalgia trip. It’s an honest but affectionate account of a remarkable duo who remained true to their origins and their friendship throughout it all’ Daily Express

‘As infectious as their music’ Daily Mirror

‘A remarkably generous memoir. In more than one sense, the biography of a friend’ Spectator

‘A great story’ Saturday Live, Radio 4

‘A lovely book. A love letter to George’ Graham Norton, BBC One

‘Charming, heartfelt . . . there’s a real poignancy to Ridgeley’s description of Wham!’s glory days’ Sunday Times

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Record covers are a sign of our life and times. Like the music on the discs, they address such issues as love, life, death, fashion, and rebellion. For music fans the covers are the expression of a period, of a particular time in their lives. Many are works of art and have become as famous as the music they stand for―Andy Warhol’s covers, for example, including the banana he designed for The Velvet Underground. This edition of Record Covers presents a selection of the best rock album covers of the 60s to 90s from music archivist, disc jockey, journalist, and former record-publicity executive Michael Ochs’s enormous private collection. Both a trip down memory lane and a study in the evolution of cover art, this is a sweeping look at an underappreciated art form.

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The first book to deal exclusively with the British musical film from the very beginning of talking pictures in the late 1920s through the Depression of the 1930s up to the end of World War II. Cheer Up! is the first book to deal exclusively with the British musical film from the very beginning of talking pictures in the late 1920s through the Depression of the 1930s up to the end of World War II. The upsurge in production at British studios from 1929 onwards marked the real birth of a genre whose principal purpose was to entertain the British public. This endeavour was deeply affected by the very many emigres escaping Nazi Germany, who flooded into the British film industry during this decade, as the genre tried to establish itself. The British musical film in the 1930s reflects a richness of interest. Studios initially flirted with filming what were essentially stage productions plucked from the West End theatre but soon learned that importing a foreign star was a box-office boost. Major musical stars including Jessie Matthews, Richard Tauber and George Formby established themselves during this period. From its beginning, the British musical film captured some of the most notable music-hall performers on screen, and its obsession with music-hall persisted throughout the war years. Other films married popular and classical music with social issues of poverty and unemployment, a message of social integration that long preceded the efforts of the Ealing studios to encourage a sense of social cohesion in post-war Britain. The treatmentof the films discussed is linear, each film dealt with in order of its release date, and allowing for an engaging narrative packed with encyclopaedic information.

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The most anticipated book in more than a decade by the legendary band, The Beatles: Get Back is the official account of the creation of their final album, Let It Be, told in The Beatles’ own words, illustrated with hundreds of previously unpublished images, including photos by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney. Half a century after the 1970 Let It Be album and film, this milestone book coincides with the global release of Peter Jackson’s documentary feature film, The Beatles: Get Back.

The book opens in January 1969, the beginning of The Beatles’ last year as a band. The Beatles (The White Album) is at number one in the charts and the foursome gather in London for a new project. Over 21 days, first at Twickenham Film Studios and then at their own brand-new Apple Studios, with cameras and tape recorders documenting every day’s work and conversations, the band rehearse a huge number of songs, culminating in their final concert, which famously takes place on the rooftop of their own office building, bringing central London to a halt.

The Beatles: Get Back tells the story of those sessions through transcripts of the band’s candid conversations. Drawing on over 120 hours of sound recordings, leading music writer John Harris edits the richly captivating text to give us a fly-on-the-wall experience of being there in the studios. These sessions come vividly to life through hundreds of unpublished, extraordinary images by two photographers who had special access to their sessions―Ethan A. Russell and Linda Eastman (who married Paul McCartney two months later). Also included are many unseen high-resolution film-frames, selected from the 55 hours of restored footage from which Peter Jackson’s documentary is also drawn.

Legend has it that these sessions were a grim time for a band falling apart. However, as acclaimed novelist Hanif Kureishi writes in his introduction, “In fact this was a productive time for them, when they created some of their best work. And it is here that we have the privilege of witnessing their early drafts, the mistakes, the drift and digressions, the boredom, the excitement, joyous jamming and sudden breakthroughs that led to the work we now know and admire.” Half a century after their final performance, this book completes the story of the creative genius, timeless music, and inspiring legacy of The Beatles.

“It would be fair to say that today Let It Be symbolizes the breaking-up of The Beatles. That’s the mythology, the truth is somewhat different. The real story of Let It Be has been locked in the vaults of Apple Corps for the last 50 years.” ― Peter Jackson

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For 13 years, Peter Hince lived the rock ‘n’ roll dream. As head roadie for Queen he had a front row seat and backstage pass to some of the greatest moments in music.

Now, he is opening up his incredible archive and sharing hundreds of photographs and mementoes – many never seen before – as well as stories and memories from life inside rock ‘n’ roll history.

Queen Uncovered is packed with images and ephemera from this truly unique collection, covering life on the road and in the studio, backstage and on-stage, relaxing at parties, filming iconic music videos and much more besides.

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Winner of the 2010 Non-Fiction National Book Award
Patti Smith’s definitive memoir is an evocative, honest and moving coming-of-age story of her extraordinary relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe

‘Sharp, elegiac and finely crafted’ Sunday Times
‘Terrifically evocative … The most spellbinding and diverting portrait of funky-but-chic New York in the late ’60s and ’70s that any alumnus has committed to print’ New York Times
‘Render, harrowing, often hilarious’ Vogue

In 1967, a chance meeting between two young people led to a romance and a lifelong friendship that would carry each to international success never dreamed of. The backdrop is Brooklyn, Chelsea Hotel, Max’s Kansas City, Scribner’s Bookstore, Coney Island, Warhol’s Factory and the whole city resplendent. Among their friends, literary lights, musicians and artists such as Harry Smith, Bobby Neuwirth, Allen Ginsberg, Sandy Daley, Sam Shepherd, William Burroughs, etc. It was a heightened time politically and culturally; the art and music worlds exploding and colliding. In the midst of all this two kids made a pact to always care for one another. Scrappy, romantic, committed to making art, they prodded and provided each other with faith and confidence during the hungry years–the days of cous-cous and lettuce soup.

Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. Beautifully written, this is a profound portrait of two young artists, often hungry, sated only by art and experience. And an unforgettable portrait of New York, her rich and poor, hustlers and hellions, those who made it and those whose memory lingers near.

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MOJO BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
AN UNCUT BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023

One of the few indisputable geniuses of pop music, Sly Stone is a trailblazer who created a new kind of music, mixing Black and white, male and female, funk and rock; penned some of the most iconic anthems of the 1960s and 70s, from “Everyday People” to “Family Affair”; and electrified audiences with a persona and stage presence that set a lasting standard for pop culture performance. Yet he has also been a cautionary tale, known as much for how he dropped out of sight as for what put him in the spotlight in the first place. As much as people know the music, the man remains a mystery.

In Thank You, his much-anticipated memoir, he’s finally ready to share his story – a story that many thought he’d never have the chance to tell. Written with Ben Greenman, who has written memoirs with George Clinton and Brian Wilson among others, Thank You will include a foreword by Questlove. The book was created in collaboration with Sly Stone’s manager Arlene Hirschkowitz.

“For as long as I can remember folks have been asking me to tell my story,” says Stone. “I wasn’t ready. I had to be in a new frame of mind to become Sylvester Stewart again to tell the true story of Sly Stone. It’s been a wild ride and hopefully my fans enjoy it too.”

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In The Complete Beatles Songs, Steve Turner shatters many well-worn myths and adds a new dimension to the Fab Four’s rich legacy.

This beautifully packaged book examines every Beatles-penned song and the inspiration behind them all; with fresh research and packed with new information, there are revelations aplenty. The book covers the Fab Four’s entire output chapter by chapter and includes a complete set of printed lyrics to accompany each song, used with exclusive permission from the band’s music publishers.

Who was ‘just seventeen’ and made Paul’s heart go ‘boom’? Who was ‘Lady Madonna’? Was there really an Eleanor Rigby? What inspired ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’? Why was Paul the ‘walrus’ and what inspired the lyrics to Ringo’s ‘Octopus’s Garden’?

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Touching, personal, indomitable, but always laugh-out-loud funny, The Lives of Brian is the legendary story of one of the rock world’s best-loved performers – and the many lives he’s led

‘Both a rollicking tale of rock’s bygone glory days and a deeply human account of a working-class boy who never gave up’ MAIL ON SUNDAY
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For over a decade rock legend Brian Johnson tried to make his mark with a succession of bands, yet big time success remained out of reach. But was he going to give up on his dream?

Not a chance . . .

So when, after the tragic death of Bon Scott, AC/DC hired Brian as their new singer, he gave it his all. And his debut, Back in Black, went on to become the biggest-selling rock album of all time.

Big hearted, touching, indomitable and always laugh-out-loud funny, The Lives of Brian is the story of one of the world’s best-loved performers, told in his own inimitable voice.
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‘The Lives of Brian is the literary twin of a classic AC/DC album – wild material woven together seamlessly, and always leaving you wanting more’ Hot Press

‘A tale of fate, serendipity and dogged determination’ Mojo

‘A heart-wrenching and hilarious memoir’ Billboard

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The Cure are arguably the biggest alternative rock band in the world. Between 1985 and 2000 every album they released went to at least Gold in the UK, the US or both. In America they have earned four Platinum albums, and they are estimated to have sold 30 million albums worldwide. Their iconic status as elder statesmen of Alternative Rock remains undiminished – if anything, their tireless touring has ensured that it has grown with every passing year – and lead singer Robert Smith is an endlessly fascinating figure to successive generations of fans. The Cure’s influence reverberates through genres including Emo, Goth, Industrial and Indie Rock.

The book is an encyclopaedic A-Z of The Cure examining and riffing on miscellaneous trivia, biographies of the band members past and present, summaries of each album and selected songs, details of the band’s various tours and films, and essays on broader topics such as their image, their politics and their influences. Playful, eccentric and irreverent – true to the spirit of the band itself – CUREPEDIA is a comprehensive biography of one of the biggest alternative rock bands in the world.

The hardback edition features interior pages printed in red and black ink, a ribbon marker, and bespoke C-U-R-E letter endpapers specially designed by Andy Vella – celebrated artist and collaborator (as part of Parched Art) with The Cure on their album artwork for four decades.

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James Hetfield shares his personal collection of treasured guitars and reveals the story and significance of each within his life and career as the front man, guitarist, and songwriter for Metallica.

From the Electra OGV that defined his style, sound and attitude to the mythical MX guitars, the first in a series of iconic collaborations with ESP, and from his signature Snakebytes through his ambitious projects with renowned luthier Ken Lawrence, James Hetfield shares the emotional and technical elements of the chosen tools that have shaped his singular musical journey, including exotic instruments, vintage Gibsons, and custom one-offs. He also reveals many studio secrets, including the key amplifiers and gear that sculpt his tone and create his sound.

Each featured guitar is accompanied by lush museum-quality portraits by acclaimed photographer Scott Williamson, exhibiting intimate details one can only see if holding it in their own hands, alongside Hetfield’s deeply personal reminiscence. Spanning more than forty guitars, ranging from the original battle-scarred road warriors to the trusted studio stalwarts and enduring tour favourites, Messengers: The Guitars of James Hetfield is a meticulously crafted coffee table book and a mesmerizing window into the mind and soul of one of rock’s greatest front men. These invaluable guitars have forged over four decades of music history.

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