New Book: Make Meaningful Music on your Guitar

Hi guitar players and music lovers! My name is Udi and I’m on a mission to help people become more creative. Creativity adds so much value and positive meaning to our lives, and my philosophy is that we can achieve it by learning how to write music on the guitar.

Anyone can play the guitar. I know this because for more than 20 years I've been teaching many guitar students, from 5 to 75 years old. But I also know that anyone can make meaningful music on the guitar!

That’s why I’m writing a book that shows how to achieve that, step-by-step. So guitar players can use it to instantly come up with ideas and compose great music.

My approach is that we just need the right mindset, tools and methods that show the ideas behind what composition and improvisation mean.

Past musicians already figured it out, from Bach to Beck. And in the book, I show cool tricks and secrets, which help me with my music and my guitar students. I also add some new ideas of my own.

I’ve spent more than 30 years studying and experiencing music from every possible angle: composing, session playing, producing, arranging, live shows, improv, musicology, ethnomusicology, sound engineering, music psychology, music philosophy…

And I really would like to share the best tips and insights I gathered over the years in a compact format of a book.

If you feel related to my mission, you can help to make this happen! How?

A bit about my guitar background...

When I turned 13, I was thrilled to begin learning guitar, but my first guitar teacher was a local guy who taught me by the book (literally). The exercises and music in those books felt so uninspiring, and soon enough, I lost my motivation, didn’t practise, and came to the weekly lessons with no energy.

Luckily, a few months later, I found another guitar teacher whose approach was completely different. His lessons were inspiring, imaginative, and very practical. With him, I felt I’d made massive progress in just a few weeks and came eager to every lesson wanting to learn more and more. The core of his approach was based on enhancing and encouraging my creativity and expressivity as a student.

For example, I remember one time when he left me in his studio to record my first guitar solo. His comments were so encouraging: “wow, how did you come up with that? That’s so great!”. He gave me such a confidence boost that I still carry it to this day.

A different kind of guitar book

Years later, when I began teaching guitar, I naturally wanted to follow in my second teacher's footsteps. After over 20 years of teaching and over 30 years of guitar playing, I realised I needed to finally share the insights I gathered over the years and publish a book.

It’s a different kind of book. Not another instructional blues guitar book or a music theory book. Instead, it’s a guide that empowers you to create music you love, with practical ideas, examples, and demonstrations that incorporate music theory and non-musical concepts. It simplifies these complicated concepts and inspires and boosts your confidence that you are ready to create meaningful music.

I’ve already started this exciting project, which I’m most passionate about, and plan to finish it by the end of this year.

There are two main sections in this book:

Section 1: Adopting a Creative Mindset

No matter how you perceive your guitar and composition skills, I know you’re better than you think. Also, there’s a lot of potential inside you that waits to be uncovered, and you can achieve amazing things if you wish. To get there, I believe you first need to adopt the right mind frame for it, and that’s why the first section of the book is about the creative mindset.

Music composition (or any creativity) is like planting a tree. If you’d like to grow a large and prosperous tree, you need to give it a solid head start. For example, a tree needs space: distance from other trees and room for the roots to grow deep. To create music, we also need to clear space in our minds so seeds can grow to their full potential.

Section 2: From Theory to Practice

When the mind is ready, we can plant musical seeds, and the book’s second section shows practical ways to get them: from scales, modes, and chords, through the great composers’ secret tricks, to inspiration from non-musical ideas. These and more are methods to create original music on the guitar, and they are easy to apply.

For example, I recently released a Musical Haiku. This short piece is based on the idea that a musical seed can blend a few elements together: Japanese poetry and musical miniatures in the style of Chopin. I’ve almost completed this chapter that goes in-depth about Musical Haiku, with more examples and TAB.

Who is this book for?

If you are a guitar player – this book is for you! Especially if you feel that:

You can also benefit from this book if you’re a songwriter or play a different instrument. It provides practical tools and unique approaches to writing songs, which are more than the standard pop forms and formulas. Although the examples are based on guitar playing, the principles apply to any instrument, and there’s standard notation.

Why ebook?

An eBook is the best option because you can get it instantly, have links and embedded multimedia, and take it anywhere. So this would be the initial format.

But I also know the great feeling of holding a physical book and spending time with it. So I’d like to be able to offer that in the future, depending on demand and funding.

What will I do with the donations?

Writing a book takes a lot of time, so your support can give me the peace of mind to focus on completing this book as soon as I can. In addition, there are the regular expenses around publishing a book: hiring professionals, such as a graphic designer for the cover, an editor, and a proofreader, and also for marketing and promotion.

Want to hear more about this guitar book?

I’d love to tell you more! Just send me an email ([email redacted]) and we’ll find a suitable time to have a chat about it. Also, If you have any comments or questions – I’d love to hear them!