Vth Position

The Vth Position Method book is designed for the intermediate to experienced guitarist who wants to truly develop their sight-reading skills. This is not a beginner book about how to sight-read guitar music, but a bridge for the guitarist with fundamental knowledge and skill level to excel and become proficient in the art of sight-reading. The book offers a very different and unique insight to sight-reading on the guitar. It contains reading and rhythmic exercises, songs, non-traditional chord charts and a new innovative approach to using the metronome.

The Vth Position offers an innovative and revolutionary new approach to the problem of sight-reading on the guitar. For decades the guitarist has been taught to start in first position when sight-reading and slowly work their way up the fingerboard into the upper positions. The problem with this approach is that it is confusing, awkward and uninspiring. The solution is to master the optimal position on the guitar, but what position is truly optimal? All my professional experience and research has pointed towards the fifth position. As such, this book will guide you to becoming a proficient sight-reader in the fifth position, thereby opening the door to confidence in most performance situations where sight-reading is a necessity. The book contains reading and rhythm exercises of varying difficulty as well as songs, scales, modes, blues examples, arpeggios, non-traditional chord charts, and a new innovative approach to using the metronome.

As a highly regarded jazz guitarist, composer, and teacher with over 40 years of musical experience, Steve Girardi has seen it all. As a teacher Steve is qualified in the areas of theory, composition, and advanced improvisation. He also has the unique distinction of being an authorized Sandole method instructor-- an honor given to him by "Maestro" Dennis Sandole after years of extensive study. He has since guided students to be accepted into some of the finest colleges and universities in the country including New York University, Eastman College, Berklee College of Music, and the Peabody Institute and Conservatory. Moreover, many Girardi students have gone on to become accomplished musicians including Mihali Savoulidis of Twiddle, CJ Colandrea, Quincas Moreira and Richard "Shepp" Sheppard of Ameranouche. As an accomplished performer, Steve can regularly be heard in any number of musical settings and genres from jazz clubs, rock venues to showrooms around the New York metropolitan area. As an equally impressive composer, Steve he has produced and released two critically acclaimed CD's "Within Inside" and "Blue Sky with Tears." Additionally, his original music can be heard in the short film "Bartleby" by New Waves Productions. He is currently an adjunct music professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University and is the owner and founder of the Girardi Music Studio in Madison, New Jersey.