Mel Bay's Guitar Instruction Grading System
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The "Overall Difficulty" rates books from Beginning to Advanced based on the overall difficulty of the entire book. The possible levels, in order, are:
- Beginning
- Beginning-Intermediate
- Intermediate
- Intermediate-Advanced
- Advanced
Guitar solos are further graded according to 5 additional criteria: rhythms, keys/chords, notes and positions, technique, and length of pieces. These ratings provide a more detailed examination of the music. There are three levels in this portion of the grading listed as 1 (beginner), 2 (intermediate), and 3 (advanced).
Any number with a minus sign is a border line between either beginner and intermediate or intermediate and advanced. Here is a chart to explain this and how the difficulty increases with each number and plus or minus sign:
- Beginning: 1 1+ 1++
- Borderline Beginner/Intermediate: 2-
- Intermediate: 2 2+ 2++
- Borderline Intermediate/Advanced: 3-
- Advanced: 3 3+ 3++
These numbers explain the ascension of the grading scale from beginner to advanced. For references to musical terms and principles on which these gradings were based, see below. The principles behind the grading system for each level are only guidelines for the grading chart. These guidelines are not "set in stone" for the gradings, but one easy way to see the difficulty is that 1 is the easiest ascending to 3++ being the hardest. Just because an idea is listed under a catergory doesn't mean it is necessarily a strong factor in the book.
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Rhythms |
Keys/Chords |
Notes and Positions |
Technique |
Length |
| Beginning Level |
- Whole, half, quarter, and simple eighth note rhythmic patterns
- Basic time signatures of 4/4 and 3/4
- Tied notes
- Slower tempos for eighth notes
- Arpeggios
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- C, G, Am, Em, D, Bm, and F
- Open power chords
- Basic first position chords with some second position chords
- Double Stops
- Open power chords
- No more than two chords per measure
- Basic strum patterns
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- Notes in first and second position
- Sharps and Flats
- TAB
- Simple triads
- Stays in first position with simple shifts up to third position
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- Basic alternate picking
- Strings may be alternated but little or no string skipping
- Basic slurs
- Music in two-part harmony
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- Short pieces are one to two pages long
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| Intermediate Level |
- Sixteenth notes with slower tempos
- higher level of syncopation
- medium fast tempos for eighth notes
- Triplets (quarter note and eighth note)
- Basic syncopation (dotted quarter followed by an eighth)
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- B, Gm, A, Fm, E, Cm, E, F, Dm
- Barre chords (half and full barre)
- Moveable power chords
- Moveable scale shapes (major, minor, pentatonic)
- Open tunings
- Two or more chords per measure
- Embellished chords
- Clusters
- Modes: Mixolydian, Pentatonic
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- Fifth and seventh positions
- Notes on sixth and fifth strings (all frets)
- Wider position shifts (up to fifth and sixth position)
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- String skipping with alternate picking
- Grace notes
- Block-style
- Simple counterpoint
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- Pieces are up to four pages long
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| Advanced Level |
- Fast tempos
- Harmonized melodies with eighth notes
- Compound meter, 9/8, and simple meter changes
- Dotted sixteenth notes
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- D, Bm, F, G, Em, C, Am, E, Cm, A, Fm, B, Gm
- Two octave arpeggios
- Embellished chords with melody
- all other modes
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- Positions above ninth position
- Wide position shifts (From first to ninth and above positions)
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- High level of crosspicking
- sixteenth notes at fast tempos
- Trills
- Advanced Counterpoint
- Complex Finger Combination
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- Pieces are 5 pages or longer
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