Hemme Luttjeboer Talks About His Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar Exercises

By: Dr. Matt Warnock

When I first picked up Hemme Luttjeboer’s new book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar Exercises, I have to say that the title made me a bit skeptical of the contents waiting within. As is often the case, maybe far too often in my circumstances, I hastily judged a book by its cover, and was therefore pleasantly surprised when I opened this six-string tome to find a treasure trove of exercises for guitarists of all levels, backgrounds and musical tastes.

The book begins, well, right at the beginning with instructions on how to hold the guitar properly, read TAB and chord charts, and how to properly go about strumming the instrument. The book then leads readers through chords, scales, patterns, technical exercises, fingerpicking and more, as it presents pretty much all of the information one could need to make the transition from a beginning to intermediate player.

But this book isn’t just for the uninitiated player, far from it. Any of these exercises, especially the ones designed to increase finger dexterity and strength, can easily be applied to any intermediate, or even advanced, player’s practice routine. By simply cranking up the metronome a few notches, any player can find enjoyment and a challenge in these often simple, yet highly effective, finger workouts.

Author Hemme Luttjeboer recently sat down with Guitar International to give us his thoughts on the book, let’s hear what he had to say.

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Matt Warnock: The material in the book covers a huge range of concepts and techniques, because there’s so much going on in material wise, who do you see this book benefiting the most as far as the experience level of the reader is concerned?

Hemme B. Luttjeboer: As the title of the book suggests, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar Exercises, was written with the novice guitarist in mind who doesn’t know what to practice, but also for the guitarist who can play a little but would like to augment their fretboard knowledge. The book is a great concise reference and handbook for guitarists of all levels.

I created plenty of diverse exercises to help drive home some of the fingerboard chord-scale theory. The chord intensity ranges from basic triads to seventh chords for the beginner, as well as the experienced player. The exercises progress from easy to more challenging. Anyone who plays guitar will definitely find something within these pages to work on.

Matt: Since the material in the book is so exhaustive, and well-written with easy to understand theoretical concepts, do you see this book acting as a guide for guitar teachers to use with their students, or as a stand-alone resource for players to use if they don’t have a guitar teacher to work with?

Hemme: A self-starter will find the book easy to navigate, since the material is well focused and progresses in small increments with enough clear analysis and explanation of all topics to help the reader along. Guitar teachers will find the book very useful as a teaching aid using the multitude of chord, scale and melodic pattern exercises and tune examples.

Matt: You present a lot of your scale material in the CAGED system, which is very popular among teachers these days when working on this material with students. Why did you choose to work within the CAGED method, and do you feel it’s the best way to teach and learn scales, chords and arpeggios on the guitar?

Hemme: The CAGED system is an easy and succinct way of mapping and caching the notes of the fingerboard, especially for the beginner. To a novice player all the frets on the neck can be somewhat overwhelming. Where to start?

Unlike the piano, where all 88 keys are overtly displayed, the notes on the neck can be a daunting task to unravel. Using the CAGED system to organize chords and scales a guitarist will soon learn to unlock the notes and play all along the neck. C-A-G-E-D spells the five chord shapes the player will use within the resulting five definitive areas of the fingerboard.

The goal of the book is to help train players’ fingers and build their technique along the way, but there is also a lot of theory and musical application included as well.

Hemme Luttjeboer

Matt: How did you find a balance between writing a book that was solely exercises and one that was solely theoretical, was this a challenge during the writing process.

Hemme: In writing the book, I intended to create exercises with a meaning, using a theoretical background. I didn’t want to fill the pages with exercises for exercises sake alone. You should be able to understand the scale, the arpeggio, and/or chord that you practice, and know how/why you’re playing it.

So, in essence , “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar Exercises” is a practical guide to unlocking the fretboard using exercises that you’ll be able to use in actual musical settings.

Matt: A lot of the musical examples in the book and on the CD come from the traditional, folk, jazz and blues genres. What would you say to a player who wants to play rock and metal and is looking to use your book to better their playing?

Hemme: A player who wants to play rock or metal will find some of the examples challenging and to their liking. For example, I’ve taken solo classical pieces and arranged them for two guitars. One guitar plays melody and the other accompanies with chords. Both the melody and chords played are demonstrated within the parameters of the CAGED system and the topic under discussion.

All examples are demonstrated at a medium tempo on the CD. Though “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar Exercises” is aimed at the novice player all the scale, arpeggio and melodic pattern exercises can and should be modified to a more brisk tempo, or within the reader’s playing ability.

Matt: Now that you’ve done the guide to guitar exercises, do you have plans to follow up this book with a guide to scales, arpeggios, comping, rhythm etc.?

Hemme: I would like to write another book solely on these topics, as well as string bending, octave dispersion, playing through chord changes etc., but as far as another “Complete Idiot’s Guide” book that’s up to my publisher. There’s always room in the market for another guitar music book!