Dragon Force Publishing

Toronto guitar and piano teacher John Force has created a self-publishing company called Dragon Force Publishing. The company specializes in music education books and recordings. Currently, the books and recordings are offered exclusively to Neighbour Note students.

The book titles include: Simple Songs and Studies for Piano, The Big Beginner Book of Blues, The Book of Fifth Position, Chord Formations volume one and two, The Big Beginner Songbook volume one and two, The Big Beginner Book of Tab volumes one, two, and three, The Strictly Strumming Songbook volumes one, two, and three, Guitar Method Magic volumes one, two, and three. Book three of Guitar Method Magic is soon to be released. The copyright for each book has been registered with the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

Simple Songs and Studies for Piano is a collection of short original compositions by John Force. The short studies focus on one or two key concepts for each piece. The songs are also short and recognizable. When this book was created the idea was to compose a series of short pieces for the beginner piano student so they could quickly memorize the songs. This is a great way for piano students to quickly build a piano repertoire that they can share with others through performance.

The Big Beginner Book of Blues is a must have for beginner guitar students looking to learn how to play the blues on guitar. It includes standards such as the blues shuffle, turnarounds, ten and twelve bar structures, the Boogie Woogie, as well as the Short Stop Blues also known as Question and Answer. This book is really fun to play and is great for beginner guitar students.

The Book of Fifth Position is a guitar book focusing entirely on the fifth position of the guitar. The book is comprised of short original compositions written by John Force. Recognizable melodies from the public domain are also used. The idea was to help guitar students read music in the fifth position of the guitar using melodies they recognize. To ensure students are not cheating by only playing these melodies by ear, original compositions are included. Original compositions ensure that students must rely on his/her note reading skills since they do not know what the songs sound like.

Chord Formations is a short series focusing on barre chords on the guitar. It is one of two existing systems used for learning to memorize and master barre chords on the guitar. There are two schools of thought on barre chords: The CAGED system and the Formation system. Unlike the CAGED system, the Formation system is physically successive since it starts with partial barres for dyads and triads and then systematically moves to full barre chords. The Formation system is simply a label that John Force has created for barre chords. There was a need to create a book or books that only focus on barre chords using the Formation system.

The Big Beginner Songbook series is a great way for beginner guitar students to quickly build a guitar song repertoire. The songs are easy to learn and fun to play. Each song includes an orderly break down of all the parts of each song making it much easier to memorize entire songs from start to finish.

The Big Beginner Book of Tab is a series that teaches guitar students how to learn to read guitar tablature. This series systematically starts with one string at a time and eventually covers all six strings. String combinations are also used. Book one focuses on using a guide finger while book two focuses on playing in open position as well as using a guide finger.

The Strictly Strumming Songbook series is similar to the Big Beginner Songbook series. It also contains a song order break down of all the parts to each song. The only difference between the Strictly Strumming Songbook and the Big Beginner Songbook is Strictly Strumming only contains strumming songs. This book contains rhythms with arrows and counting. The arrows show students the direction they need to strum while the counting helps students master rhythms. If you can say it you can play it!

Guitar Method Magic is a note reading series for guitar students focusing solely on open or first position. This series also includes original compositions by John Force. It is similar to the Book of Fifth Position. The only difference between the two series is the position. Guitar Method Magic only focuses on the first or open position while the Book of Fifth Position only focuses on the fifth position of the guitar.

John Force is the founder of the Toronto based music school Neighbour Note. This school offers at home music lessons, studio music lessons, and online music lessons. John has completed his Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Music degrees. He has been teaching guitar lessons, piano lessons, and beginner drum lessons for over twenty seven years. John lives in Toronto with his wife Dr. Kristin Force and their high energy boxer Addison.