About the colours …

The Rainbow books got their name because they are based on a colour-string system. Each guitar or ukulele string is given a colour, and the notes on that string appear in that same colour, all the way through the books.

• The colours immediately guide you to the right string.
• At the beginning, they do almost all the reading for you! (because you only know one note on each string)
• As you progress, you start to look at the stave more closely (because you will need to distinguish several notes on each string).
• At every stage, the colours divide the stave into zones which your eye can quickly focus on.
• The more notes you learn, the more closely you will have to look at the lines and spaces on the stave.
• Later, as you move on to reading without colours, you will find you have already learned far more than you realised!

PS The new online versions of Rainbow Guitar and Rainbow Ukulele came out much later than the books, and they are much more flexible than a printed book. If you subscribe to online access, then for every piece you can choose to display the notes with or without colours, and you can also choose to display tablature if you wish.