William "Bill" G. Leavitt (October 4, 1926 – November 4, 1990) was an American jazz guitarist and arranger best known for his long series of guitar instruction books and for developing a related curriculum at Berklee College of Music as chair of the guitar department.
[1] Leavitt's books contain no guitar tablature and consist only of standard notation and chord symbols with occasionally written-in fingering numbers, string numbers, and position numerals.
They range in level from the beginning reader to the professional.
Emphasis is placed on using a guitar pick, rather than a fingerstyle approach.
At the time, although many players were using picks, very few college-level educational materials existed that were specifically designed with the pick-style in mind.