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Books : Guitar for Dummies (For Dummies)
1 2 3 4 5
Rating: 
- Accessible and encouraging with a down-to-earth approach
When my teenage son and I started playing the guitar I bought several 'teach yourself' books, and this is by far the best we found. It takes a refreshing, real-world approach to learning, offering plenty of encouragement (to keep you going through those early weeks of sore fingers) in the form of easy music and songs that you will be able to play from the very start. It also acknowledges that some things will be hard at first, and warns about them in advance. Despite this, it isn't 'dumbed-down', and is packed with far more information than the others we tried. Whether you want to play acoustic or electric; rock, folk, classical or jazz, there's everything here that you need to get started, and a good deal for the more experienced guitarist too. All the music is provided in both standard notation and guitar tabulature (which means that you don't have to learn to read music if you don't want to), and is also included on the accompanying CD. We could have saved the money we spent on other guitar courses - this is the one we use on a daily basis.
Rating: - Strumming away after only two weeks
I was an absolute beginner when I got the guitar and the book. After only two weeks of vigorous practising I am strumming away nicely. Very easy to follow book and great to play along with the CD. All you have to do is practise, practise, practise.... (and it is true about the calluses on your fingertips). All I now need is a good beginners chord songbook!
Rating:
- Get a lesson!
I bought this for my son who wanted to learn. What a waste pay for a few lessons with a teacher quite cheap for kids. Used for a couple of days then discarded. Anyone who has been playing more than a month will find this a waste of money.
Rating: - Dont be a Dummie buy this book.
This book is brilliant from basic through to very advanced.The book plus the C/D I might had must of taken ages to format,ending in a great product.Even if you only learn to play basic guitar,you have not wasted your money.If it was 3 times the price it would be cheap.There are over 380 pages or good info and the C/D OF course.I suggest anyone interested should take advantage of the excellent price currently at Amazon.co uk.I Per sonly think you could sell it on after use for a return of your purchase price [honestly].By the way Jon Chappell as a hand in this book along with Mark Phillips.I would recommend buying both for £15 You wont be sorry.PS i have also wrote a review on Jon Chappell,s DVD.Hope this helps Sincerely Brian B
Rating: - Brilliant for beginners
This takes you from absolute beginner to the point where you are sounding pretty competent in a nicely structured A -> B -> C fashion. It starts off with basic stuff like the most common open chords and how to play simple melodies using tab then goes on to the more difficult stuff like barre chords and techniques like string bends in a solo. The final part of the book deals with techniques related to specific genres - rock, blues, folk, jazz etc.
I've looked at a few how to play guitar books and this one was definitely the winner. The range of material is really good - from basic to advanced you cover quite a lot of ground technique wise and the music is pretty varied and more interesting than a lot of other books that I've looked at. Everything is explained clearly and you don't have to know anything about reading music or musical theory to be able to use it (though some of this is mentioned in passing to give you some idea of what's going on). At the end of the book I was definitely a much more confident guitarist than I was to begin with so it definitely did what it was supposed to. I particularly liked the sections covering different genres of music - being able to relate the techniques that you've learned to the specific types of music you want to play is a big plus which not all "how to" books actually do incidentally. The CD is very useful and easy to use.
Ok a few gripes with the style - I don't really share the authors sense of humour and for that matter his taste at times (thinking of the greatest guitarists lists etc) but these are pretty minor. Stylistic and taste issues aside this book is great in terms of actual information. If you want to start learning guitar you can't go far wrong with this.
- Accessible and encouraging with a down-to-earth approachWhen my teenage son and I started playing the guitar I bought several 'teach yourself' books, and this is by far the best we found. It takes a refreshing, real-world approach to learning, offering plenty of encouragement (to keep you going through those early weeks of sore fingers) in the form of easy music and songs that you will be able to play from the very start. It also acknowledges that some things will be hard at first, and warns about them in advance. Despite this, it isn't 'dumbed-down', and is packed with far more information than the others we tried. Whether you want to play acoustic or electric; rock, folk, classical or jazz, there's everything here that you need to get started, and a good deal for the more experienced guitarist too. All the music is provided in both standard notation and guitar tabulature (which means that you don't have to learn to read music if you don't want to), and is also included on the accompanying CD. We could have saved the money we spent on other guitar courses - this is the one we use on a daily basis.
Rating:
- Strumming away after only two weeksI was an absolute beginner when I got the guitar and the book. After only two weeks of vigorous practising I am strumming away nicely. Very easy to follow book and great to play along with the CD. All you have to do is practise, practise, practise.... (and it is true about the calluses on your fingertips). All I now need is a good beginners chord songbook!
Rating:
- Get a lesson!I bought this for my son who wanted to learn. What a waste pay for a few lessons with a teacher quite cheap for kids. Used for a couple of days then discarded. Anyone who has been playing more than a month will find this a waste of money.
Rating:
- Dont be a Dummie buy this book.This book is brilliant from basic through to very advanced.The book plus the C/D I might had must of taken ages to format,ending in a great product.Even if you only learn to play basic guitar,you have not wasted your money.If it was 3 times the price it would be cheap.There are over 380 pages or good info and the C/D OF course.I suggest anyone interested should take advantage of the excellent price currently at Amazon.co uk.I Per sonly think you could sell it on after use for a return of your purchase price [honestly].By the way Jon Chappell as a hand in this book along with Mark Phillips.I would recommend buying both for £15 You wont be sorry.PS i have also wrote a review on Jon Chappell,s DVD.Hope this helps Sincerely Brian B
Rating:
- Brilliant for beginnersThis takes you from absolute beginner to the point where you are sounding pretty competent in a nicely structured A -> B -> C fashion. It starts off with basic stuff like the most common open chords and how to play simple melodies using tab then goes on to the more difficult stuff like barre chords and techniques like string bends in a solo. The final part of the book deals with techniques related to specific genres - rock, blues, folk, jazz etc.
I've looked at a few how to play guitar books and this one was definitely the winner. The range of material is really good - from basic to advanced you cover quite a lot of ground technique wise and the music is pretty varied and more interesting than a lot of other books that I've looked at. Everything is explained clearly and you don't have to know anything about reading music or musical theory to be able to use it (though some of this is mentioned in passing to give you some idea of what's going on). At the end of the book I was definitely a much more confident guitarist than I was to begin with so it definitely did what it was supposed to. I particularly liked the sections covering different genres of music - being able to relate the techniques that you've learned to the specific types of music you want to play is a big plus which not all "how to" books actually do incidentally. The CD is very useful and easy to use.
Ok a few gripes with the style - I don't really share the authors sense of humour and for that matter his taste at times (thinking of the greatest guitarists lists etc) but these are pretty minor. Stylistic and taste issues aside this book is great in terms of actual information. If you want to start learning guitar you can't go far wrong with this.