Guitar for Dummies (For Dummies)

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.

Dont be a Dummie buy this book. (1/1 people found this helpful)

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

Brilliant for beginners (20/20 people found this helpful)

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.

Brilliant book and value for money! (13/13 people found this helpful)

Amazing book! i bought 'Ernie Balls's' tach yourself guitar for the same price and is nothing compared to this encyclopedia of Guitar! I've only had it a few days, and already i'm amazed by the size (value for money), the simplicity, the amount of stuff it teaches you, and the quality standard of the CD, which features a tuning track, so you can always ensure your guitar is in perfect order. The CD also has about 98 tracks, all incredibly useful, and a mp3 files that works on PC and Mac.

The book includes how to play the guitar, how to buy a good guitar, how to look after your guitar, accessories for your guitar, different styles, and much more!

This is definately worth your money! Buy it NOW!

think your music illiterate?...think again... (15/16 people found this helpful)

Having recently bought a guitar having never played one before and did not want tuition, I was looking for a book that I could use to teach myself. This guitar book had excellent reviews and rightly so, after just three days I was strumming simple tunes. It really is a fantastic book. It sets out all the chords and sheet music simply and don't worry if you can't read music because with this book you don't need to. Everything is laid out so beginners can understand straight away and it also has a good amount of humour to go with it aswell. This book is a must have!

Mark Phillips, Jon Chappell

Reader Reviews:

Get a lesson! (0/16 people found this helpful)

Dont be a Dummie buy this book. (1/1 people found this helpful)

Brilliant for beginners (20/20 people found this helpful)

Brilliant book and value for money! (13/13 people found this helpful)

think your music illiterate?...think again... (15/16 people found this helpful)

Similar Products

Categories