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What our customer's say!

"good", Perspnally not the book I wanted to start out with. But is very good either way.

"Review", Package arrived as stated in New condition, cd brand new / I find I am pleased with item. Like I always say, the ladies are gonna be lining up to talk to PeNName cuz I look gorgeous reading my Guitar for Dummies.It is very informative!!!

"There's something to be said for brand loyalty", I'm going to start right off by saying that no guitar book is going to teach everything in a way that everyone can benefit from. I used it to start myself off, and after laying down the guitar for several years I'm using it again to refresh my memory. It's good for me because I have ADHD and could never grasp sight reading; it's oriented to tablature and ear players, which makes it perfect for people like me. Although it touches on the basics of classical guitar, it is definitely NOT for someone already proficient in music theory. But that's why there's so many other guitar books on the market; the Hal Leonard Guitar Method, for example, provides for that market. There is nothing wrong with any of this.

That said, the necessities are all here. Not only is there information on both rhythm and lead guitar, but there is quite a lot of information on maintenance, guitar internals, trivia, and history. There's enough information on different styles of play to get you started on them and help you figure out where to go from there. That said, it's a perfectly reasonable choice for your first book on the subject, but don't be surprised if it's not the last, especially if it doesn't work for you. Such is the world of music education, and you still can't give up practice time.

"Guitar for Dummies", I bought 'Guitar for Dummies' for my teen-aged nephew as a gift. When I gave it to him, he was beyond happiness !!! He was just trying to learn to play the guitar.......beginning to learn some chords........and trying to put them together as songs. The book has everything he needs as a beginning musician on a guitar. He is now busily learning the chords each time he has free time. I can't wait to listen to his concerts !!! Thank you for sending the book in great condition and so quickly. You have made my nephew and me VERY happy !!!!

"Guitar for Dummies", This is for my boyfriend. He wants to learn the guitar and is really enjoying the book. Thank you very much.
mydoggiepoo

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Freakin Awesome!", I love teaching myself things, and this is my first "for dummies" book... I like it more than candy... It tells you tips, and tricks, and answers practically all your questions. Oh, and it lets you jump right into playing songs if you want (instead of learning all the chords and scales and how to read music first). Yeah, it's better than the free candy from the dude who drives around the park in a black van.

"Fun Guitar Learning Book", I really liked this book and been teaching myself electric guitar for a couple of months. I got this book because I want to start playing songs (even if they were simple campfire songs). The DVD I bought to help me learn had me practicing chords forever and I was getting a little bored. But this book gave me an extra burst of motivation to keep practicing. It does teach you the skills to get going right away on a guitar and I liked the "dummie" approach of explaining even the simplest things (like what are those nobs on the front of my guitar for?). Nothing is a substitute for guitar lessions from an actual instructor, but for for a poor person like me, this book is a good substitute. The only con I had was the pace of the practice songs on the CD were kind of fast for a beginner. I had been practicing for a few months and I had trouble keeping up with Kumbaya, one of the songs. Overall, I recommned the book.

"well-rounded for guitar newbies, but weak on theory", I have the First Edition of Guitar For Dummies, so my comments apply to that one. Guitar For Dummies really is geared to beginners; it's friendly, sometimes funny, and it more or less leads you through by hand in a tutorial style. I especially appreciated the tips it gives about physically playing open chords and especially barre chords - newbies often find these difficult and need all the help they can get.

In my opinion, the main weakness is that it is poor at explaining music theory. It's intentionally written to get you playing right away by avoiding the un-necessary theoretical stuff as much as possible, but it leaves out much of the important basics. For example, while it does show you how to find and play the most commonly used scales on the fingerboard, it barely explains what a scale or interval really is in terms of theory. Another weakness (ironic considering the above) is that it often takes an entire page to explain a concept that can be taught equally well in two paragraphs. It teaches in such an over-worded, over-embellised way that it can make things more difficult to understand than they have to be.

Back to the good. I was happy to discover that some of the licks you are taught are later incorporated into practise songs at the end of the chapter. Some of the practise songs are simple folk songs that we've all known since childhood, others are just plain good, even though they're mostly short. I actually like songs to be short so you learn them quickly and don't get 'burned out' trying to learn them. Guitar For Dummies does a good job of introducing the basics of the important genres of western guitar music, it touches upon a little bit of everything.

Most parts of the book can be learned with acoustic or electric guitar, but the section on classical guitar really should be done with a classical guitar. It's a pretty thick book so if you're a complete beginner, be prepared to take several months at the very least, and probably a lot longer, to go through it without rushing.

"Playing for 25 Years And I've Learned Good Things From This Book", I've been playing acoustic and electric guitar - in bands and solo - for 25 years, and while I'm not that technically accomplished, I can hold my own jamming with others in rock and blues contexts.

I bought 'Guitar For Dummies' recently and have been pleasantly surpised by how informative and helpful it is, and I don't understand the comments of some reviewers who fault the book (particularly the fellow who has been trying to play for 50 years and finds this book unhelpful). The book covers rock & roll rhthym and lead playing, blues, folk, jazz, classical, and other styles - all in an introductory, but very useful way, in my opinion.

There are gems of advice in here, such as the fact that you can play arpeggios faster by using alternate picking (try playing the riff at the end of the chorus in The Beatles' 'Help!' without using alternate picking and you'll see why this piece of advice is so useful).

It is true that there are things that could have been done better, such as advice and photos about how to hold the guitar (I've been trying to re-train myself to get my thumb down the neck more, rather than have it creeping over the top, except for jazz and specialized folk and rock playing).

There are other things which could have been explained better, but a half intelligent search of the net could clear up any ambiguities, and this criticism is a minor one in the context of the richness of experience and advice in this book.

The mp3 examples on the accompanying CD make real the tab and music examples contained in the book for anyone not being able to imagine them (me, before I learned the rudiments of music, as tab doesn't have any indication of the length of notes).

The best I can say is that I wish that I'd had this book when I started out playing many years ago: it would have encouraged me in ways that other books have not (by using simple tab and music notation - the latter is a complement to the former, not an essential to reading the examples) to illustrate various genres of playing.

The rock & roll examples contain everything one needs to know to play Chuck Berry (but you need to practice, because phrasing is all in that style of playing), and the examples from other genres give one a good flavour of how to go about learning more.

In short, I have found this book to be the most useful book and CD video that I have ever seen (taking into account that I already knew a lot of the stuff contained therein - but I also picked up a lot of other good advice).

If you're interested in getting started with guitar in a way that will have you up and playing songs in no time, other than nursery rhymes, and that will give you a flavour of how various styles of Western music are played, I highly recommend this book.

Good luck.


"Truly, a book for the rest of us (dummies)", I always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. To me (and many others I'm sure)the guitar is the world's 'coolist' instrument. But it always seemed impossible, that is until I found this book.
I purchased it in October 2006 and today, April '07, I am playing in a small band and living my dream! The teaching methods are easy to follow and at times funny which makes learning fun and easy. The many illustrative diagrams also aids in the learning process.

Buy this book folks and who knows, you'll probably be living your dreams like I am.