Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 787.87193
EAN: 9780312287061
ISBN: 0312287062
Label: St. Martin's Griffin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: 2001-12-10
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Studio: St. Martin's Griffin

In How to Play Guitar guitar players of all levels will find a wealth of instruction and inspiration. Whether you want to play pop, folk, country, rock, blues, jazz, classical, or any other style of music, you will pick up the basic techniques without tedious drills and exercises. Using real music and a step-by-step approach, How to Play Guitar will teach you about:

· Choosing and buying a guitar

· Tuning your instrument correctly

· Reading sheet music, guitar music, and tablature

· Playing melodies with chords

· Fingerpicking

· Mastering left-hand techniques, including sliding and bending notes

· Transposing melodies from one key to another and much more.

Customer Rating:
Summary: extraordinary
Comment: I never played a string in my life but after buying this book I host a little show in my den once a month.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Perfect for Beginning Lessons
Comment: Since deciding to learn to play guitar, I have purchased THREE different books, and this one is the only book I use. Despite the fact that this is the only book that doesn't have an attached CD, it is the most useful!! The author's 30 years of teaching experience shines through, particularly if you allow yourself to read through the text and then try the lessons (don't skip around). Each page builds on the previous lessons, and you'll be playing simple tunes in no time.

I *HIGHLY* recommend this book above all others.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: It's Okay
Comment: I found this easy to read and understand but I don't like the way the book is set up. You learn a few notes and then move onto chords. I would have preferred to learn all the notes and then move onto chords because that seems much simpler to me. But you can skip through the book to find the other notes.

I also thought there should be more songs to practice with when learning the notes, there were only rwo or three tiny little bits after learning the notes.

All in all it was just adequate for me.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Helpful book
Comment: This book helped me out within five minutes of opening it. I have no time in my life for taking guitar lessons so I had been using the internet as a resource for learning to play as well as another book that I have. I had some basic skills, two scales, and a few chords in my arsenal but had been struggling mightily forming the C major chord. I was getting frustrated and thinking maybe my hands were too small and my fingers too fat to play this basic chord (and more complicated ones as well). One look at the drawing (from the player's perspective- rather than the front of the fretboard- of the left hand fingering of C major and I realized that I was going about it all wrong. My wrist angle was too perpendicular. I copied the drawing, and presto- C major. So I was quickly encouraged again.
There is nothing flashy about this book, but I have been having FUN going through it- which is pretty important when practicing and the whole point of playing the guitar I think. Rather than just show you where the notes are on the fretboard (which it does in the back as a reference) you learn them by playing simple songs like Beethoven's Ode To Joy. Very cool and I'm already impressing my wife even though it is pretty easy. I also like that it teaches you to read sheet music which I can't wait to learn (once I master the skills deemed necessary to get to that point). So buy this cheap book and have fun!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: How to Play a Guitar
Comment: I gave this book to my boyfriend, so I can't say much about it. But he was playing tunes the first day he opened the book. I was impressed

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