Guitar For Dummies: Amazon.ca: Mark Phillips, Jon Chappell: Books

Product Description

From Library Journal

The "For Dummies" series has moved far from its humble beginnings as an auto repair manual in the late 1970s. This latest hefty offering suffers from trying to be too many things to too many readers. Certainly, the introductory chapters are clear and concise, with enough information to get the beginner started. But it's not clear whether the book is geared toward electric or acoustic guitar?the photo illustrations show chords played on an electric guitar while the reader is learning campfire songs. Acoustic guitars don't make an appearance until Chapter 12. Four additional chapters are devoted to guitar selection, maintenance, and accessories, items beyond the immediate interest of most beginning players. Libraries are already likely to have any number of beginning guitar books, and these need not be displaced. (CD not available for review.)?Eric C. Shoaf, Brown Univ. Lib., Providence
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“…offers everything the beginner to intermediate guitarist needs in an irreverent and accessible format…” (Harborough Mail, 17^th November 2005) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
All guitars - whether painted purple with airbrushed skulls and lightning bolts or finished in a natural-wood pattern with a fine French lacquer - share certain physical characteristics that make them behave as guitars and not violins or tubas. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

51 Reviews

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (51 customer reviews)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for the visual learner, May 24 2003

By

Timothy Lee Young (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Guitar For Dummies (Paperback)

Well this must be a decent book, with all the praise it receives; however it didn't do much for me when I began playing guitar. I only had this to learn from, and I gave up guitar in frustration.

I just got the ambition to try guitar again, but this time I bought eMedia Guitar Method computer software, and I've gotten farther in two days with that than I did the two weeks with Guitar for Dummies book.

It seems they do have a Guitar for Dummies DVD out with instruction, that probably would be something you'd want to get in conjunction with this book to help you learn better.

I believe that this book cannot stand on it's own as a good learning tool for the beginner.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars By far, the best guitar overview., Mar 24 2003

By

BooksRuleAZ - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guitar For Dummies (Paperback)

This is a great guitar overview but I'm puzzled that so many beginners rate this so highly. I started with Ernie Ball method books and can't imagine using this particular book as a single substitute. For example, unless you're a natural, you're not going to go from playing in open position to playing in other positions in one paragraph. I think the best package for beginners would be this book AND a progressive method AND some lessons.

If you are an intermediate player, you can enjoy reviewing things in this text that you've already learned as well as getting quick concise information about particulars, be it string bends, double double stops, power chords, or whatever.

This book is a great buy as it saves you from acquiring a whole shelf of guitar books to find out all there is to explore. Once you find a particular topic of interest, seek out a more specialized book.

The CD is unbeatable as you can immediately associate what you hear in different types of music with the musical notation.

If you're a Rock bigot, note that there is a Rock Guitar version. However, this one is my favorite. If you're going to be a rolling stone, you gotta be well rounded, right?

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, it works..., Jan 15 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Guitar For Dummies (Paperback)

...if you're willing to put in the months or years of hard work required to learn any instrument. No teacher or book will make learning the guitar a snap, but they can certainly help, as this book sure does. I started with Guitar for Dummies and primarily relied on it alone for quite some time. It really does serve as a useful, fun foundation for various styles. It's a good reference for basic guitar repairs and maintenance too.

Through a lot of study and practice, and later with the help of other books (but not a teacher), I've progressed in about a year and a half to where I can play the rhythm parts and some lead lines of more than a few rock songs (AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Foo Fighters, Metallica, Weezer, Iced Earth, Megadeth, The Cure, etc.), do some basic blues improv, play passable fingerstyle acoustic, write some of my own tunes and riffs, transcribe tunes by ear, etc. In other words, if you're a total guitar newbie, have hope: you can learn on your own with lots of hard work, a good ear, and good books such as this one. When you first learn how to play along with one of your favorite songs, all the sweat and tears will seem worth it.

My only complaint about Guitar for Dummies is that it neglects jazz guitar, but that's understandable since jazz quickly gets extremely complicated on a theoretical level--not exactly beginner's material. Most beginners want to learn power chords, not the intricacies of improvised reharmonization. Jazz is America's greatest contribution to the music world, though, so it would have been nice to see at least a brief chapter.

(If you mainly want to play rock, make sure to check out Rock Guitar for Dummies after you've progressed a bit with this book. Also, almost any guitarist, regardless of stylistic preference or experience level, can benefit from Troy Stetina's classic Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar.)

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for beginners
When I decided to finally pick up the guitar I did 2 things, first I bought myself a guitar and second I purchased the Guitar for Dummies book. Read more

Published on Dec 21 2008 by Pasquale Vari

5.0 out of 5 stars very good overview for beginners
This is a very good overview for beginners. The word "overview" should be emphasized: I wouldn't recommend that anyone make it his ONLY book for very long. Read more

Published on Jun 18 2004 by christie hamilton