Complete Learn to Play Guitar Manual: Complete Learn to Play Instructions Paperback – January 1, 2009

I took lessons many years ago with an instructor using the Berklee Method Book 1. Since then I have decided to start over at home and work my way through a number of manuals. This book is a great place to start!! The instruction is well paced, thorough, and the accompanying CDs are well produced. This book gives a solid foundation on technique, notation reading, tabulature, scales, transposition, chord construction and progressions, theory, fingerpicking, etc. The one thing missing for me was modal theory and improvising but I expect to see that in the book on playing Lead guitar. I really look forward to continuing on with the author's books on LEAD and BLUES.If you are considering starting with Mel Bay or Hal Leonard as first time books, put this manual right up there with them!After I get grounded again with this book and a few of the other Complete Learn to Play Books, I intend to work my way through the Berklee Books (1-3) again...they are well recommended as well!

I teach guitar and have used this book for four years with students as young as 10, as well as with adults. It is particularly useful for helping a student read standard notation, tablature, using a pick, basic finger picking and more.

Gives the Best music approach with chord and fingerstyle lessons. Has accompanying cd to play along . Is not a quick fix but worth the time spent. Goes from beginner to advanced material, so sky is the limit.Know your learning style and research it out first. Its not for everyone. It fits my style.You wont be disappointed.

Buon prodotto ed utile ai fini didattici per la chitarra. Il venditore ha subito compreso un inconveniente occorso, ed si è attivato per rimediare prontamente. Consigliato.

Already the owner of the Piano Manual which I found exceptionally useful I invested in this book to bring my rusty guitar skills up to standard and provide me with a reference for all the chords I'd forgotten over the years! This is a great book, and whilst you can choose to ignore the traditional music notation and follow the accompanying tablature, this book does provide a wealth of knowledge on music theory, scales, chord composition and the like. Now whilst you may want to launch into learning how to shred along with the greatest, there will inevitably come a time when you do appreciate the detail that this book offers, even if you are happy to skip through it on the first pass. It covers various styles including rhythm (lots of various strum patterns), finger picking, lead guitar techniques including hammer-on and pull-off as well as sliding and string bending. If you can learn everything this book has to offer then you really won't have any problems learning the more complicated stuff later on. One weird thing that jumped out at me was the fingering the book teaches for a standard 'A' chord...but quickly it made sense when rapidly changing to other chords. So you can teach an old dog new tricks! A great book whether a beginner or a progressive improver - it definately gets my vote.

I've been teaching guitar for some time and been through many guitar manual;I'd have to say this is the best, for anyone looking to start off playing guitar in general. It covers almost everything the beginner to intermediate guitarist needs, in manageable stages, taking the pupil through basic chords and simple tab reading,to fairly advanced finger picking and lead blues guitar. It also has good sections on chord and scale theory. An additional bonus is that the print is pretty large which makes reading the music much easier. This one book covers all the basic skills that are then covered in more details in the other "specific" books. My only slight criticism is that once you get past Lesson 9, the lessons can jump about a bit in style and content, but maybe this is to keep the pupils interest.Overall, covers most techniques that the acoustic or electric player needs to get going and takes them to a reasonably high level, if you practice!!!

This is a great music book, it is clear and easy to read, my guitar playing has improved as a result.