Guitar For Dummies by Mark Phillips (PDF)

Description

Have you always wanted to play guitar? Who wouldn’t? Think of Jimi Hendrix wailing away on his Stratocaster. . . Chuck Berry duck-walking across the stage to “Johnny B. Goode”. . .B.B. King making his “Lucille” cry the blues. No doubt about it—guitars are cool. Guitar For Dummies 2nd Edition tells you everything a beginning or intermediate guitarist needs to know: from buying a guitar to tuning it, playing it, and caring for it, this book has it all—and you don’t even need to know how to read music. Full of photo-illustrated exercises and songs you can play to practice the techniques discussed in each section, this step-by-step guide will take you through the basics and beyond before you can say “Eric Clapton.” You’ll learn how to:Match yourself with the guitar and equipment that fits your needs and budgetSelect the right accessories: amps, picks, pedals, capos, cases, and other goodiesPick and strum to produce a clean, clear, buzz-free toneKnow whether you’re really in tunePlay melodies without reading musicPerform basic guitar maintenance and repairsBuild strength and dexterity while playingPlay in different styles, including rock, blues, folk, jazz, and classicalMake your guitar talk with bends and slides!Fully revised and updated, with an all new interactive CD that allows readers to listen, learn, tune, and play along, Guitar For Dummies 2nd Edition is the perfect introductory guide for any novice acoustic or electric guitar player. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “…offers everything the beginner to intermediate guitarist needs in an irreverent and accessible format…” (Harborough Mail, 17th November 2005) From the Back Cover Features an all-new, interactive audio CD with MP3 files The latest tips and techniques for playing beautiful tunes — without reading music!Gearing up to play the guitar? Whether you’re a new or seasoned guitarist, this updated guide makes it easy with step-by-step instruction on everything from simple chord progressions to smokin’ blues licks. You get expanded coverage of musical styles ranging from rock and jazz to folk and classical.Discover how toSelect the right guitar and accessoriesDevelop correct hand position and postureStrum basic chords and simple melodiesTune, change strings, and make simple repairsExpand your range with advanced techniques About the Author Mark Phillips is a guitarist, arranger, and editor with more than 30 years in the music publishing field. He earned his bachelor’s degree in music theory from Case Western Reserve University, where he received the Carolyn Neff Award for scholastic excellence, and his master’s degree in music theory from Northwestern University, where he was elected to Pi Kappa Lambda, the most prestigious U.S. honor society for college and university music students. While working toward a doctorate in music theory at Northwestern, Phillips taught classes in theory, ear-training, sight-singing, counterpoint, and guitar. During the 1970s and early ’80s, Phillips was Director of Popular Music at Warner Bros. Publications, where he edited and arranged the songbooks of such artists as Neil Young, James Taylor, the Eagles, and Led Zeppelin. Since the mid-’80s he has served as Director of Music and Director of Publications at Cherry Lane Music, where he has edited or arranged the songbooks of such artists as John Denver, Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses, and Metallica, and has served as Music Editor of the magazines Guitar and Guitar One. Phillips is the author of several books on musical subjects, including Metallica Riff by Riff, Sight-Sing Any Melody Instantly, and Sight-Read Any Rhythm Instantly. In his non-musical life, Phillips is the author/publisher of a series of “fun” high school English textbooks, including The Wizard of Oz Vocabulary Builder, The Pinocchio Intermediate Vocabulary Builder, and Tarzan and Jane’s Guide to Grammar. For the reference value of his numerous publications, Phillips is profiled in Who’s Who in America.Jon Chappell is a multistyle guitarist, transcriber, and arranger. He attended Carnegie-Mellon University, where he studied with Carlos Barbosa-Lima, and he then went on to earn his master’s degree in composition from DePaul University, where he also taught theory and ear training. He was formerly Editor-in-Chief of Guitar magazine, Technical Editor of Guitar Shop Magazine, and Musicologist for Guitarra, a classical magazine. He has played and recorded with Pat Benatar, Judy Collins, Graham Nash, and Gunther Schuller, and he has contributed numerous musical pieces to film and TV. Some of these include Northern Exposure, Walker, Texas Ranger, Guiding Light, and the feature film Bleeding Hearts directed by actor-dancer Gregory Hines. In 1990, he became Associate Music Director of Cherry Lane Music where he has transcribed, edited, and arranged the music of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Mike Stern, and Eddie Van Halen, among others. He has more than a dozen method books to his name, and is the author of Rock Guitar For Dummies and the textbook The Recording Guitarist — A Guide for Home and Studio, published by Hal Leonard. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐If I could do it over, I would start with this book. I’ve been playing now for 7 months, usually for 30 mins to two hours a day and I have taken lessons online, via web experts etc – but I have to say that this book doesn’t miss a thing. So many teachers and online experts do miss a thing or two – they just assume you know when you don’t (a big peeve for me!) Jon went through learning to play guitar a long time ago and obviously didn’t forget a thing to leave out. If you get bored you can skip ahead and start to apply what he just taught you. Finally, the songs you learn are a little corny – but you do learn the important basics of chording, rhythm and timing – which is exactly what you need to do to play your favorite songs!Update 06/30/09 I will now hit 2 years on the guitar on August 5th 2009 and I am re-reading this book again and re-discovering that everything you need to know is in this book. If you just slow down an make a concerted effort to understand what is written you might catch it the first time, but probably not because there is so much to learn. This is really a great beginners “reference book” as you are still going to have to seek out full songs and tabs you want to learn elsewhere. I have also been taking lessons for about a year and a major breakthrough for me was learning the pentatonic major and minor scales. I went back through the book and – doh! – there they were in plain sight, I had just missed the importance of them on my first read. On another example, I missed the 12-bar blues progressions explained as the roman numeral system (I, IV, V progression). After my teacher got me using them with backing tracks, I looked back in this book and – you guessed it – they are there in plain sight. I guess my point is that is ONE book that you can use over and over – and should – because there is a lot to learn and you won’t absorb it immediately. Learning guitar is a journey and you can never really learn guitar from one source. But you can get started with a good tool. This is a great at home tool that should help me for the next few years at least.Update 04/30/15. I’ve now been playing guitar 7 years and 8 months. As a grown adult, no hobby has quite smitten me as much as playing guitar. I play almost every day and for the last two or so years – I have played in a 70’s, 80’s and 90’s cover band. 6 months ago I became the bands only guitar (and “lead”) player for the same band. Two weeks ago we played at a bar for 100 people. I am dumbfounded and grateful to have these experiences. Looking back now, it all started with an affordable guitar and a decision to buy this book. You have to start sometime. Start with this.

⭐Good book but the CD track numbering is mixed up. It says on the CD sleeve played on a computer the tracks are in order but played on an audio CD player the tracks are in reverse order except track 1. You can download an updated play list.The Dummies books are typically fairly good and this one is a good single source book for learning guitar. It lacks a DVD which can be very helpful for beginners but there are plenty of guitar instruction videos available on the Internet, YouTube, etc., more than when this book was published in 2006. What this book lacks is music theory information. Music theory can be helpful for any musician to know where key signatures are determined, cycle of fifths, how chords are built, etc. Not much of that in the book but they probably want you to buy the Music Theory for Dummies book.

⭐I decided that I’d get an electric guitar for my midlife crisis and picked up this book as a starting point. After about three months, I find that I’ve actually used it very little.The good1) A decent enough introduction to chords, strumming rhythms and a few scales.2) The section on hardware and setup is fairly good, covering the basics for those who want to learn to setup a guitar by themselves.3) The sections on different styles cover a wide variety of music4) They do try to be funny. I’m not sure they succeed, but the attempt to liven up the material is welcomeThe bad1) The CD is godawful. Listen to one of the first songs they teach you to play- “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” Virtually everyone knows this spiritual- very, very slow and soulful. Now listen to the CD version- much too fast with a cheesy synth part on top drowning out most of the guitar. My wife couldn’t even identify the tune when I had her listen to it.2) Doesn’t really have a good way to integrate everything. They’ll show you the chords, but don’t really have exercises designed to speed up chord changes, or hand strength exercises and the like3) Beginner or not, I’m a bit unsure of some of the hand positions they show in photos. They don’t show thumb position on the back and the hand in the photos looks far too collapsed for many chords- compare the correct and lazy techniques shown at […]%20hand%20shots.htm. This book is much closer to the lazy end.The biggest reason I haven’t bothered much with this book- there is far, far better available for free on the internet. There are multiple sites out there to teach beginners guitar technique, theory and songs, many with detailed videos or MP3s that break down the difficult bits into pieces. Consider going to the websites and then picking up some of the products they’ve developed, such as

⭐or

⭐This is a pretty good guitar book for learning. It goes into a bit more detail about the guitar and parts as well. It’s not a bad resource for learning

⭐This book does well in explaining some of the basic concepts in guitar playing. The guitar is one of the best instruments and I have been playing for seven months now and this book has definitely given me a good foundation for learning. I must admit though that guitar playing could be easier if you have an experienced player teach you some tricks to help you understand some of the more difficult concepts such as the hammer ons, slides, pulls, and power chords. If you feel comfortable with learning guitar on your own this is a good book to start with. I also recommend getting Hal Leonard’s Ultimate guitar book. It contains a lot of fun songs all tabbed with strumming and fingerpicking patterns for each song. Good luck with your playing and don’t forget to have fun.

⭐Still cant plat the guitar. You will need lessons or maybe it is just me.

⭐I would give it 4.5 rather than 5 if I could – knocking off half a point for the cheesy songs all music books seem to start you on. Other than that, I think the book is very good. The photographs of fingers making the chords are very useful, particularly showing the thumb position. The progression through the book is logical, there are several styles of music covered and the songs improve from the “Kumbaya” type as the book progresses.The CD is very useful and I like the fact that it explains your fingers will hurt to begin with and you will need to develop callouses with practising.It doesn’t get bogged down with musical theory, but usefully always shows the musical notation and tabs so you can use either or a bit of both.One addition which would be useful would be some sort of suggested practice regime, particularly in the early stages of the book. Some of the later stages, do have some “finger exercises”, but the early chord sections don’t – just moving onto the songs at the end of each chapter.Overall, a very good buy for a new guitar player.Keith.

⭐I have seen a few books that are supposed to teach you how to play guitar, but they leave huge gaps in their instruction.Guitar for Dummies is the exception and really goes into detail and the author doesn’t assume that you already have basic knowledge of the guitar and how the fretboard is laid out. The title of the book (Guitar for Dummies) may be somewhat insulting to the vast majority of learners, but inside the book, you will find a structured course for learning the guitar. It is the best book for learning guitar, if you’ve never played guitar before. I would recommend this book to anyone trying to learn how to play guitar – shame about the title, though.

⭐A perfect book for absolute beginners like me. It goes through everything and explains it in a way that anyone can understand. A lot of beginners’ books neglect to inform you about things like tuning the guitar, buying cases and the guitar itself and other essential information – other books just assume you know what fretting is, how to hold the guitar etc. Even if you already know some of these things, it doesn’t seem patronising and, let’s face it, if you’re an absolute beginner you probably don’t know everything!The silly puns and jokes make you chuckle (however bad they are) and make reading the book an even more enjoyably experience.

⭐Boring. What good is a book like that when you have tons of resources online?Don’t waste your money. Buy an online course instead, you should have fun while learning.I started with this and quickly realise it does not make sense anymore to learn guitar from a book (although with CD).Online is more fun, you can see the video and understand a lot more.I am playing for 3 years now, online learning is the future, for guitar at least

⭐Having strummed the guitar for many years I thought I would find out how to do a better job. The book gives guidance for those who had never picked up a guitar before, through to those like me who would like to know more. You have got to practice but this book sets you in the right direction.The book was in good condition complete with CD and was a very good buy.

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