Rating: 
Summary: should be simpler
Review: Well, the book is not bad and definately covers a wide range of topics. The thing is that I don't think that a person who never played a guitar before will end up knowing to play by reading this book. The book tends to touch on some basic notions and then immediately integrate these notions into music theories. So the person who has no prior knowledge is stuck. If you have some background in playing then this book should help you out. If you are just starting off then this book will probably be too much too soon. Better off looking for another simpler (and cheaper) book. If this is guitar for dummies then I must need guitar for light-bulbs.
Rating: 
Summary: This book was not detailed enough
Review: I learned nothing except the chords and differences between each guitar
Rating: 
Summary: If you only buy one beginner's book, buy this one!!!
Review: Basic enough for true beginners and advanced enough for those with some musical background, Guitar for Dummies is informative, humorous and practical. I bought two other beginner's books and I wish I hadn't wasted my money!! Guitar for Dummies is the only one I've used!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best guitar reference book I have used.
Review: Guitar for Dummies definitely was made for dummies. This book was made for people with little to no knowledge of the guitar. Even though it is made for beginners this book has many sections that even a experienced guitar player can learn from. With this book you can learn to buy a guitar, take care of one, learn about famous guitarists, and of course, play one. When I bought this book there was no need to buy any other guitar books. This is simply the best and is really 'The Ultimate Guide to Playing the Guitar.' What the book advertises to teach you, it does. You can learn chords, improvising solos, styles (rock, blues, jazz...), you even have a buyers guide to accessories! The CD that comes along with this is a tremendous bonus. With it you can actually hear what the songs are supposed to sound like. Also with the CD you can train your ear and then learn songs off your own personal CDs! There are some great songs included in this book that it teaches you how to play. You can learn how a guitar is made and how to discern a great guitar from a mediocre guitar. This book can start out kind of cheesy with all the basics but once you learn them you can rock out with all the advanced techniques it teaches you. Excellent book, a must have for beginners and certainly a good read for veterans guitarists.
Rating:
Summary: THE "How To Guitar" book to get if you only get one.
Review: The thing I like about this book is it does not presume anything of the reader. I don't care how good you are, or how long, or how little, you have been playing guitar, you should get this book. You WILL learn something. Starts from dirt simple and goes to special articulation. Unless you are a pro, you will find a chapter in this book that challenges your ability. Golf for Dummies is the best Golf Book ever written. I think Guitar for Dummies is a very close second.
Rating:
Summary: very good overview for beginners
Review: 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. On the other hand, you don't have to be an ABSOLUTE to beginner to get something, quite a lot, actually, out of this book. (Intermediate and advanced players might care to look into something like Ron Rendek's "We Gather Together", for example, instead.)
Rating: 
Summary: I always wanted to study music...
Review: I always wanted to study music, but I was highly encouraged to get my degree in something "sensible" by my family. So I became an avid music supporter. Going to gigs, concerts everything. Well, for my birthday my husband bought me 3 things: an accoustic guitar, Voice Lessons TO GO by Vaccarino (singing lessons on CD), and Guitar for dummies. Needless to say, they were awesome gifts. Everyday I get a little better, and feel that much more in tough with the music I oh so love.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent starting point
Review: I will have to disagree with the negative reviews posted about "Dummies". I started learning guitar with no prior knowledge of anything musical. I could not play any musical instrument, I knew absolutely nothing about the world of music theory, notation, nothing. This book explains concepts very well; the lessons are easy to follow. And, I made it past part 1 chapter 3 just just fine, thanks. You won't get stuck, unless you are illiterate. IF you want to study theory, notation and scales (which I suggest you do after this book) then start here. Dummies will introduce to PLAYING, and that is the central thesis to this book. Not too much too soon, I found too little, I understood the music theory concepts perfectly, and found myself looking to the net for further explanations. Just remember that this book is meant only as an introduction, and a brilliant job it does of it.
Rating:
Summary: Rather good, but requires some patience.
Review: First, the book is cheaper than the cost of a guitar lesson.
Second, the CD enclosed with the book is a wonderful tool to assist self-learner to follow the examples.
Here are a few points I observe:
Chapter 4 teaches strumming the 4/4 signatures, and also how to insert the up-strokes between the down-strokes to accompany different songs, then adding in some syncopation. There is a shortcoming with this book, the strumming playing over all strings, compared to the Idiot's Guide to guitar by Noad. In Noad's, the single-bass notes (in Rumba and Beguine) are the main characteristics to make the syncopation interesting.
Chapter 7 is the BEST one. It teaches the double-stop and playing in position techniques. For years, I only knew how to play the melody on the first four frets and open strings. (At that position I was only comfortably playing with two keys G and D.) I was so impressed to see the pros playing up the neck. I had no idea how they do that. This chapter gave me a VERY clear explanation on how each position is best suited for different key. Not only that, it explains how to transpose to a new key by moving the left hand to new position while fingering as if it was still at the old key. (If it's not clear, please re-read that chapter.)
Chapter 8 teaches about the power chords, which have been taken out the middle notes so they are neither major nor minor chords. When I practiced the songs "I can't stop loving you" of Ray Charles and "Always on my mind" of Willie Nelson, if I paid attention to the bass strings only, I actually used the power chords explained in this chapter.
The problem I have is in the part "bending" of chapter 9. The best I could bend is only 1/2 step. I have no idea how the authors could bend the whole step and mentioned that some 2-step bends are possible (?). Maybe I didn't practice enough to have stronger fingers, or the guitar I use of the classical one with nylon strings. I know the steel is easier to bend; and maybe the electric guitar is much easier to bend, right? I hope so, because the examples the authors included in the CD sound so beautiful.
The next two chapters (10 and 11) are those I'm not ready yet, but they sound very nice in the CD. The next chapter 12 is about folk style and I could follow somehow. The last useful (my favorite) chapter is about classical (13). It gives a short but good enough explanation of two different styles. Also in chapter about Rock, it provides many boxes for playing solo. The main box is the pentatonic minor scale. I recalled from some other music books mentioning that the pentatonic scale is used in many folk and Oriental songs. I tried it and found out it really works. The song I tried was "Sukiyaki."
The rest of the book (6 chapters) is about how to buy and care for the guitar (which I feel no need for now) and top ten lists of guitarists and guitars.
Considering: the enclosed CD, playing in position lesson (plus transposing keys), basic strumming, classical and pentatonic scale, I think the book is worth the price. If you could save some money with the used book, then it's good too. This is a small book (350 pages) which covers a lot of topics, and for beginner. Yes, sometimes the lesson goes too fast. However, this book is for self-tutoring with many examples in the CD. You can work at your own pace, and with help from a friend is excellent. With more details and style (like jazz), the book could hit 500 pages easily, then how much is the book price? How comfortably is it to handle the book? I don't mind to replace the last six chapters by more details and examples, but the number of pages is reasonable enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Good reference for experienced players - not beginners!
Review: First of all let me say that by the time I received this book as a gift I had already been playing piano. Musical is very natural for me - as a child I took place in piano "contests" and concerts and my family (including myself) "outgrew" our piano teacher and we had to find a more experienced teacher.
However as I grew older I came to resent my new teacher and as a result I lost enthusiasm in piano. I disagreed with her teaching methods and still do - for example she never, ever focused on musical theory, scales, keys, octaves, etc., which is VERY important for experienced players, as it's the foundation of music. Instead she just thought it was important to know how to play notes, but nothing else. If you ask me to play a C Major scale, I won't have a clue what you're talking about.
As a result when I became interested in guitar as a teenager I was lost. Had she taught musical theory I would have adapted well, but nstead I practically had to start from scratch. However I did end up adapting rather well to the basics of playing chords and notes, etc. and I remember my guitar teacher being so impressed he expected to see me "on the front of a CD some day." (Well that's enough bragging for me right now I suppose!)
Unfortunately my family moved and I had to give up lessons. So I received GUITAR FOR DUMMIES as a gift and used it as a reference.
But to this day it still baffles me. It's very poorly written and moves too fast. Ironically, considering it's written for "dummies," some of the stuff is presented rather complex - they seem to overkill on the simple stuff, and then they'll sort of add a finishing sentence that totally confuses the reader. Example: After explaining what double-stops are for three pages:
"So, in conclusion double-stops are easy to play - you might also want to use some arpreggios and remember to play in box."
WHAT?!
Later on they explain what appreggios and boxes are but it would help to know this in advance. Sometimes when I'm reading I think I've missed something because they'll reference something that I haven't seen before. I skim through the earlier pages, then turn to the index and realize that what they're referencing isn't explained for another 100 pages! So why drop a reference in the middle?!
Also, similar to my piano teacher, it teaches NOTHING whatsoever about musical theory. If you are truly interested in learning the fundamentals and basics of guitar, you could do worse - but you could also do a lot better. You will not be an expert guitar player after reading this book. You'll be lucky to come away understanding anything at all, to be frank.
First of all the two authors seem too focused on trying to make their readers laugh rather than teaching us how to actually play. They make (poor) jokes throughout the entire book. Example? On playing with calluses: "Like a Supreme Court Justice, you have calluses for LIFE!" Har-har. Very amusing analogy (not really), if totally pointless. And that's really how I feel about this whole book. Maybe instead of becoming a guitar teacher/magazine editor, Jon Chapelle should have pursued his (very obvious) true desire - being a comedian.
Another thing they fail at doing is telling the reader how long to practice before moving on. For example they teach all the basic chords - A, C, D, G, Am, Em, etc. - but never really tell the reader how long to practice before trying to learn Am7, etc. They just move really fast without slowing down and really explaining anything. WHY is it called an Am7? Well according to them because it sounds more "funky and bluesy" than regular chords. Okay, but why is it actually NAMED an Am7? I understand that it's a "moody" chord - but what does the addition of the "7" actually mean? What's the reason behind this?
Also their constant brown-nosing of guitar/musical tradition really grates after a while. Example: They rename chords/methods because they think the original names are silly or too confusing to remember. This is OK for a beginner as a helpful tool to remember things - but not to totally change stuff just to suit their liking. And their constant digs are grating too - they mention that some people buy entire books containing finger practices, but make snide remarks about these books claiming they're no good and you can just as easily make your own finger exercises. They proceed to include some in their book, which seems sort of hypocritical.
But I'm digressing. My biggest beef is really that I would have appreciated some more musical theory. In addition they focus on playing tabs rather than being able to successfully read notes, which is an important talent for experienced guitarists.
Overall I picked up this book after having had experience with piano and guitar and it still confuses me and I find much of it difficult to follow. And no, I don't consider myself a "dummy" and I'm sure many of the other people who have given it similarly negative reviews on Amazon aren't, either. Some of the Dummy books are really good - this is not.
This is a good reference point for players with some experience - it has a chord chart and some good stuff you might not learn other places about some of the more basic stuff such as slides, bends, etc.
But for beginners?
I recommend taking lessons, or even searching for free online guitar tutorials. You're likely to gain much more experience - minus the total frustration of this book.
I do not recommend "Guitar for Dummies" to beginners and only moderately recommend it to the more advanced players out there.
|
