Rating: 
Summary: Not bad
Review: Experienced players will have picked up just about all of this tips just by experimentation or keeping your ears open. But this book should be helpful to the aspiring guitarist who is beyond the beginner and into the intermediate stage (meaning you've been around the block once with your chops).
Rating: 
Summary: Short on Substance
Review: I am experienced guitar player. The title of this book promised a list of useful tips for someone who has been playing the guitar for a while. Instead, the book provides a only a free-formed discussion aimed at beginners. Still, I read the book in anticipation of learning something useful "that I should have been told." I was disappointed to find the book to be little other than a pep talk telling the reader to forget about "academic" learning and play from the heart. While it seems like the author spends half the book denigrating the learning of scales, about the only real substance in the entire book is in the several pages devoted to scales. Without these much-maligned scales, where is the player supposed to find the notes for expression?
Rating: 
Summary: Don't miss this book, trust me.
Review: I found this book to be a real jewel. Basically, it teaches you how to effectively play the guitar by "feeling" and ear rather than by memorized tablature licks. (The book makes an emphasis on lead-guitar playing, altough it has a neat rhythm-playing section). The author states that unfortunately, tablature has become a mainstream method for guitar teaching, and while tablature certainly has its own merits, the author views tablature as a musical equivalent of a "paint-by-number" painting; I couldn't agree more with this particular point of view. The book is rock solid and contains just the right amount of music theory to get the point in question through; it also contains numerous quotes by extremely talented guitarists (Satriani, Vai, Edward Van Halen, etc.) that support the author's point of views. Is the method effective? I have a cousin I consider to be a very talented guitar player (he has been learning guitar for two years aprox.). As an example on his playing ability, he learned to play perfectly Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover" from tab in about a week. I have had this book for around three months (I have been self-learning for about 8 months), and last time he saw me play & improvise, he just screamed in awe "how the hell did you learn to do that???". I found out his guitar teacher regarded improvisation as an "extremely difficult" and "only for the gifted" stuff. This book shows it's certainly not.After you digest this book, I highly recommend Troy Stetina's Speed Techniques for Lead Guitar. I believe it's the perfect complement for this book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't miss this book, trust me.
Review: I found this book to be a real jewel. Basically, it teaches you how to effectively play the guitar by "feeling" and ear rather than by memorized tablature licks. (The book makes an emphasis on lead-guitar playing, altough it has a neat rhythm-playing section). The author states that unfortunately, tablature has become a mainstream method for guitar teaching, and while tablature certainly has its own merits, the author views tablature as a musical equivalent of a "paint-by-number" painting; I couldn't agree more with this particular point of view. The book is rock solid and contains just the right amount of music theory to get the point in question through; it also contains numerous quotes by extremely talented guitarists (Satriani, Vai, Edward Van Halen, etc.) that support the author's point of views. Is the method effective? I have a cousin I consider to be a very talented guitar player (he has been learning guitar for two years aprox.). As an example on his playing ability, he learned to play perfectly Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover" from tab in about a week. I have had this book for around three months (I have been self-learning for about 8 months), and last time he saw me play & improvise, he just screamed in awe "how the hell did you learn to do that???". I found out his guitar teacher regarded improvisation as an "extremely difficult" and "only for the gifted" stuff. This book shows it's certainly not. After you digest this book, I highly recommend Troy Stetina's Speed Techniques for Lead Guitar. I believe it's the perfect complement for this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!!! A MUST have ...
Review: I have been playing for longer than I care to admit and have read many many guitar books, but this one is the BEST. He has a great sense of humor, and cuts through the ...[garbage] - like learning scales and gets to the point. Although geared for the beginner, I found it so entertaining I read it cover to cover. Any player at any level would benefit from this book. I just wish I could take lesson from him!
Rating:
Summary: For Beginner to Early Intermediate
Review: I really found little that can be discovered on your own or in most other guitar books. If you have been seriously playing for more than 2 years I'd forget it. Otherwise it might be useful.
Rating:
Summary: Short on Substance
Review: I wish I had this book when I started learning to play guitar in the late 70's, I would have made much faster progress. This book tells you what you need to learn. It also gives you a pretty good indication of how much emphasis should be placed on the various aspects of playing. It also talks about the oft overlooked non-technical aspects that are an essential part of great music. The author really has cut to the chase here -- the book is focused like a laser on giving the reader only the most useful information. Too many other books wander off into esoteric specialist topics without first identifying the core subjects and covering them -- I know, I have some truly awful guitar books from the late 70's. This book contains the distilled knowledge of years of learning, teaching and of interviewing great guitarists. I have already learned much of what David teaches here myself the hard way -- reading countless books and magazines, taking lessons, etc.. I intend to work through this book though (at this stage it should not take to long) to fill in gaps and reinforce what I should already know. The author is very methodical in his approach. He is a regular contributor to (and former editor of) Guitar Techniques magazine, which is probably the best guitar magazine available. I find him to be entertaining, insightful and amazingly candid ... which is refreshing. If you have not yet learnt the pentatonic scale in all position, or do not know all the open position major, minor and 7th cords and the A and F shape barre chords -- you should definitely buy this. Even if you do know that, consider buying this -- it could save you a lot of time/money/energy. If you are already a professional/expert player -- there is probably nothing much new here for you, other than some interesting quotes for top guitarists, and you might find it interesting to see how concisely and originally the author has covered this topic.
Rating:
Summary: Learning to play guitar? This is the ideal first book.
Review: I wish I had this book when I started learning to play guitar in the late 70's, I would have made much faster progress. This book tells you what you need to learn. It also gives you a pretty good indication of how much emphasis should be placed on the various aspects of playing. It also talks about the oft overlooked non-technical aspects that are an essential part of great music. The author really has cut to the chase here -- the book is focused like a laser on giving the reader only the most useful information. Too many other books wander off into esoteric specialist topics without first identifying the core subjects and covering them -- I know, I have some truly awful guitar books from the late 70's. This book contains the distilled knowledge of years of learning, teaching and of interviewing great guitarists. I have already learned much of what David teaches here myself the hard way -- reading countless books and magazines, taking lessons, etc.. I intend to work through this book though (at this stage it should not take to long) to fill in gaps and reinforce what I should already know. The author is very methodical in his approach. He is a regular contributor to (and former editor of) Guitar Techniques magazine, which is probably the best guitar magazine available. I find him to be entertaining, insightful and amazingly candid ... which is refreshing. If you have not yet learnt the pentatonic scale in all position, or do not know all the open position major, minor and 7th cords and the A and F shape barre chords -- you should definitely buy this. Even if you do know that, consider buying this -- it could save you a lot of time/money/energy. If you are already a professional/expert player -- there is probably nothing much new here for you, other than some interesting quotes for top guitarists, and you might find it interesting to see how concisely and originally the author has covered this topic.
Rating:
Summary: Good advice--silly book title
Review: I'm not sure why the publisher called this book "100 Guitar Tips Someone Should Have Told You." What the author has to offer are not tips, but rather very good advice on how to approach learning rock guitar (learn mostly by ear, he says--it's not as hard as you think). His focus is mostly on lead guitar. This book is meant to be read from cover-to-cover--the actual excercises are minimal. Some of the material is weak (do we really need to be told that new strings make for better guitar tone?), but the core advice is brilliant, and the writing is very engaging throughout. I'm a self-taught beginner/intermediate player who fell into the scale trap that Mead warns about--I can play a lot of scales very well and learn material from tab fairly easily, but I've only just begun to figure out how to use what I know to make my own music. If I'd had this book earlier, I would be much further along.
Rating:
Summary: Good advice--silly book title
Review: I'm not sure why the publisher called this book "100 Guitar Tips Someone Should Have Told You." What the author has to offer are not tips, but rather very good advice on how to approach learning rock guitar (learn mostly by ear, he says--it's not as hard as you think). His focus is mostly on lead guitar. This book is meant to be read from cover-to-cover--the actual excercises are minimal. Some of the material is weak (do we really need to be told that new strings make for better guitar tone?), but the core advice is brilliant, and the writing is very engaging throughout. I'm a self-taught beginner/intermediate player who fell into the scale trap that Mead warns about--I can play a lot of scales very well and learn material from tab fairly easily, but I've only just begun to figure out how to use what I know to make my own music. If I'd had this book earlier, I would be much further along.
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