Guitar Scale Guru : The Scale Book - Your Guide for Success!

Rating:
Summary: Repetitive
Review: I bought this book hoping to improve my guitar scale ability and therefore, improve my improvisational skills. The Scale Book, starts off well enough. It guides you into understanding the relationship between the sounds of notes and the fretboard using the "do, re, me," method. As the book continues, it goes into the various positions and scale grids on how to play these various scales. This is where the book falls apart. The author starts to repeat the same scale grids for each key, which is basically unnecessary, since the grid is the same in each position. A great deal of the book is repeated over in this manner, making any real long term usefulness of the book pretty weak. There are zillions of books out on guitar scales that give you better and more practical tutoring on how to play guitar scales. I was pretty let down by this book.

Rating:
Summary: must have !!
Review: If you need to know how to play and use scales you need this book! ... especially if you want to learn fast and understand what you're learning

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Summary: Practical introduction to scales for self-taught guitar
Review: The author does a nice job of presenting scales in an easy to read, visual format. Of particular interest to a busy guitar player who wants to get the essentials quickly.

Rating:
Summary: Great Guitar Scale Book
Review: The best guitar scale book I have ever seen! Guitar Scale Guru has changed my life. Thanks Mr. Aranjo!

Rating:
Summary: Could have been a contender
Review: The Guitar Scale Guru starts out nicely with a simple overview of the relationship between tones and the fingering positions on the fretboard. Aranjo uses the "do, re, me" system in which you use your ear to comfirm that your fingering is correct. The book is broken down into basic fingering boxes for all the different keys and their positions on the fretboard. The book is well laid out, but there is an enourmous amount of duplication in the book. A scale that is taught in the key of "G", is basically a movable scale that can be transposed to the key of "A" by moving up a position. But the book outlines each and every key and spends a great deal of time going over the same fingerings. The most important concept of this book is the idea of movable positions on the fretboard. Once you learn one pattern, you can play in other keys by merely shifting to another position. Other than this basic help, the rest of the book seems unnecessary. If the author had concentrated on the method of movable positions, I believe that the book would have been a much more worthwhile purchase. As it is, it is only mediocre in value and help. Too bad. The book looked promising but failed to deliver.

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Summary: Understand scales in one evening
Review: The magic in this book is understanding scales - not just following TAB charts.

I have struggled with other books on scales and gotten no place.
Fretboard note charts never made sense. After just one hour with this book - I can play scales off fretboard charts. Its taught using a simple Do, Re , Mi method thats easily picked up. The circle of fifths is easily explained. Scales are clearly presented and explained. And standard notation is taught right with TAB!

Rating:
Summary: Have you plateaued?
Review: Then get this book. I've been playing for years and I've bought a lot of books. This is THE best one I've ever bought. It explains things from a guitar players point of view. It makes sense. You know how it is when you get to where you can play alright and you just get lazy. This will re-ignite your desire to learn and practice. I'm about to order the chord version of this book. ( I just thought I'd write a quick review while I'm here. ) I'm serious guys. This one is worth the money.

Rating:
Summary: Great for Learning Scales Quickly.
Review: This book is designed to unlock the secrets of playing guitar scales. If you are looking for a book to learn scales quickly, then you should look at this book.

Any book or magazine has a built in level of appeal.
Mass market Guitar Magazines for example are aimed at new & intermediate level players. In time, you'll notice much information is being repeated in a similar form.
Maybe one column to keep the advanced player interested.
That being said, this book is designed as a learning tool. Sure, a veteran player may say, I know this stuff. That doesn't make the book bad. A new or intermediate player will find this a nice tool.

The author presents the material of 'Guitar Scales', in a clear & concise manner. The scales are well organized. The explanations of theory are also straight to the point. Only information that is directly relevant to scales is presented.

I like that I can go thru the book quickly. That means that I can look up scales in any key fast. Helpful, as I am also learning chords too ! Also, I am able to choose to learn in order or skip around the book.

The point of the book is to teach & unlock the mechanics of guitar scales. It does this in an excellent presentation.

I also like the ; Circle of Fifths, Linking System, & the brief mention of who used certain scales in their playing styles.
Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page etc..

Sure, it only covers 5 of the most needed/popular scales.
It does repeat the scales in all the keys. This is done so a novice can see the relationships of the scales on the fretboard. If you were teaching a player, you'd have to demonstate how the scales move. But that's exactly what the author has offered.

A new player who is needing to learn guitar scales will be satisfied with this book. I have a pile of 'learn guitar' books.
This is one the I use often.

Highly Recommended !

Rating:
Summary: Don't judge a book by it's cover...or it's design.
Review: This has to be the ugliest guitar book in the world but it is my absolute favorite and the most insightful guitar book I have read. In a matter of days my guitar playing abilities quadrupled and I had a greater understanding of the guitar...it made playing a thousand times easier. I wish I would have had this book when I began playing guitar, I would be a guitar rock God by now! If you are a beginner or a self-taught player like myself then this is the book to get. Once you get passed the clip art you will be on your way to being a better guitar player, I PROMISE! Also, check out the Guitar Chord Guru by Karl, it's just as ugly and just as wonderful!

Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: This is a good book for those unfamiliar with scales. In fact, it's the best one for teaching scales I've seen. It only covers the major, minor, and blues scales so if you're familiar with those you'll want to pass on this.

My big gripe - did the editor's even look at this book before publishing? Numerous times scale positions (in the same key on the same page) are repeated. So instead of five different positions for each key, one will be left out and another one shown twice. Just plain sloppy. I found similar errors in the chord guru book.