CHORDS & PROGRESSIONS FOR ROCK GUITAR

Rating:
Summary: This book is superb
Review: I am not an accomplished guitarist (I play at an intermediate level) so I need all the help I can get. This book is great for everyone except, perhaps, the novice guitarist. It sets forth chord progressions and gives examples of well known songs that use the progressions. The book is accompanied by a cd which illustrtates the progressions. One thing the book does not do is show you how to play the chords so you might need to have a basic book on how to play chords handy as a reference.

Every rock guitarist knows how simple some of the best chord progressions are. If you can play a simple I VIminor IV V, you can play literally hundreds of classic oldies from ballads, such as "In the Still of the Night," to upbeat rockers such as "Runaround Sue." Remove the VI minor and you get another, classic three chord progression. But, there are many other great rock progressions, some surprisingly simple, others less so, and this book explains them. Also, the book helps to understand the theory of chord progressions so you can play them in different keys.

Knowing chord progressions is important for rhythm guitar but even some lead guitar relies on chord progressions, i.e, not all lead guitar comprises playing riffs. So this book is essential for lead guitarists as well as rhythm guitarists. An early example of sort of a "rhymth/lead" would be Buddy Holly playing "Peggy Sue" on his stratocaster. He varied the order of the I IV V chords (he played in the key of A so the chords he used were A D E). However, there are many more advanced and complex examples of chord progressions constituting lead guitar.

This book will be very helpful to everyone from someone just barely beyond the most basic skills to fairly advance guitarists. I recommend this book and cd highly.

Rating:
Summary: Advanced book on song's chord constructions..
Review: Very good book covering the many chord constructions and progressions of mostly rock songs. The author assumes you are past the basics of knowing how to play guitar/musical instrument and concentrates instead on chords and progression & playing them, giving a good mental framework for playing and learning/figuring out songs. More descriptions would help since the book seems more like a collection of chord structures and progressions. Make sure you get the CD that comes with the book. More on songwriting/songwriters would be nice. If you're beyond the basics, get this. You won't regret it.