101 Guitar Tips

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Summary: Author¿s Notes for 101 Guitar Tips: Stuff All the Pros Know
Review: 101 Guitar Tips is the result of my own 30 years playing experience, plus knowledge gathered from the hundreds of celebrity interviews I've conducted through the past 20 years as editor of www.Guitar.com, as an author and editor for music publisher Hal Leonard (for whom I've worked on numerous excellent guitar instructional books covering blues, jazz, rock, country, scales, chords, and more), and as a writer for most of the major U.S. guitar magazines and many of America's largest newspapers.

I've also worked for Fender, D'Addario, Guitar Center, Musician's Friend and smaller music stores, and I ran vintage guitar site Gbase.com for a couple of years. I've guitar teched for Sammy Hagar, and of course I've played in countless bands.

101 Guitar Tips covers a lot of ground, including scales, chords, riffs, music theory, gear setup and maintenance, equipment selection, career advice, things to make your music-making trouble-free and more enjoyable, and much more. There's something for everyone in this book, whether you're a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player. All musical examples are written out in notation AND tablature, and many are illustrated with neck diagrams as well.

I've included many excellent tips and suggestions that I got first-hand from celebrities such as B.B. King, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Pete Anderson (Dwight Yoakam), Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers), Rene Martinez (Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar tech), Tom Dowd (legendary producer), and many, many more.

And the 53-track CD (included at no extra charge) offers you the opportunity to learn and work on many of the riffs and chord progressions described in the book. You can use it as a play-along, jam tool as well.

I've written this book to be an easy, fun read, with just a touch of dry humor (or is it simply a veteran musician's hard-earned sarcasm?) thrown in for good measure. I hope you'll get a good laugh out of some of it, because a sense of humor is definitely a plus for any musician!

101 Guitar Tips makes an excellent learning product, and a great gift. I'm currently (November, 2003) working on my follow up book, "101 Recording Tips," which will help solve problems and create better recordings for anyone with a home studio or heading into a pro studio. Watch for this book to come out through Hal Leonard in 2004.

Other books I've authored or edited for Hal Leonard include "The Picture Chord Encyclopedia" (yes, that's 2,640 pictures of my left hand, playing every chord imaginable), "Incredible Scale Finder," "Blues Solos for Guitar," "Country Solos for Guitar," "Hard Rock Solos for Guitar," and "Jazz Solos for Guitar."

If you've purchased my book 101 Guitar Tips, and want me to clarify anything in the book, feel free to contact me at [e-mail].

Keep on pickin'!

Adam St. James
November 14, 2003
Editor, www.Guitar.com

Rating:
Summary: i want it!
Review: I have yet to purchase this book, but I saw it in Guitar Center a few months ago and I skimmed through it. Very nice. more than just how to play certain riffs, lots of good little nuggets of advice, like the more live experience the better, and I think this was in there, how you should always tuck your chord in the inside of your strap. Very practical and useful information.