Chords & Scales for Guitarists

Rating:
Summary: Review - Chords and Scales for Guitarists
Review: I liked this book. I have played guitar for many years but have only recently tried to learn a bit more about the theory in an attempt to improve my playing. So far I have only read this book (haven't actually played the exercises yet with the CD).

The book is not heavy on theory. As the author puts it "I also want to put accross information in as clear, un-cluttered and jargon-free way that I can." I think he pretty much suceeds in that goal.

The book uses TAB rather than standard notation, so if you can't read standard music notation you can still get something out of this book.

It is more than just a book full of scales and is written in an easy to read style. I feel I have picked up a few things (and think I will pick up more once I start playing along with the CD) by reading through this book.

Rating:
Summary: Love his other books, but...
Review: It pains me to write anything negative about David Mead's work as I highly value and wholeheartedly recommend his other books, in particular "The Ten Minute Guitar Workout", "Basic Guitar Workout", and "Rhythm - A Step by Step Guide to Understanding Rhythm for Guitar". These are all great learning tools that would serve guitarists of almost any level well.

But then there's this book. It's not bad, but it's not nearly as concise as his other works. In fact, I read it three times and still felt rather confused. Maybe I'm an idiot, but when it comes to explaining the CAGED system of organizing the fretboard, which is ultimately what this book is about, I learned more in 14 pages of Bill Edward's excellent Fretboard Logic series than in reading this book from cover to cover.

Buy Mead's other books, especially if you're an intermediate or beginner. But if you want to master the fretboard, get Fretboard Logic. There is no other.