The Guitar (Teach Yourself)

Rating:
Summary: Good Illustration,Useful Information Marred by Confusion
Review: What I liked about this book: the detailed instructions on how to place the hands, which are lacking in most of the guitar instruction books I've owned and read. Chord instruction is good, the exercises are meaningful and thankfully simple. The author was nice enough to try to teach the reader how to read the music in the exercises before going on to the real lessons. This is smart and not often seen.

However, I didn't care for the unnatural position of the left hand: keeping my hand in an L-shaped position so it could be parallel to the fretboard left my hand tired and I felt like it was an exercise in carpal tunnel syndrome to match my long fingers to the pictures in the book.

Also, some of the text is confusing. When it talks about the sliding technique, it shows how to slide from the second to the seventh fret and then talks about playing the high notes on the twelfth without telling the reader how to get there! Finally, you have eye-glazing music theory to help with reading skills, which can be problematic if music reading is still in the rudimentary stage.

Still, there is a lot the beginner can get out of this book. My own guitar is a solid-body electric, not a Spanish one as pictured, yet, outside of the difficult left-hand technique, I was able to apply most of the lessons. And the exercises are great for warming up. Maybe the next edition of this book will clear up the confusion.