5 comments about How to Play Guitar: Everything You Need to Know to Play the Guitar (How to Play).

1. I bought this book as a Christmas present for my husband. He has been too busy to try it out yet but is very happy about the general content. Only complaint is that the book arrived damaged due to a box cutter.



2. It's my first time to learn guitar, so finding a guide book is very important to me. This book is not expensive, but easy to read and follow.



3. I recently got back into my guitar hobby and this book has been invaluable to me. I agree with the others who appreciated the user-friendliness here. THe book skips the fluff and is concise, which I appreciate. It gives you all you need about finger position, how to pick, how to read notes, etc. Also has some great songs in there. Highly recommended as long as you're not an expert.



4. I just picked up the guitar 2-3 weeks ago. This book has been my guide since before I bought the guitar and now that I am learning to play. At the thought of learning to play the guitar I was at first intimidated but this book does a great job of easing you into the guitar and playing.
   
   I recommend it for similar folks learning to play.



5. I gave this book to my boyfriend, so I can't say much about it. But he was playing tunes the first day he opened the book. I was impressed

5 comments about Guitar For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback)).

1. I bought this for my Dad for Christmas. He's been plunking on a guitar for years.. and played well many years ago. He's been trying to get back into it, and was looking for some written instruction.
   He's never made any comment on it, so don't really know how to review this book.



2. This book is a guitar bible, it tells you everything not only about playing, but about caring and adjusting you guitar as well. I recommend.



3. If I could do it over, I would start with this book. I've been playing now for 7 months, usually for 30 mins to two hours a day and I have taken lessons online, via web experts etc - but I have to say that this book doesn't miss a thing. So many teachers and online experts do miss a thing or two - they just assume you know when you don't (a big peeve for me!) Jon went through learning to play guitar a long time ago and obviously didn't forget a thing to leave out. If you get bored you can skip ahead and start to apply what he just taught you. Finally, the songs you learn are a little corny - but you do learn the important basics of chording, rhythm and timing - which is exactly what you need to do to play your favorite songs!



4. This is for my boyfriend. He wants to learn the guitar and is really enjoying the book. Thank you very much.
   mydoggiepoo



5. I bought 'Guitar for Dummies' for my teen-aged nephew as a gift. When I gave it to him, he was beyond happiness !!! He was just trying to learn to play the guitar.......beginning to learn some chords........and trying to put them together as songs. The book has everything he needs as a beginning musician on a guitar. He is now busily learning the chords each time he has free time. I can't wait to listen to his concerts !!! Thank you for sending the book in great condition and so quickly. You have made my nephew and me VERY happy !!!!

5 comments about The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook.

1. There is never enough time to go through this book... The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook is probably the best addition to anyone's piano bench (though it will likely not be put away there) or guitar book shelf. Obviously, since it is a chord book, not a tablature book, you won't find how to play the intricates like "Blackbird" or "Here Comes the Sun," (I think it warns you of this in the foreword), nor will you find any notes on a staff. I actually prefer the guitar chord boxes even though I've been playing it on piano because it just saves paper and is easier to look at. It is so much fun to go through and play any song that I want to, and play it right. This book is perfect for sing-alongs, parties, &c. I love you Beatles!



2. The title of this book says it all...Complete Chord Songbook. If you love the Beatles and aspire to play their music on the guitar, I would highly recommend this book to you. If you know basic chords, you will be able to play many of the songs as soon as you pick it up. If not, each song has chord diagrams so you can easily figure them out. I can't speak for the professional musician, but if you want to play the Beatles, this is the only book you need to purchase.



3. I have several Beatles guitar books, most of which fall into two categories: 1) They are way beyond my level (I consider myself to be an intermediate level guitarist) or 2) They books don't use the right chords, so the songs sound just a little off. This book works well for strumming along with your favorite Beatle tunes. It contains every Beatle tune that I am familiar with plus many others. My only criticism is that the book is small and it is impossible to keep the book open to any particular page.



4. This book has everything.... every song ever written by The Beatles. I am so excited to get started learning some of my favorite songs on my guitar. Though I'm not necessarily a Beatles Fan, though I have always appreciated their music, I had to have this book after seeing the movie "Across the Universe". It was like I heard the words for the first time and realized also for the first time that The Beatles were way ahead of their time in music and vision. I highly recommend this book.



5. Here it is in one complete book all of The Beatles songs with the correct chords. This is a nice book with easy to read type and probably every song you ever wanted to know by The Beatles. The only minus is there isn't ant tab for the lead parts, but that's easy enough to get anywhere. Recommend for anyone that wants to learn chord structures by The Beatles.

5 comments about Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises - Complete: Piano Technique.

1. This book is great and is in great shape. Perfect for strengthening and training fingers.



2. I used this book in grade school when I took piano lessons and HATED it with a passion. Some decades later, I'm picking up the piano again, and my weak fingers made me think about these exercises. I acquired the book, and have been working through the exercises again, and over just the space of 6 weeks have noticed dramatic improvement. It's taken a while because I don't practice every day, or for the same length of time. Just for giggles I've tried playing the first exercise a couple times at the fast end of the recommended metronome speed (60-108). At first I just couldn't do it. Now I can get through about half of it at top speed, and I can play the first two exercises with quality at 80. I find that by practicing the exercises first without the metronome, then with at the low end, then slowly increasing the speed, that I get a real sense of accomplishment and progress in smaller doses, which is very satisfying and motivating to work on the longer term goals of learning whole pieces of music.



3. I'm just learning play piano, this exercises are very good to develop agility and strength in both hands.



4. This book takes the budding pianist through exercise to strengthen fingers and build up agility and coordination. The exercises can be quite melodic themselves, especially as one builds up speed using increasingly fast settings on a metronome.
   While repetitive and bound to drive your closest nuts, it is the best way to achieve a solid foundation as a piano player.



5. I teach piano, in addition to having played for over twenty years, and this book is essential. For my beginning students ages 8-adult, it's a great way for them to get started sight-reading using the interval-reading method as opposed to the note-reading method. The exercises will build up finger strength and dexterity, and make the note-patterns second nature. The scales and arpeggios are presented in a such a way that even my first-year students can do them with very little difficulty, as long as all the exercises are played in order.
   
   For more advanced students, there's a way to liven up the exercises 1-20 so that even the most advanced students are challenged--play one exercise in one hand, and simultaneously play a different one in the other hand, then when that exercise is complete, switch them. After five minutes of this, you'll be asking yourself, "Who needs caffeine?" because you'll definitely be wide-awake!
   
   This book also enforces good technique because it hurts if your fingers/hands are not used properly. There shouldn't be pain, throbbing or burning--you have relaxed hands and be able to play this all day long. If you can't, you need to see a teacher for a few lessons at a minimum, to fix your technique.
   
   If you have any aspirations of playing piano well, this book is the place to start, and you'll be playing from it all your life . . . so just jump in and buy it!

5 comments about The Piano Handbook: A Complete Guide for Mastering Piano.

1. I am a professional musician who never really got around to formally learning how to play the piano. I was looking for a book that didn't spend a lot of time introducing fundamental musical concepts and "cut to the chase" fairly quickly. This is entirely the case with this book. Although the highly motivated beginner music student could use this book, I think it's best for those who are coming to the instrument with some background knowledge of music as well as good practicing habits (as the book doesn't get into this at all). The range of subjects covered is really wide, and you really get into the "meat" of everything rather quickly. Highly reccommended!



2. This is a bit more advanced than I had anticipated. But as I move into it I find that I am learning very quickly and am impressed by the overall quality of instruction. Sometimes I have a few double takes where I don't fully understand something(I have 0 musical background) but I just pop on the internet for clarification. Using the book combined with various internet sites I'm progressing rapidly.
   
   So if you are a beginner and are not easily intimidated go for this book. But know that it doesn't exactly hold your hand through the exercises.



3. I am a professional pianist who wanted to get out of some bad habits.
   Mr Humphrie's book takes you back to the beginning so you can undo bad habits and weaknesses you did not even know you had.
   The CD is a marvellous drilling tool.
   Set your CD player on repeat and you can drill until you get the the exercise right.
   Yes,he progesses rapidly but if you are determined and dead serious about becoming as good as you can be,this book may be for you.



4. 
   
   This book's ambitions are tremendous within a single volume; perhaps that is the reason why it fails so monstrously. With the aim of giving the player footholds in classical, jazz, bebop, fusion and experimental music along with instruction in music theory, history and development of the modern piano dovetailed with biographies of immortal figureheads of music within the bound of 290 pages, each page is about another twenty laps around the track. What's worse is that in order to maintain its pace, the author must sacrifice valuable practice exercises designed not only to strengthen and improve performance and flexibility, but to give the player some confidence, especially for a beginner.
   
   We are not all music prodigies, nor are we actors in a musical in which everything magically falls into place the second or third time after first becoming acquainted with the move. The book does come with a CD of how the music should sound. However, the paradigm moves as such a quick pace as to make the aspirant not only confused, but cringe at the height of the new summit of work to be called at least fairly performed.
   
   To the beginning student, I would recommend this book only as a supplement beside a far more general piano book to serve as a test for particular skills and challenging music. For the more advanced student, still, I would urge him not to buy this since it mixes very general terms and skills with incongruous and brief music: it would be better to find a book that matched both musical difficulty with learned information.



5. This is a great book to learn from as an adult beginner. As a voice and piano teacher I run across a lot of different teaching materials. This book holds the interest of the piano student.
   
   For Voice Check out:
   Vocalize!

5 comments about Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One.

1. For those who didn't find the CD with the book, I found the songs online at http://www.sonicx.com/Alfred/



2. I have used Alfred's Basic (non-adult) Piano Course for years with my students with great success. When I began to teach an older beginner, I thought I'd try the adult course. I am not as pleased with it. The adult course focuses mostly on chords in the left hand, so one does not learn to read the independent notes as readily in the left hand. The left hand does not get the strength and independence that the right hand does because of this emphasis on chords. Therefor I will be switching back to the regular Alfred Basic (non-Adult) course.



3. Excellent book. Easy to read and follow. I am new to piano and the instruction in the book is very clear. The books actually helps to give me more encourage to continue to learn piano. Definitely recommnend to others. I will finish the book and conitnue to the next level.



4. I have never played piano before and I'm halfway through book 1. I'm taking my time, but its been about 3 weeks. The stuff coming from my fingers sounds like real music and I'm using both hands to play complex music. I never felt overly intimidated though, each new song is a challenge, but never too much of one. The first few songs take minutes, then a couple sessions. I try to practice in tiny chunks (I have a 5 year old son), of about 15 minutes and the length of the songs in this book are great for that. I can't recommend this highly enough.



5. I bought the book AND the CD from Barnes & Noble. I don't know why Amazon doesn't stock them both together. I found the book very good, but the CD has a really cheesy soundtrack which sometimes drowns out the piano examples. The pages are clear and precise, the diagrams easy to see, and the concepts clear. Overall I would say that this is a good book for the beginner and you really should buy it WITH the CD, just try and forget the awful din coming from your speakers; just listen to the piano examples to see what it should sound like.

5 comments about The Chord Wheel: The Ultimate Tool for All Musicians.

1. Buy this. It puts many things about chord theory and music relationships right at yor fingertips. It's worth twice the price. Just stare at it and you will absorb it.



2. This is a concise reference tool for a musician. Once you understand the concept this will save you hours of work !!



3. I bought chord wheel a couple years ago and could not figure the thing out to little explanation and I play piano hoping to help me play by ear better. No luck it sits in the bottom of all my music. I am trying one of the other music books right now.



4. Hi, D. Shultz "siteswap soroban" i think i should believe what you said. Now i know who is the original inventor. Next time when you got ideas just go and meet the book publishers. Couldn't trust on private colleges anymore.
   
   Anyway, if this is your real idea. I really salute your knowledge and i would give the 5 stars because of your work (not Jim Fleser). I'm so sorry to hear that, i know how hard it feels when somebody stolen our ideas. However, i suggest you gather enough of evidence and try to sue the author.



5. Mr. Schulz, you invented nothing. This wheel was originally published at least 60 years ago, and probably invented well before that. In music, we all stand on the shoulders of our forebears.

5 comments about Music Theory for Guitarists: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask.

1. I found this book extremely helpful. For the first time, I learned about a visual pattern on the fretboard that allows me to play a mayor scale on any key. Switching to a blues scale simply ammounts to removing certain steps in the major scale. This is a great work.



2. I should start by stating that I am a beginning guitar student. So please take my review in the appropriate light. The book "Music Theory" is a unique addition to my quickly growing guitar library. It is broken into 13 chapters:
   
   Chapter 1 - a detailed explanation of the fretboard. This was particularly useful for me, because it explained what every note on the fretboard was. Tuning and intonation are also briefly discussed. Everything in the book is also given in TAB as well as sheet music.
   
   Chapter 2 - covers the basics of reading music including the treble clef, musical alphabet (A-G), accidentals (flats, sharps, naturals), rhythm, time signatures, note values, beams, dotted notes, chords (stacks, names, and frames), repeat signs, and tablature.
   
   Chapter 3 - discusses the major/minor scales, key signatures, and the handy circle of fifths.
   
   Chapter 4 - focuses on intervals (distance between two notes).
   
   Chapter 5 - covers the major and minor triads (chords which are a third interval apart).
   
   Chapter 6 - discusses harmonizing the major scale.
   
   Chapter 7 - a study of chord construction - both in theory and on the fretboard, covering major, minor, power, suspended, sixth, six/nine, seventh, extended, altered, slash, and poly chords.
   
   Chapter 8 - discusses harmonizing the minor scale.
   
   Chapter 9 - talks about key centers (something I must admit I haven't quite figured out yet).
   
   Chapter 10 - covers the 12-bar blues progression, the major and minor pentatonic scales, and parallel pentatonic scales.
   
   Chapter 11/12 - discusses modes, modal harmony, other scales, and chord/scale relationships.
   
   Chapter 13 - covers chord substitutions and reharmonization.
   
   My impression of the book is "Wow!" There is a tremendous amount of information in this book. As a beginner, I really benefitted from the first five chapters, but quickly lost my way as I pushed further ahead. But I fully expect that as I gain more experience, I will continue to consult this very valuable resource.
   
   Written by Arthur Bradley, author of "Process of Elimination" - a cool erotic thriller that pits a martial artist against a world-class sniper.
   
   As always, please be kind enough to indicate if reviews are helpful.



3. I am mostly an intuitive guitarist who actually does fairly well as a performer. I was hoping this was the book that would help me along, but it was not what I hoped. It's still pretty technical and fails to link riffs, patterns, and fretboard relationships into music that you can recognize and use. A few bits were OK, but it's back to doing what I do best- listening and playing along, and teaching myself.



4. This book will provide good information for a beginning guitar player. I still have a long way to go in what appears to be a long process.



5. You know how when you go into a guitar shop you see racks full of pamphlets with nothing but chord and scale diagrams? Well thats what this "book" is. Customer reviews on Amazon have helped me find a lot of cool books, but this is one time where I got suckered. This pamphlet is 103 pages long, and has very sparse amount of text between diagrams, which you will only understand if you already have a working knowledge of music theory.

5 comments about A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano.

1. "A Romance on Three Legs" falls into the category of "Who knew?" books. As in, "Who knew that a story about pianos and piano tuning, of all things, could be so engrossing?" But Katie Hafner has done what writers like John McPhee do -- taken what might at first glance seem to be a mundane subject and given it great vibrancy and life. Of course, "A Romance on Three Legs" turns out to be not really about pianos and piano tuning, but about people -- about Glenn Gould and his strange obsessiveness, and about Gould's longtime technician, Verne Edquist, and his dogged efforts to satisfy his boss. Along the way you do learn a lot about pianos and what makes them tick, thanks to Hafner's clear and engaging writing. But it's the stories of Gould, Edquist and others that elevate this book far above the ordinary -- stories that Hafner has told exceedingly well.



2. This book deserves a spot on the bookshelf of any Gould enthusiast. Honestly, I can't imagine it being very interesting for anyone not already familiar with the pianist and his eccentricities, although other reviewers may disagree. As far as the story goes--it's fascinating. Filled with priceless details about Steinway, piano tuning and the characters involved in CD318's adventure. Of course, the precious anecdotes about Gould are always a welcome treat.
   In terms of literary achievement, I'm on the border with this book. It reads as if it was written quickly, and Hafner occasionally drifts into giddy cliches that made me cringe. However, this fault had the benefit of revealing her obvious passion for the topic. Also, I found the second half much more interesting than the first, as it focuses more on the piano and Gould's relationship with it.
   Overall, a very pleasant and interesting story that is a must-read for anyone interested in Glenn Gould.



3. If someone would have told me that I would be up reading this book at 2:00 am learning how someone voices a Steinway Piano, I would have said that they were nuts. But, it was true. Once I entered this Romance on Three Legs, I needed to hear how massaging of the felt, lacquering the soundboard and needling the hammers made each piano a unique sound and of unique personality.
   
   Katie Hafner has taken this true story and created this wonderful voyage through intertwined stories of love and compassion. The feature story is about this eccentric, gifted pianist [Glenn Gould] and his search for his 88 key, life partner. But via Hafner's weaving of extraordinary detail, I found myself feeling close to this unloved, unappreciated, abandoned World War orphan piano [Steinway unit number CD318] and its quest for a caring home. Eventually the two find each other.
   
   Then another compelling love story emerges. This one is about a once great manufacturer and its courtship of customers. Hafner takes us into the foundation and history of a last century institution called Steinway Piano. Like our `Breakfast of Champions' [Wheaties], we learn how Steinway goes to extraordinary measures to become known as the "Instrument of the Immortals".
   
   For a while you feel that both romances are on safe footing. Then disaster strikes both.
   
   Don't think of this book as a story written for students of music. This is a rich and enjoyable voyage about people, companies and their obsessive quest for perfection.



4. This book has inspired me to leave my first-ever Amazon review. Katie Hafner's masterful storytelling captivated me from page one and didn't lose me even once in 232 pages. She weaves the stories of the tortured Gould, his treasured concert grand and his surpassing tuner into a yarn so rich in carefully researched detail that you feel you're alongside Gould for every fateful turn in his "obsessive quest for the perfect piano." The deeply human drama includes artful explanations of the technology of piano-making and tuning in the early chapters --just enough to usher any non-musician into the rarefied orbit in which the piano known as CD 318 becomes an irresistible love object, not only for Gould but also for the reader. The writing is beautiful and economical, making for a quick read that is also intellectually rewarding. Besides all that, it's a fascinating--alternately hilarious, uplifting and heartbreaking-- exposition on the creative soul.



5. Although it is almost 26 years ago that the oracle of Toronto met his untimely end, the market for his recordings and new biographies remains alive and kicking. After having read myself through many of the earlier biographies devoted to history's greatest recording artist, I was not entirely sure that there was a need for yet another book. Yet upon reading "A Romance on Three Legs" I would rate it only second after Bazzana's on my list of best Gould biographies.
   
   As discussed by my fellow reviewers, this short and pleasant read focuses not only on Gould, but also on his tuner Verne Edquist and the Steinway piano. With all the Gould biographies that have accumulated on the shelf over the last 25 years, it should not come as a surprise that only a few new details are presented.
   
   Surprisingly, if you consider the "piano subject", there is unprecedented detail on the 12 year affair between Gould and the married Mrs. Foss. While Gould recording engineer Andrew Kazdin was savagely attacked for mentioning the conductor-composer's wife name in his caustic "Creative Lying", we apparently live in such "Enquirer Days" that even conscientious biographers don't have to feel bad about exposing the dirty laundry of the most private of persons. Sic transit...
   
   But back to the good news.
   Even GG himself would likely have enjoyed the counterpoint in this book. Starting with the first theme of the comet-like rise of the well off golden boy, and then adding a starkly different second voice with Edquist's early years of extreme hardship, in turn followed by the rise (and fall?) of the Steinway factory, the book offers a well paced triple fugue. As with all well written counterpoint the total by far exceeds the sum of the individual parts.
   
   More importantly -and maybe it took a woman's touch to get it right- this is probably the most accurate psychological portrait of Gould. Neither a result of the standard Friedrich hagiography or Kazdin attack approaches, Hafner's Gould is neither saint nor sinner. Driven, neurotic, manipulative, living in barely organized chaos striving for unsurpassed perfection, an improbable mix of equal parts pragmatic rationality and mystical madness. Moreover, Haffner really did a great job to describe the workings of the Gould team (GG, Edquist, Kazdin, Tulk) and shows how an almost guild like group of craftsmen put together some of music history's most memorable recordings.
   
   While GG knew a lot about the recording process and did an awful lot of things supperbly -Gould's recording is still the only one that got the deepest octaves in the Brahms Ballades right- most of them in no way represented the then current state of the art. They're noisy, there's humming and chair noise and, as Hafner discusses, there was a period best illustrated in the Bach Inventions/Symfonia recording when Gould's endless need for tactile control resulted in disastrous side effects.
   
   Gould developed a highly individual approach to piano sound way before CD318 became his instrument of choice. CD318 was crisp, clear and clean and became the ultimate tool to achieve the distinctive Gould sound in his (pre)baroque recordings. Yet to me, Gould the pianist never sounded better than in his first recording of Haydn's 49th piano sonata on an unidentified instrument.
   
   Although some may complain of Gould's lack of traditional pianism -say compared to Pogorelich or Pollini- I consider the absence of the Hollywood Steinway sound highly appropriate for Bach and the likes. Yet, Hafner's choice of putting this instrument on a pedestal and dismissing the modern Steinways strikes me as a little strange. Sure, compared to the disastrously badly sounding Yamaha that Gould used to record his eternal second Goldbergs on, it could be qualified as a miracle, yet when I compare it to the modern Steinways that I have heard the likes of Cherkassky, Gelber, Pogorelich and Pollini on I see little reason for a CD318 Hallelujah Choir.
   
   Yet, to finish on a more appropriate positive note this is a really outstanding biography that every Gould aficionado should read. It is the equivalent of a fair Lucian Freud style portrait of a highly improbable subject. Compared to a previous biography by psychiatrist Ostwald it paints a much better psychological portrait and entirely leaves it to the reader to figure out how Glenn Gould was able to make such a lasting impression on the world of serious music.

5 comments about Hal Leonard Guitar Method, Complete Edition: Books & CD's 1, 2 and 3.

1. A very good primer for the beginning guitar student. Well written and easy to understand.



2. Its red,who doesnt want to own a red book!
   
   but seriously:
   downs:
   has tab
   information saturated compared to qty of music material
   the 4,5,6 strings are basically glossed over yet any student i teach needs this in qty, especially ledger line notes
   slow and fast versions of a track are on 1 track number
   
   ups:
   the backing tracks,they rate!
   amount of information presented
   the binding is spiral!no more fantasy where publishers dont expect the books to be opened
   
   summary
   any teacher of young students will need the easy pop melodies and easy pop rhythms series to complement this (or other stuff).
   this book is a lot less value without the cd's,rather minimal on its own,the written musical material doesn't give much joy.
   why does it have tab? why does the guitar student continue to be treated like a special citizen.get rid of it.
   throwing in some pictorial reminders of left hand techniques and other things like this would make a huge difference, even more so to anyone attempting this book on their own.
   and the chords begin in a strange manner: c & g7,practise the 1 finger version then do the real one.its a big step using those chords as examples, especially when the bass notes of those chords have not been dealt with yet.



3. Never played a guitar in my life, but after 3 days I was reading music and by the end of the first week, playing 3 strings. It's a great book for the beginner, even if you're only 50!



4. This book is reasonably priced and good for beginners in general. The only thing I found to be lacking is the short number of songs which go with each "lesson plan". It seems that by page 25, you are expected to play at an intermediate/pro level. To me, I would have preferred that the author included several more practice songs at each level of progression. Also, with the CD they have songs at a slow pace, and then a fast pace. Well, the slow version is easy to learn to play along with, but then the fast versions seem almost impossible to keep up with. Again, this book is very good and I recommend it. The only way to have made it better would to have been to include more practice songs at each level of progression. Best of luck, and remember this: learning to play the guitar is very difficult and requires time and patience. If you think you will play like Jimi Hendrix in 2 weeks, then think again and just keep playing those stupid video games.



5. I got this book set about 3-4 months ago. I've been trying to play the guitar for over a year now. I don't want to play for lessons yet but I know I'm going to have to soon to make sure I go to the next level. Until then though, these are some pretty good books. I'm about finished with the first CD/book and trying to go onto the next. It starts off slow and gets you up to speed quickly. The first book is entirely in normal music notation, and it teaches you how to read it and slowly adds an additional string until you're playing all 6 strings but just the top 4 frets after which is switches to fret/music and chord sheet music. I bought some song books before but they were more for people who knew what they were doing...not for me...at least not yet. I also tried a PC program where you plug your guitar into it and play with the PC and it grades you. That went ok but it just haves you play random riffs over and over and it doesn't teach you the reason why you're playing what you are nor was it any fun since I wasn't really playing any song, even it was a simple song.
   
   This book seems to teach you a little more than that but I'll still end up getting lessons at some point to have someone show me one on one some different styles and how I can progress further. These 3 books/cds should give me a really good head start though. Highly recommended for the $20 it costs.