5 comments about Guitar Chord Encyclopedia (Ultimate Guitarist's Reference).

1. This book has tons of chords with tons of variations for each. However, you should know what you're getting before you buy it. This is NOT a chord progession book. It will not tell you how to use the chords. If you already know what chords you want to play, this book will help you find possible variations.



2. This is the best guitar chord encyclopedia I know of. It is comprehensive and portable, the spiral binding allows for easy hands free reference, and the price is right. Multiple voicings for chords are provided in chord diagram formmat. The introduction to chord theory is an added bonus as is the fingerboard chart on the back cover. Fits perfectly into a guitar case.



3. This book is a good reference for all the basic voicings of every chord. If you want jazz chords (or any other genre of music) this book won't give it. If you don't have a chord reference book, or are unhappy with the one you have, this is the book you want.
   
   The only drawback I found was I thought I was buying the spiral bound edition (for ease of use). This was not the case. I was under this false impression because there is a review on this book that remarked on the ease of use because of the spiral binding. So, if binding matters to you, you may want to confirm the binding before purchasing.
   
   Caveat Emptor -- The spiral bound though smaller in size, has fewer pages (I would expect more pages to compensate for the size). It might not contain all the chords the regular edition does. Be sure to check this out if it matters to you.



4. This book is really helpful. I really like the way it's set up. Nothing but happy customers here.



5. I wanted a comprehensive reference for finding different forms of the "weird" chords, and this book seems to fill the bill. I don't know where they come up with some of the chord forms that are used in song books or online tab, but it's great to have a reference that shows you the alternatives.

5 comments about The Art of Contemporary Travis Picking: How to Play the Alternating Bass Fingerpicking Style (Bk & CD).

1. Many have already described how good the instruction in this book is. And rightfully so. So I will bring up the one negative which made me regret getting this book.
   
   Apart from 2 or 3 songs such as John Barley, Sloop John B, etc., the songs used for demo are mostly lame ballads and fail to generate much excitement about playing them in me. The best tune is probably the opener, written by Mark Hanson himself. Also, most of these are sing-along types in which the vocal does most of the work instead of letting the guitar stay front and center. It would have been much better to feature mostly instrumentals where the lessons learned can be displayed in full glory.



2. With most guitar books I have the problem that they start real easy and then start spinning out of control. Not so with this book. I never had the feeling that I was lost or that there was to big of a level increase from one exercise to the other. What a great book! Other authors should use this book as an example. This book will teach you the basics of Travis Picking step by step. It is suitable for beginners and advanced players that like to learn the basics of Travis Picking.
   
   -D



3. This is an excellent book to start finger picking. The techniques you learn will go a long way in a short time. My only complaint is that the songs that are used are very cheesy. Maybe some Johnny Cash or Beatles would have been much better. However, the techniques learned are very good and makes the purchase of this book well worth it.



4. This book has easy-to-follow instructions and enjoyable songs to play. I am only 1/3 of the way through this book, and thoroughly enjoying it. It has some familiar and not-so-familiar folk standards, leading the player through basic patterns first, then adding variations, melodies, ornaments and finally culminating in a full fingerstyle selection that will challenge almost any player at any level. However Mark Hanson gives you all the tools you need to get there, in step-by-step detail. The book would be great without the CD, but the added audio instruction is also extremely helpful. I recommend this to anyone interested in fingerpicking and fingerstyle guitar.



5. I've enjoyed this text, but the cd does not have stops for each step, so you must keep your control handy..

3 comments about Suzuki Violin School Volume 1 - Revised Edition (Book & CD) (Suzuki Violin School, Violin Part).

1. This is a good product. I just didn't realize it was a revised edition until I received it, but it still works!



2. I bought this to help me learn to play the violin (I am in my 30's). I played the cello as a kid so I was already familiar with stringed instruments and note reading. This a progressive program that builds on itself. The book comes with a CD to help you hear how the songs should be played and that you can play along to.
   
   I'd also recommend the "I Can Read Music" book for Violin.



3. My daughter has been thrilled with the Suzuki violin book and cd. Her playing skills and confidence have improved tremendously.
   Thank you,
   Michelle

5 comments about Continuum: Music by John Mayer (Guitar/Vocal).

1. A great CD, and even better to hear it played by your own hand. Some of the hammers and slides are not transcribed as played on the CD, but overall, it is great.



2. Note for note accuracy printed out in standard notation and tablature. Continuum is a solid project that manages not to sound like it's over-manufactured.



3. Before this book, I'd been struggling with incorrect tabs for John's songs all over the internet. Once I purchased this book I was pleasantly surprised by how accurate and detailed each song is within the book. If you are up for learning John's songs and style, this book is a must



4. This book was great.
   I really love John Mayers music and this will help me play his songs!



5. I am in Japan.
   I am sutisfied with this product and parchase.
   thank you !

5 comments about How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!: The Electric Guitar Owner's Manual (Guitar Player Book).

1. Dan is the granddaddy of electric guitar repair. If you want to understand guitar work, buy this book. If you are happy playing an out of tune guitar, or don't want your guitar to play and sound its best, then don't buy this book.



2. Dan Erlewine's book is fantastic. The detailed factory spec setups and the setups of the pro's alone, is worth the price of admission. Dan shows how to inspect a guitar before you buy (where was this book 20 years ago, Dan??), and how to properly clean, set-up and maintain your guitar.
   
   This is a book specifically for ELECTRIC guitars, the adjustments for various bridges, nuts, tremolo systems,and intonation are thoroughly explained with lots of photos. He also shows how to use or make simple, home-made or hardware store tools.
   
   There is an excellent section on tuning and intonation every guitar player should know! The Buzz Feiten Tuning System is discussed and there are tons of tips and tricks to get your guitar in tune, and to help it stay in tune.
   
   Dan's writing style is very easy to understand. And his use of graphics, both line art illustrations and photo documentation, help the reader get a clear, real-world sense of the subject matter.
   
   This is truly the manual your guitar should have come with.
   I consider this book, along with the Guitar Player Repair Guide, to be essential to any electric guitar owner, and absolutely required for anyone in the guitar repair business.



3. That's the reaction I have almost every time I use this book. I do agree with some of the other reviewers that this may not be the best book for the rote beginner. But if you have a bit of guitar playing and fixing experience, this is THE book that will get your prized guitars playing perfectly. Erlewine has a giant workshop full of tools, but most of us don't need anything more than some basic tools, patience and the confidence to do things like adjust the relief on a strat or tele neck and swap out stock pickups for better ones. His book gives you the confidence to do it.



4. I was about 5- to 7-years-old when I watched Dan Erlewine and his band, The Prime Movers, rehearse in my basement and across the street in my neighbors' living room. Then, in 1969 at age 8, I started playing guitar and haven't stopped. Finally in April 2008, I bought Dan's books, "Guitar Player Repair Guide" and "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great." Wish I'd had this information 30 years ago.
   
   Brilliant.



5. In all due respect to the reviewer about terminology. One only needs to type in the word on a Google search to find the answer. Thus, lower bout is the extended part below the waist of the guitar. The upper bout being the body part closest to the neck or fretboard.

5 comments about Banjo For Dummies (For Dummies (Sports & Hobbies)).

1. EXCELLANT CHOICE FOR A NEW "PICKER". SHOWS HOW TO PICK SCRUGGS STYLE AND CLAWHAMMER. STARTS SLOW AND EASY FOR THE BEGINNER AND MOVES INTO ADVANCED PICKING. REALLY WORTH THE MONEY TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY.



2. I'm a beginner and found this book very helpful. It covers everything you could want to know about banjos, from tips on purchasing one to playing every thing. I am delighted with this purchase and would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn to play this instrument.



3. Alright book. The chord section could have been a little bigger to read. There is no order either. It really bounces around. I recommend just getting information on Youtube or banjo sites. This book is probably going to collect dust.



4. "Banjo for Dummies" is by far the best banjo-tudoring instruction manual that I have viewed for teaching banjo playing. It is very clear and easy to follow. It is my opinion that this is an excellent product and a great teaching tool! Thank you.



5. This book is packed with all kinds of useful information and I recommend it for anyone new to the banjo. It is also useful to those of us with a longer history with this great instrument.

5 comments about The Fiddler's Fakebook (Fiddle).

1. This fiddle fake book was recommended by my fiddle teacher. I ordered one; my fiddling friend saw it and took it; I ordered another for myself. Has more fiddle songs than anyone can play in a lifetime. Laid out horizontally so it's easy to fit the song on a page. Best of all it has enough info to let you play the song and improvise (also includes some harmonies), but not so detailed as to look like an ant convention. Does everything but play the tune for you.



2. This book has a great assortment of tunes ranging from traditional tunes, Irish and English favorites, French Canadian tunes, Bluegrass, and some Western swing tunes. Arrangements are pretty true to what I have "heard" in live performances. Presented in alpabetical order. This book and the "Portland Collection" volumes will keep you playing and learning for quite some time !



3. This book is a wonderful resource for any fiddle or mandolin player who appreciates traditional American music. The songs are charted in standard musical notation, playable by either fiddle or mandolin, and many have chords included for accompanists. A caveat, tho' - This is not a TAB book - if you are not familiar with picking melodies on your instrument, you will not find fingering assistance in here. The only other down-side I found is that if you use it as frequently as I do, the pages eventually start to tear at the junction with the plastic binding! P.S. - if you like the mandolin piece they use on the Time Warner ads, look at Soldier's Joy!



4. A must for those interested in building a repertoire of tunes for Bluegrass, Old-time, and Irish can't go wrong with this excellent collection of nearly 500 tunes in notation. The discography alone is worth the price. I have given away several dozen copies at jam sessions to encourage more diversity among my musician friends. More tunes than the similar mandolin and guitar versions.



5. This is a great book of fiddle music. There's easy music, there's harder music and there's stuff I probably won't attempt for awhile. The only thing I could want is a CD of the songs. You won't be disappointed in this book.

4 comments about Suzuki Violin School, Violin Part, Volume 2 (Suzuki Violin School, Violin Part).

1. thirty five days passed, and i have not get the cd yet, how can i review it?!



2. Violin teacher recommended book after finishing Vol. 1. It is clear and concise.



3. This book is an excellent teaching book for anyone!
   Here are the songs: Chorus from "Judas Maccabaeus" by G.F. Handel, Musette by J.S. Bach, Hunters' Chorus by C.M. von Weber, Long, Long Ago, by T.H. Bayly, Waltz by J. Brahms, Bourree by G.F. Handel, The Two Grenadiers by R. Schumann, Theme from "Witches' Dance" by N. Paganini, Gavotte from "Mignon" by A. Thomas, Gavotte by J.B. Lully, Minuet in G by L. van Beethoven, and Minuet by L. Boccherini.
   
   I've only played a couple songs so far, and they are beautiful. I like the Suzuki method because each book gives you a solid foundation and a little taste for the next book to come. I have this CD that comes with it, and the songs are WAY too fast for me to play along with. Also, the book gives you fingerings above most notes, which is a little drawback.
   
   The bottomline is that the Suzuki series is excellent and I would recommend it anyone beginning the violin! :D



4. I grew up learning the Suzuki method and believe in it 100%. This should really be learned with an instructor versus being self-taught. Suzuki method is also a philosophy - look for the book by Suzuki himself explaining this. My violin teacher made all her students' parents read this when we started lessons.
   
   This collection of songs not only is a good collection to learn various techniques on the violin, but I still have fun years later playing them over and over.

5 comments about Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy.

1. I'm ready- couldn't wait. Finished a book by Leo Marks who was codemaker for SOE during wwii which was very interesting and surprisingly compelling- even when he described the basics of codes and betrayals. But it tired me out in alot of ways. So Hickey seemed a good way to go: clear and noncant according to reputation. Plus I read an interview Hickey gave to a colorado newspaper where he was spot on even if his stevedoreness was a little droll coming from a man obvious bored with small pieties. Started it last night and I'm already wavering. My initial enthusiasm is slightly dampened by his repeated use of the word "quotidian" and his p'haps too obvious placement of himself as heavy meta dude who hangs with grass in Mexico and in the next breath is able for instance claim that Norman Rockwell is, in fact, a great democratic artist with impressive technical skills. He claims too that every artist he knows admires Rockwell. I always thought it was schlock- I could be wrong- (I think Rockwell leads to Tarantino) but what worries me is that Hickey seems willing to take a perverse position for the pleasure of taking a perverse position. Well that's OK but he isn't Panofsky. He's acrobatic and synthetic- but afterwards like any dance by Arthur Murray you wonder what you have experienced and when.
   The book cover is terrible, almost the worst I have ever seen which again suggests a willful postmodern banality offered w/o irony which is the hippest position possible. Says Sean Puffy Combs, Puff Daddy, P Daddy, P Diddy: "its all good." He's a genius too.



2. OK, granted, this is this first thing I've read by Dave Hickey, so I may not be giving his overall legacy a fair review. I know he's been around for awhile and has made numerous contributions to many top-notch magazines and journals. This book was recommended to me by a guy in a Williamsburg bookshop, and despite the pretentious accusation of 'genius' slapped on the front cover, I glanced through the book (spotting some obviously great writing) and bought it on the spot.
   I was really taken by his unabashed, intimate style for several chapters of the book, until he began his defenses of art dealing and art criticism and his pompous attacks on 'spectators' versus 'participants' (are critics participants?) in his version of the art world. Sorry Dave, this doesn't wash and you know it --- simply announcing that 'Art is not a commodity' simplifies a huge can of worms best dealt with by Debord or even Hakim Bey, not by an art dealer aspiring to belong to this community, rather than getting dirty in the spectating and profiteering himself. When I hit the end of a couple of these verbose defenses of his history of 'dirty occupations', I was left thinking, 'Is it that important you were an art dealer?', or 'Who really cares that you're an art critic?'.
   I simply want to be regaled with tales of Sigfried and Roy, or stomp in the boots of Hank Williams, or read Dave's ridiculous opinions on Chet Baker and, most importantly, laugh (or even smile out loud). This is where he is at his best, and consequently where the book shines. It is great writing, indeed, but too bad Dave feels it's necessary to namedrop and pontificate to purge himself from the sea of soulless art critics. Just do what you do best, and write!



3. Ignore all of the negative press--decide for yourself and read the book (contrary to the opinions of some reviewers, this book is not hard to read). Yes, Dave frequently uses the word "quotidian" (Oh noooo!!!) and the cover may be too much if you have bad "good" taste. And at times, having to learn a new word is required (Is that a bad thing?). I think Hickey would say, that what all of the reviewers on this page are involved in, is exactly what he is arguing for--democratic discussion of the art that does or does not move you.



4. "Air Guitar" is Hickey's characterization of critical writing, it's direct relationship to its subject(s) being of approximately equal import as a person playing air guitar in his living room is to a rock concert. In the words of Vladimir Horowitz, the concert pianist, it is "the words without the music." That being said, it's damned interesting, all the same, especially when approached this way. Hickey's favorite technique is to take two seemingly disparate things and to discuss the way in which they inform each other, all the while examining the net effect on his life as your basic, educated, ambitious Joe trying to fill the "great gap of time" between birth and death with a mind boggling array of interesting experiences. In this way, they're more 'think pieces' than academic essays. I'll admit, there were moments when my brain hurt; but most of the time, I was enjoying his company and his facility for mental gymnastics -- and the obvious pleasure he took in it personally. I heard of this book on a radio interview (Fresh Air? Diane Rehm Show?) and bought it specifically so that I could have my own personal copy of "My Weimar" -- a spectacular, 'where am I in the grand sceme of things now' type touchstone. Reading the whole book as a part of a recent essay jag, I found it all equally challenging, equally enjoyable.



5. For the most part, art critism is pretty dry, boring stuff. In Hickey's hands, it's much more lively. The writing is pretty crisp and engaging. Hickey uses all sorts of literary devices to get his points across- some with more success than others. Overall, it's the kind of book you enjoy to read. Rare in this genre.
   
   The basic "marketplace" angle he takes on the quality of art is pretty edgey. The art world is pretty dominated by those with intense socialist leanings, so his point of view is a nice contrast. He manages to inform us without being too snotty about it.

1 comments about Strategies for Teaching Strings: Building a Successful String and Orchestra Program.

1. Undoubtedly the most important work on string teaching published in the past 20 years. Hamann and Gillespie give concise tips and comprehensive aid to the teacher of the string orchestra class. Covering beginner to advanced, the work is thorough and will continue to be useful for years to come. As a former Don Hamann student, I can say the only thing better is a class from the authors!