Play Guitar In 10 Easy Lessons Instruction Book - 160 Pages Paperback
Are you looking for a good first book on learning how to play the guitar?
Do you search for an introduction to guitar playing? One that's easy to understand, and laid out in a straight-forward manner? If you are, then you should have a look at this 10 Easy Lessons book for playing guitar.
Lesson one gives you the basics on how to buy your first guitar. "How to select the guitar that's right for me", is the question that gets answered in this particular lesson. Do you want an acoustic or electric? They discuss some key terms you'll need to know so you can make a good decision about the guitar you purchase. All the parts of the guitar are labeled in a diagram, they call it the anatomy of the guitar. There's a glossary of acoustic guitar terms, and a glossary of electric guitar terms. They also teach you how to care for you guitar after you make the purchase. How to tune the instrument, and how to re-string it.
In lesson two you will begin to play your new guitar. As you'll see, each new lesson in the book will introduce you to a new tuition method for playing the guitar. This lesson explains how the fingers are numbered so you can look at a diagram and see which strings to cover at what fret positions. They start with the left hand technique, and show you how to stop the string on the frets, and they give you some exercises to do to reinforce what you've learned. Then they focus on the right hand. How to use a pick, or plectrum, as it's sometimes called. How to do finger style guitar, using a thumb pick, and how to do hybrid picking technique when you play. Before finishing up with lesson 2 the author also discusses posture and coordination, and then introduces the chromatic scale.
About the chord directory...
This book comes with a great and colorful chord directory that will supply the chord you need (and the proper fingering and positioning) for most all the playing you'll have to do. In all, there are 382 chords included in the directory. Each chord diagram comes with a picture of the guitar neck with the frets and strings. The fingers you use to make the chord are show with a different color for each finger. This way it's very quick for you to see the chord and make the grip you need to sound it. As usual, the open strings are marked with an O and the unplayed strings are marked with an X.
Lesson three is on chords. You'll learn a lot of chords in this lesson! Open chords that are played at the first position on the guitar neck. They group the chords for you as easy, intermediate, and difficult chords. All the chords are described, they are shown to you in a chord diagram showing the strings, the frets, and the finger number you're to use when you play the chord. There is also a color photo of a guitar player making each of the chords. This helps you see the correct left hand position you should have for each of the chords. Major chords, seventh chords, minor chords, are introduced. There are tips on how to change smoothly between chords. They finish up this lesson with some instruction on timing and strumming, using a metronome, and some information about fingerpicking.
Lesson four gives you an introduction to basic music theory. The suggestion is made that you refer to this lesson from time to time as you enjoy the other hands on lessons. They begin by teaching you how to read music in standard notation. Tablature is discussed elsewhere in the book. Tempo and rhythm, note values, and rest values. Time signatures, key signatures, and all the dynamic markings that tell you to play louder or softer. Other topics that are discussed include chord progression, and chord inversions.
Lesson five is all about barre chords, how to make them, how to make them sound good without any buzzing. How to keep your left hand from getting tired or stressed out. How to work with the barre chords up and down the neck. How to change between barre chords and all the commonly used barre chord shapes.
Lesson six goes into scales. Why they're important, and why you should spend time learning and playing scales. Then they go into teaching you all the most popular scales you need to know. You'll learn about pentatonic scales, Blues scales, major and natural minor scales, harmonic and melodic minor scales, and modes. They teach you where the scales are on the guitar neck, how to finger the notes, and how to play the scales.
All that work with scales in lesson six gets you ready for the topics of soloing and improvising which are covered in lesson seven. They teach you step by step how to play a variety of guitar techniques in your lead and solo playing, including string bending, slurs, vibrato, harmonics, tapping, slide guitar, etc. Lesson eight teaches you how to read tablature. In it, you'll learn to recognize all the guitar techniques you learned in lesson seven when you see them written in the guitar tablature. Palm mute, tremelo arm, damped strings are covered. Lesson nine talks about arpeggios and chord extensions. Lesson 10 has some assorted information regarding musical styles, guitar effects, and equipment, and also some tips on maintaining and caring for you guitars and amps. The book finishes up with a chord diagram directory organized by music key.
