Teach Yourself To Play Guitar - 80 Pages Paperback With 1 CD
This is a self-study learn guitar instruction / tuition with an included audio CD.
Like the author says, it's basically "Everything you need to know to get started" in learning to play the guitar. The book doesn't assume any prior knowledge of playing guitar.
You start off right from the very beginning. After a short history of the guitar section, you learn the parts of the guitar with labeled photos of several guitar types: solid body electric, hollow body electric, and the acoustic guitar. You learn how to tune your instrument, including how the notes of the guitar are related to the notes on the piano keyboard. Also, the correct way to hold the guitar is covered. After a short intro to music and tablature you start learning where the notes are on the guitar starting with the first string.
They go through all the six strings and teach you the first position notes. You get to practice the new notes you're learning with songs and exercises. The songs are recorded for you on the included CD disk. The CD track numbers are listed next to the song titles in the book. By the way, the CD is what they call an
enhanced CD. Meaning it can be played on you stereo CD player in your care, or at home. And it can also be used on your personal computer. And later on in the book they get you started with three-string chords in the key of C. You receive all the standard content that's common in the beginning guitar books. Scales are introduced, music theory is given little by little among learning the notes, strings, and chords.
A nice feature you won't find in all starter guitar books is the section they call Advanced Tablature Techniques. This section explains the advantages of tablature in guitar playing versus traditional music notation. As you work through this section, you'll really see the payoff of having the CD to let you hear exactly how the techniques sound when done correctly.
Here's a list of the advanced techniques:
- Bending
- Hammer on
- Pull off
- Slides
- Palm mute
All the techniques they show you how to do have a lot of exercises for you to learn on, along with the CD track numbers you'll be listening to.
Getting It Right The First Time
It's got to be an understatement to declare that there's no shortage of options available for learning the guitar. There's all the web sites, there's youtube, there's the corner music store where you can get your weekly lessons, there are a lot of DVDs, books, etc out there that you can buy. A lot of people find themselves in this situation: "I want to learn to play the guitar from the beginning". I other words, I have no experience with the guitar whatsoever, and I want to begin at the beginning and learn it. If that's your situation, then you'll find Teach Yourself To Play Guitar book and CD combination is a great place to start. It's so important to learn all the basics the correct way from the get go, to avoid having to re-learn things later on. It's much more difficult and frustrating to have to learn a different way to do something. By using this book, you'll be able to learn all the basics. Things like the important guitar terms, how to hold the guitar correctly, music and notes, and you'll learn it all correctly, the first time. This will save you from any wasted time and effort down the line.
