Customer Reviews

101 Guitar Tips: Stuff All the Pros Know and Use

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been playing guitar for 5 years (self taught), have a band going but never really played live much until recently and I never really knew much about effects, amps and guitar "tech" type stuff. I ordered this book because I spent all my time learning how to play well, but not learning much about gear etc. And it's a little embarrassing being able to play fairly decent but not knowing crap anything else. This book certainly helped in that department.

There are a few different kinds of tips in here. Some are technique, music theory and exercises, which are mixed in throughout. Most of those I didn't really find all that useful because I have my own ways of practicing and such, but having all the modes written out was nice to have as a reference.

Then there are stage tips and guitar/amp maintenance tips. Most of these were helpful to me. A lot are just random things about stringing, adjusting action, picks, pedal boards, travel, and most types of effects are explained in an easy to understand basic way.

This book will probably be too "primitive" for professional guitar players, but of course thats not who it's really targeted at. For people starting to play live, or looking for some general advice on basic guitar stuff this will probably serve as a helpful starting guide to having a more well rounded knowledge of guitar.

101 Guitar Tips is the result of my own 30 years playing experience, plus knowledge gathered from the hundreds of celebrity interviews I've conducted through the past 20 years as editor of www.Guitar.com, as an author and editor for music publisher Hal Leonard (for whom I've worked on numerous excellent guitar instructional books covering blues, jazz, rock, country, scales, chords, and more), and as a writer for most of the major U.S. guitar magazines and many of America's largest newspapers.

I've also worked for Fender, D'Addario, Guitar Center, Musician's Friend and smaller music stores, and I ran vintage guitar site Gbase.com for a couple of years. I've guitar teched for Sammy Hagar, and of course I've played in countless bands.

101 Guitar Tips covers a lot of ground, including scales, chords, riffs, music theory, gear setup and maintenance, equipment selection, career advice, things to make your music-making trouble-free and more enjoyable, and much more. There's something for everyone in this book, whether you're a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player. All musical examples are written out in notation AND tablature, and many are illustrated with neck diagrams as well.

I've included many excellent tips and suggestions that I got first-hand from celebrities such as B.B. King, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Pete Anderson (Dwight Yoakam), Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers), Rene Martinez (Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar tech), Tom Dowd (legendary producer), and many, many more.

And the 53-track CD (included at no extra charge) offers you the opportunity to learn and work on many of the riffs and chord progressions described in the book. You can use it as a play-along, jam tool as well.

I've written this book to be an easy, fun read, with just a touch of dry humor (or is it simply a veteran musician's hard-earned sarcasm?) thrown in for good measure. I hope you'll get a good laugh out of some of it, because a sense of humor is definitely a plus for any musician!

101 Guitar Tips makes an excellent learning product, and a great gift. I'm currently (November, 2003) working on my follow up book, "101 Recording Tips," which will help solve problems and create better recordings for anyone with a home studio or heading into a pro studio. Watch for this book to come out through Hal Leonard in 2004.

Other books I've authored or edited for Hal Leonard include "The Picture Chord Encyclopedia" (yes, that's 2,640 pictures of my left hand, playing every chord imaginable), "Incredible Scale Finder," "Blues Solos for Guitar," "Country Solos for Guitar," "Hard Rock Solos for Guitar," and "Jazz Solos for Guitar."

If you've purchased my book 101 Guitar Tips, and want me to clarify anything in the book, feel free to contact me at adam@guitar.com.

Keep on pickin'!

Adam St. James
November 14, 2003
Editor, www.Guitar.com

I have to give praise to books that help young guitar players develop into seasoned players. Having stated that I would like to say this book is very vague in many of its attempts at delivering the goods.

This book is titled `101 guitar Tips- Stuff all the Pros know and Use'.
I was expecting to find great tips on guitar and amp tech. What I found was so basic most beginners know this stuff after the first couple years of playing.

Example: Page 39 - Don't Turn Up, Tilt Up.
This page just rambles on about tilting your amp up to hear it better. I knew this within the first few months of playing.

Example: Page 52 - Get A Metronome
Any teacher will tell you this from the first day. This was extremely useless info.

Example: Page 69 - Shipping Your Guitar or Amp
Again very general information, anyone with a brain would pack his or her gear with care. This was also extremely useless info.

I could go on naming the useless information given in this book but it would take me longer than I care to write.

There are solos tabbed out for practicing, but if you want this kind of info buy a good book dedicated to modes or arpeggio playing and skip this book.

This book does have a few good tips in it, if I we're to name this book it would be `10 Guitar Tips - Stuff All The Pros Know and Use'.

If you an intermediate guitar player - then you already know more than 50-60% written in the book. If you are a beginner - then might be 20-30% of the information will be useful for you. If you are a pro.. than 0% will interest you.

I liked many of the tips in here. I really liked the chord progression tips the most. The scales he does as the first tip is nice and opens up some nice info for me to learn. I like how he refers to them as patterns because I can memorize patterns and formulas very easy in math so I figure that it may help me here too.

I have yet to purchase this book, but I saw it in Guitar Center a few months ago and I skimmed through it. Very nice. more than just how to play certain riffs, lots of good little nuggets of advice, like the more live experience the better, and I think this was in there, how you should always tuck your chord in the inside of your strap. Very practical and useful information.