Customer Reviews

Basic Instructor Guitar

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When I started playing guitar I asked a friend who owns a music shop for a recommendation, and he suggested this book. It covers the basic chords and notation.

As a guitar teacher, I have been using earlier editions of Jerry Snyder's "Basic Instructor Guitar" since the 1970s. The thing that impresses me about Jerry Snyder is that he takes a good thing and keeps improving it.

Basically, this book is divided into two parts. The front half teaches chords and various strumming and picking techniques (finger picking and/or flat picking) and the back half of the book is devoted to melodic playing (with your choice of flat pick or finger picking).

I usually split my lessons between both parts of the book, which is how he intended it to be used (I attended a training session with Snyder many years ago, which is why I know this).

Unlike many current guitar technique books, Snyder does not rely exclusivly on guitar tab (basically a diagram of the guitar fingerboard). I agree with his approach that any guitar player worth their salt should learn how to read music. Guitar tab is used in this edition at times to support the note reading, but Snyder does such a good job of introducing musical notation, you hardly need the tab.

Throughout the book, Snyder suggests popular tunes (including many oldies) to supplement the material he presents. I find it easy to find similar tunes that fit the individual interests of my students. Over the years Snyder has produced many songbooks that can also be used to supplement these lessons.

I recently persuaded a local music store to carry these books, and they have become the book of choice for most of the guitar teachers in the store. For good reason.