Customer Reviews

The Complete Guitar Course (Reader's Digest)

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

 

 

I was skeptical about how "complete" a single guitar book could be, while looking for a starter course for my nephew. I've been playing guitar a while now, and am a decent guitarist with adequate musical theory. So, I was going to be very critical about the books I would be considering.
This one is pretty complete for a beginner and an enthusiast. It presented material that was solid and easy to understand. Each chapter/lesson of the twenty had theory and practice that gradually built up a competent and knowledgeable guitarist. Later chapters dealt with various styles of music, so there was ample room to grow, at least sample a musical genre.
Overall, it was a very good book, and a pretty good place to start playing a great instrument. It also makes a great refresher, with exercises, songs, and scales to keep an intermediate player's skills honest.
Although a bit easier for my level of playing, I enjoyed the exercises and the songs (some of which are popular modern published works, and not those inane, ubiquitous, royalty-free spirituals) included throughout the book. I believe even beginners will find the lessons doable and be happy with the progress they make. It's well written and keeps a proper level of difficulty.
Once completed, the new guitarist will be able to perform a variety of songs and styles, and understand a wealth of musical knowledge.
Buy this if you're interested in picking up the guitar, or want to play it better with some good musical background theory. Sure, it's easy to knock a book like this (which some reviewers have done), and, admittedly, I caught a few typos (but just by practicing the music, you can figure out what note was off in the sheet music). However, critics of this book tend to forget that there are not many decent guitar books out there. I contend that the courses are as complete as possible without an actual music teacher. It's better than current guitar books out there, and is worth getting.

This book is one of the few guitar books I've purchased that actually taught me something. Although I've only played for a year-I have bought alot of books online and have kicked myself in the [...] on most of them. If you are young in your guitar experience check it out-you won't be sorry. It shows the basics of how to change strings all the way to having a chord reference that is really helpful.

"The Complete Guitar Course" is a single, comprehensive, step-by-step instruction book that will teach the reader all of the basics required for playing the guitar. Comprised of twenty 'user friendly" lessons that are profusely illustrated, easy-to-follow, and progressively skill-building, "The Complete Guitar Course" will help even the most novice aspiring guitarist to select the guitar that is the right kind for them; build chords and master simple melodies on the guitar; choose among rock, blues, folk, and classical guitar music styles; tune, change strings, and otherwise keep a guitar in top shape; achieve special effects on the guitar ranging from 'finger picking' to 'arpeggios'; practice playing the guitar using real songs (with scores of well-known and popular hit tunes); be introduced to inspiring and legendary players in all the guitar music genres from Andres Sergovia's classical acoustic guitar stylings to Clapton's electric guitar masterpieces. Offering the perfect approach to learning to play the guitar and a core addition to personal, music school, and community library Music Instruction reference collections, "The Complete Guitar Course" will enable any guitar student to perform beautiful music, have fun with their chosen instrument, and even embark upon a professional music career.

Great book, stuffed with much, and varied, information including the history of guitar and many guitarists. It will give the novice a good idea of what their likes are and what they might want to pursue in more detail afterwards.

The book's title promises more than it delivers. It tries to cover too much, to fulfill the promise of "complete" in the title, but does so in a largely sketchy and non-useful way, especially to anyone just starting to learn the instrument. The historical material is of interest (it is, however, not well written or edited), but the instructional material has just too many mistakes (e.g., several chord charts wrongly pictured) to make this a book I could recommend.

Not surprisingly, this large glossy-paged book put out by Readers Digest is one of the prettiest guitar instruction books I've seen, and I own over 40 of them, collected over 15+ years of playing the instrument. Its 50-some pages of color photographs and descriptions of famous guitarists and famous guitars (nearly 1/4 of the book) make for absorbing reading. They are a feature rarely found in other books and can build your motivation. They will not, of course, tell you anything about actual playing. Another big use of space is a full page for each of the 20 chapters simply giving the title. The chapters do "cover the bases," but in a sketchy way, giving a quick pass on fingerstyle, country, rock, funk, classical, etc.

It's enjoyable to read in the same way that eating smorgasbord is, but don't expect much beyond the introductory. There's a pretty small amount of actual text for a book of over 200 pages. I got my copy from the library, perfect to browze through before nodding off. It is a nice supplement to a more indepth how-to book.

My son loves this book it is filled with fun songs to play and it is worth the money! Of course the price was great on Amazon!! :)