The Complete Idiot's Guide to Acoustic Guitar Songs [Paperback]

Alfred Publishing (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Complete Idiot's Guide | Publication Date: September 4, 2007

The Complete Idiots Guide songbooks are designed to get novice guitarists playing immediately, and playing the songs that inspired them to pick up a guitar in the first place.

Each song in The Complete Idiots Guide books is preceded by a lesson that focuses on the most important technical and musical features. Fingerings, patterns, and techniques are discussed and broken down to help make learning smooth and simple. Most guitar songs are relatively easy to play, and the arrangements in these books are simplified just enough to show those core, natural guitar parts without being overcomplicated, just the way a friend might show another how to play a song one-on-one. Learning is made even simpler with each song written in standard music notation plus TAB and guitar chord diagrams.

Learn top hits within a matter of hours! The Complete Idiots Guide to Acoustic Guitar Songs features 30 songs total from artists such as Eric Clapton
* Eagles
* Fleetwood Mac
* Jimmy Buffett
* Joni Mitchell
* and many more.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alfred Publishing is currently one of the largest and most successful publishers of licensed songbooks in the world, owning the music rights to some of the most recognizable names in the music industry. With roots in music instruction, it has become one of the most trusted brands in the business.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 4 pages
• Publisher: Alpha (September 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739046276
• ISBN-13: 978-0739046272
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #696,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful guide for middle-aged folks like me., January 8, 2009

By 

Zora Calder "Zee Cee" (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Acoustic Guitar Songs (Paperback)

The guitar was not my first instrument and I had been reading music for over 40 years when I picked it up, so that explains the difference between the first rater's comments and my own.

After two weeks of playing the guitar, I was wanting more than I was learning by ear and from random acquaintances, and this book (along with iplaymusic's how-to guitar lessons with CD) filled my need. The music is, however, more from my era (born in mid-1950's), and younger musicians would do better to download some chords and tabs from any of the free music sites on-line.

This book is more useful than just chords in that it offers fingering advice, rhythmic specifics (the hardest advice to find, in my experience, in learning the guitar), and all in standard musical notations.

I've two years of university music theory/comp, and from that knowledge base, I applaud the music theory sections. I believe that they would help a novice, picking up guitar as the first instrument, to understand what is going on with harmonic progressions in pop songs.

Some of these songs are beyond my ability, still (the acoustical Layla, for instance, or some of the more complex fingerpicked songs), but at least one, Horse with No Name, should be playable within hours of getting the book.

Ideally, you'd have a CD or MP3 files of these songs, as recorded by the original artists, to begin to link staff and TAB notation to the sorts of sounds we're familiar with.

The introductions concerning musicianship and the recording artists themselves are really quite interesting.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for absolute beginners, December 21, 2009

By 

William (Whitinsville, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Acoustic Guitar Songs (Paperback)

If you are really a beginner, don't let the title of this book fool you, it is not for you. I bought this book about 3-4 months after I started learning the guitar, but couldn't get much out of it at all. The "lessons" at the beginning of each song should not be called lessons at all. More like a couple of pointers that do little to help a beginner figure out how to play the song. The chords are there, but there is nothing to help a beginner figure out the rhythm and the strumming patterns. I'm only now just starting to get some use out of it, now that I have almost a year of playing under my belt, but many of the songs are still a struggle.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Guitar Book, December 12, 2008

By 

Frederick E. Engle "elcamina" (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Acoustic Guitar Songs (Paperback)

As someone who is new to playing the guitar I found most of the songs to advanced for me to play, I have been taking lessons for 7 months.