The Heavy Guitar Bible: A Rock Guitar Instruction Manual [Paperback]

Richard Daniels (Author)

Book Description

The complete book on the world of rock guitar, covering fretboard basics, chords, structure, and all rock styles, with accompanying illustrations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 102 pages
• Publisher: Cherry Lane Music; 1 edition (December 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895240661
• ISBN-13: 978-0895240668
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #494,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Few books will give you this type of inspiring, global direction, August 4, 2006

By 

Regular Guy "- R. Guy" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heavy Guitar Bible: A Rock Guitar Instruction Manual (Paperback)

Since playing classical guitar for a few years and recently picking up an electric I've been diving into really "getting it" as far as a path for learning and understanding the big picture of what's involved in playing the electric guitar. It's truly a different instrument than the acoustic, and a practice regimen is a difficult challenge to plan. This book, while serving as a great practice reference will give every electric/rock guitarist a complete explanation as well as instruction on the full array of "elements" that will make up your skills not just as a player of a guitar but someone who can work towards "owning" the instrument. From scales, chords, soloing and rhythm, this gives such a clear overview of the art of electric guitar that only now after reading this cover to cover have I found a new inspiration and clear direction on what I need to do to "get there". "There" being the goal of playing with other musicians and improvising knowledgeably.

If you're looking for a book to help make you feel comfortable that you're studying the right things, get this, read it cover to cover and then go from there. Outstanding, a must have. I wish this was the first book I bought on electric. While at first the book will seem rough around the edges from a design and editing standpoint, it will soon become obvious that this is truly a labor of love for the author.

I will add though, that this book should function as the center of the wheel of your quest to learn. Perfect compliments to this volume, for the self taught guitarist, would be a good scales book such as the "Guitar Grimoire Exercise Book", a book on chords and chord theory such as "Chord Chemistry", a method book, in my case classical is enjoyable for learning to read and play music so I'm working out of Noad's "Solo Guitar Playing", and any songbooks you would like to work on songs out of. Another outstanding book I've found indespensable, as have many others is Denyer's "The Guitar Handbook", it's truly a guitar encyclopedia, and explains clearly a heavy amount of theory and technique.

Hopefully this is helpful, I felt compelled to write this review to save those following a similar path as I am the trouble of unecessary purchases or a difficulty finding laser focus on their self taught direction. Good luck!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book!, June 9, 2000

By 

Joeseph - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heavy Guitar Bible: A Rock Guitar Instruction Manual (Paperback)

I bought this book over 12 years ago after growing frustrated with what my local guitar instructors were teaching me. For the price of one weekly guitar lesson I got this great book that opened up many doors. I never took another personal guitar lesson again. I gained so much from this book that I felt compelled to write this review all these years later since it has been just that important to me. This book is an outstanding beginner-to-intermediate learning system. The fundamentals are clearly described and everything is very easy to understand. This book can easily take an absolute beginner and help them get really good much faster than any other book I have ever seen. The book aims to get you familiar with your guitar and able to play up and down the neck using runs taken from the Pentatonic scale which is the backbone of Rock guitar. This book will help you get past the beginner level and very solidly into the intermediate playing level and does so in the clearest and easiest way. This is THE must-have book if you want to learn to play guitar in the most efficient manner. This book provides a very solid foundation to build your advanced musical skills onto. I highly recommend it!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great place to start or continue with,, June 1, 2000

By 

Rich Fuester - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heavy Guitar Bible: A Rock Guitar Instruction Manual (Paperback)

This book is over 20 years old but has more information than a good deal of guitar teachers know. It explains many things for the guitar extremely well. You can not go wrong with this book; especially if you are learning electric guitar.