Customer Reviews

John Mayer Room For Squares (Guitar TAB)

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i just recently purchased this book for something to do to kill time. i'm a big fan of john mayer's music, and wanted to see if i could possibly play some of his stuff. at first it was a little intimidating, because some of the chords are a little difficult for me. (i think john must have some rather large hands.) but contrary to what has been said about this book by others, once you take the time to learn the music, it sounds exactly like the album. minus the background instruments of course. so if you base your decision on whether or not to buy this based on will the songs sound like the album, don't let that be a reason. just pay attention to the fact that you will need a capo, and will need to know what a "drop D" tuning is to make it "sound like the album". other than that, if you enjoy playing guitar, and you enjoy john mayer's music, then you should like this book. if you don't enjoy one of the aforementioned, then you probably won't enjoy this book. it's a pretty simple concept.

Notice that there are 3 versions of this book - PVG, Easy Guitar, and Guitar TAB. Make sure you don't get the PVG if you are wanting to learn the guitar parts, as it does not have guitar tabs in it.

The good news is this book features strikingly accurate-sounding transcriptions. The bad new is this book features strikingly accurate-sounding transcriptions. Why the paradox? If you can play the songs as written, it sounds just like John Mayer. But the key word here is 'if'. I've never heard of most of the chords he uses on this album, nor have I ever seen them in any other song (and I've been playing for nearly ten years). His riffs are sickeningly complex, and his solos are no easier. After lots and lots of practice though, it can be accomplished, and it sounds great once it comes together.

I am in Japan.
I am sutisfied with this product and parchase.
thank you !

John Mayer's skill as a guitarist, unfortunately, is not completely conveyed through the songs on "Room For Squares". However, in order for some of these songs to sound like the versions on Room For Squares, you simply have to play and be able to play like John Mayer, which is in my opinion, a very under-rated guitarist. But I would advise anyone questioning purchasing this book to do so. If you can play half as well as John, you can play the songs on this album, and make them sound like the originals.

I had hoped to buy this Easy-Guitar Tab in hopes of finding out what chords John Mayer was using for his hit "No Such Thing."

The guitar tab was fine, but lacked Mayer's fundamental chord structure, by not supplying his chord changes when they are most needed. The guitar chords totally lack the head of the song, which to me is the signature element of the melody. In other songs, there is plentiful chord structure. Why does this tab book not include the chords for one of his most notable and play-worthy songs?

I can only say that the authors of this book were negligent and intentionally so. I was not satisfied with my purchase, and would caution anyone who intends to buy this book with the thought of finding "No Such Thing" detailed in the book, when it is not.

Ok, here's the problem: Some of the tabs are good. The one's I tried to learn (neon, back to you, no such thing) were pretty wrong. I bought the Any Given Thursday DVD and watched John's hands. They're no where close to what the book says he's supposed to be (on the fret board). The other thing worth noting is that not all of the chords are listed. John does some really alternate chord fingering and they'll list only some of them, but they'll tell you to play it - Frustrating. I spent more time on youtube on their tutorials since I found this too incomplete.

I also downloaded songs from the Room For Squares and tried using that to help out (instead of relying on AGThurs)...and guess what. Even more notes are missing. I slowed down the song and followed along with tab; yup, missing notes.

I know how to read tab and have been playing for a while (10 years). Too many errors and missing tabs to be considered a good buy. On the plus side, it DOES provide some good chord diagrams (when they provide them).

I like this book, because I can pick through his most well-known songs and kind of hear a melody somewhere along inside. But I'm not good enough to pin down the riffs properly, so I end up with a very incomplete sounding song.
Some of the songs also don't sound quite like they do when John Mayer plays them (I could tell when my much more experienced Uncle played the songs for me) but for the most part they sound accurate.

John's training at Berkley definetly shows thru his playing on this record. This album shows off his left hand's impressive understanding and manipulation of theory and how it applies to tone, and the over all sound of the music." Neon " is the best example of where John's real talent and ability lie: his right hand. His rythum skill and techniques are beautifuly portraied in that song and several other layers in the background of the other tracks. To play this album, and understand the theory he used to write the album will make a better guitarist.

I've used TAB books and sheet music before, but this one is not as well done as others (David Wilcox for Example is much better and much more accurate sounding). I'm still left with a belief that it is not an accurate representation of what is actually being played by the artist, and I don't care if it says John Supervised the transcriptions or not. It's just not that well done IMHO.