Customer Reviews

Music Theory for Guitarists

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Music Theory for Guitarists" is not your every day theory book. Almost every other theory book I've seen was more suited to a keyboard than a guitar. Not so in Tom's book. He takes a fresh perspective of learning theory on the fretboard, without needing to read music. As a matter of fact the initial 50 pages of the book will teach you all you need to know about reading music so you can understand the rest of his book.

Almost every stanza of notation and scale in the book is accompanied by tab or chord charts. Scales and chord formation are covered extensively. There are also a number of cool things thrown in, like alternate scales. Every wanted to play the Pelog scale or Manaranjani? It's in there. Want to know what Morendo or Rubato means on a piece of music? It's in there.

Perhaps the front cover of the book describes it best,

"A step-by-step guide through the elements of music, with new ways to think about playing."

If you are looking for a great book for basic theory, designed for guitarists, this is it.

"Music Theory for Guitarists" is exactly as the title advertises. Tom Serb walks the reader through the basics of sound, rhythm, notes, rests, time classifications and signatures, pitch, clefs, scales and modes, chromatic scales, intervals, triads, chord inversions, extended chords, transposition, and chord progressions and cadences. Just under half of the book is dedicated to music theory itself without any particular application to guitar work. This is the section that covers things like notes, rests, and other items that apply to music in general. On page 41 he starts moving the reader into applying this knowledge to guitars and further developing your knowledge of music. For the serious guitarist who wants to know more than how to strum a handful of chords as backup, is a recommended text.

Frustrated with theory? Spending money left and right on lessons that, while teaching you to play, aren't teaching you what you need to CREATE? Want to know what the hell somebody means by a flat 3rd, diminished 7th, or "exotic scales"?

Look no further. Tom Serb's Music Theory for Guitarists is, without a doubt, the best book you can get on the market. It will set your mind on fire, bring in the building blocks you need to really MAKE music, and provide you with so many "I GET IT NOW!!!" moments that you can begin to enjoy the instrument as it was meant to be enjoyed.

However, this is not a book that guarantees faster speeds, super shredding, or that you'll be a Yngwie or Pagey when you're done. This gives you a thorough grounding in the what and how of the music theory most guitarists eschew in favor of hot licks and the ease of reading tablature.

If you're just starting guitar, don't let your playing fall into a trap by sticking to TAB - get this book and do it right!

If you're an intermediate guitarist - pick it up, you'll learn everything that you need to take your playing to the next level.

If you're an advanced guitarist - this book might not be for you, and may not go into the crazy stuff you're used to. But feel free to recommend it to any friends that aren't at your level - it is an awesome book!

If you're a guitar teacher - this is your new favorite reference. Tom doesn't use lameass nursery school songs to drill things home, he gets straight to the meat of things and explains them with relative ease, which means you can spend more time tailoring your lessons to your students' desires in playing - and avoid wanting to hang yourself over hearing "Hot Cross Buns" for the billionth time!

The hundreds of illustrations were excellent and made it so simple to follow along with the text. Tom Serb's writing style is geared towards those who don't want to sit in a stuffy class room to learn what others know.

After reading this book my music not only sounds better but other people can now play it off my sheet music. It's nice to now be able to understand what others were talking about all these years.

When I read the reviews for this book, there were about five very positive and one negative. You now have another negative. I got as far as page 33 two or three times over, and each time found something else wrong. Yes, wrong. From counting out beats for a line of music that don't appear to be related to one another, to referring to diagrams on other pages only to find they didn't exist (not anywhere in the book), to basic errors in music notation (check out the whole rest that should be a quarter rest at the top of Page 25) and some other gems, I finished up wondering what else I was missing that I shouldn't be learning. I decided I couldn't take the risk and will probably consign it to my woodstove. It's sad, but I could have bought a quarter of a cord (not chord!) of wood for the price of this book...
I think Mr. Serb should find another editor for what I'm sure he had hoped would be a great resource for struggling guitarists.

Not sure what book the previous reviewer read but I have to wholeheartedly disagree with the review. I've bought 5 or 6 music theory books over the past few years. Some were quite confusing and about made my head split. Even so, I have no regrets in buying those others because I learned a bit from each of them.

This book is really written for the guitarist and the author lead me along a fairly nice path. He seems to be pretty smart at explaining things. I knew a little theory before but this book reinforced some of the things I knew and gave me quite a bit of new stuff to digest. There are some really good nuggets of info I've never found anywhere else. Funny, I liked the book enough that I even bought a second one for another guitarist in our garage band.

I found this book excellent, and very easy to follow. I really liked the way the author explaind things. I knew a little theory before I bought this book and It greatly expanded my knowledge. I enjoyed his writing style and I would recommend this book to anyone.

this is a good book for aspiring guitarist who wants a little theory on the guitar.

I really don't understand the purpose of this book. It isn't useful for beginners, not for people with some musical notation background ... so ... my worst 20 dollars spent ever

After looking over this book I have to say that it's cleary one of the worst music theory books I've ever seen for ANY type of instrument outside of "....for Dummies." The format is not clear, and there is no consistent way of understanding the terms and concepts he uses. Also, he's clearly not up to date on the advances in guitar tablature (and this book came out in 2002?!) which is a REAL drawback. I can understand the book - with difficulty - because I have a background in music. But if you're looking for a basic understanding of music theory for the guitar...save your money IMO. The author/sellers don't mention that one needs to already posess more than a basic understanding of music and especially chords (shapes, etc.) to get what he's presenting to his audience. A real disappointment and waste of money...at least I can recycle it.