Customer Reviews

1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist, Chords and Chord Progressions

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this book after buying a couple of the "best sellers." I have to say the first thing that struck me about this method book is the depth that Mr. Arnold goes into about each aspect of playing the guitar for a beginning student. For instance the other books I purchased spent one page on how to hold the guitar, pick the strings, and the placement of my hands on the guitar, they also had very few pictures or visual aids. 1st Steps gave me a detailed explanation of each aspect of physically playing the guitar along with pictures, videos, and a host of audio files (mp3 and midi) to help me learn correctly. I even can e-mail Mr. Arnold through the FAQ page at their website if I can't figure something out. So far the book is so well put together that I haven't needed to. If you are a beginner like me this book is the ticket.

I've been using this book with my students for about six months and I would like to say that Mr. Arnold's method makes my job so much easier. You can tell that this guy is an experienced teacher. Any guitar teacher knows that for beginners, changing from one chord to another in time is a big problem . Mr. Arnold's 3-step etude process is clever and great for students with coordination hassles. I used to have to record my own progressions for students to play along with between lessons, but "1st Steps" already has them on-line.. These are not boring "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" tunes - when we play them, you should see my students' faces light up..... they really want to learn them! The website also has midifiles which are great for people who need to take their chords more slowly. The progressions get a little bit harder for right and left hand playing each time so students can gradually get more coordinated on their own. the "music theory" and "how to read rhythm" sections really helped my students learn basic theory and how to read music. I appreciated the pro tips section too. I recommend this book for other teachers but its also perfect for people who just got a guitar and are not sure what to do next.

If you just walked in the door with your new guitar, buy this book. There are guitarists and there are guitarists who think they can teach. Bruce Arnold has a knack for conveying a feeling of knowing what you are thinking as a guitar novice. This book makes you feel comfortable with your awkwardness of your decision to marry yourself to this instrument.

First, I would like to point out that this book is but a small part of a VERY thorough collection of educational material for guitar from Mr. Arnold. Each of his books targets particular aspects of guitar and often music in general. The books are part of a complete system by which you can communicate with Mr. Arnold. He actually answers e-mail that you send him and responds with VERY thorough and understandable answers. This "Beginning..." book has a good introduction to chord progressions, technique, and virtually everything you need to get started. I can not recommend this book highly enough. It is NOT a "quick fix" method by which you learn patterns on the fretboard and never even know what notes you are playing. It is not really targeted for any particular music genre, so I think it is appropriate for anyone that is serious about truly learning to play guitar. You begin to learn theory, sight reading, technique, and he will probably encourage you to begin ear training as well (another one of his books). His books are augmented with videos and additional information available on his web site. You can get access to the site by buying any one of his books.

The chord progressions are basic and easy to learn. Yes, it will take some time to learn them, if you are 100% new to guitar, but it is worth it. Each progression is played at three levels and the notation helps you to begin to understand rhythm as well. THIS BOOK COVERS ALL THE BASES FOR THE BEGINNER! E-mail Mr. Arnold if you have questions and he will fill in any ambiguity.

I would like to repeat that although you could just learn your basics from this book, without any of his other workbooks and such, I think that once you get started, you will be hooked. Bruce Arnold knows how to teach music and knows how to convey information in his books, web site, and with personal e-mail. This book is part of a total system (books, workbooks, website, e-mail) that Mr. Arnold can customize for you (by suggesting the appropriate books) that will allow you to take your guitar knowledge as far as you want to go, whether you want to go pro or primarily just play for fun, such as myself.

I think that this is the best method of learning. You have the luxury of learning at your own pace with plenty of reference material AND you have e-mail access to the author of the books if you get stuck on something. It is the best of both worlds of lessons and learning on your own. I have not found anything else quite like it, particularly with the quality of information that Mr. Arnold provides.

If you want to really learn, BUY THIS BOOK. If you just want to strum chords to folks songs for kids, get the e-Media CDROM and go through it (It puts me to sleep.) If you want quick fixes and don't care to understand what you are playing, this will not provide what you are looking for. If you just want to be able to "shread" through pentatonic scales at blazing speeds on your guitar to impress your friends (never actually understanding what you are doing or why), this is not your book. You will need to be serious about learning about music and about the guitar to get through any of this series of books, including this one. These books are for people that want to understand what they are playing so that each new song is not like starting over in your learning process. With a solid foundation, each new song is learned in a fraction of the time it would take if you don't understand anything but where to put each finger for a few chords.

I would also suggest that you purchase (in the near future) a songbook of "Easy Guitar" songs (or something similar) to start working on as well as this book or any beginning method book. This book provides the foundation, but you will want something else to work with at the same time that provides some songs that you have fun learning. Mr. Arnold will probably also recommend that you be sure to spend some time just having fun playing your guitar as well as practicing from the book or doing theory study. You have to continue to enjoy PLAYING as well as learning. That was key for me to maintain my interest.

All I can say is: If you want to learn from a pro, BUY THE BOOK! You won't regret it. Just plan to put a little time into it. As with anything worth doing, it takes time to learn to do it properly. This book will begin your journey.

I bought a guitar about year ago because I found myself playing "air guitar." Everyone who loves the sound of guitar has done it! :) I didn't know where to begin, and lessons were too expensive. This book was a breath of fresh air for how to learn the basics of the guitar. The only thing that was killing me was that I had experience playing the alto saxophone and reading music previously. Once I was able to play chords and scales fairly well, I had trouble focusing on the exercises, because I just wanted to dive right into my favorite songs. If you have never played a musical instrument before, this is a great place to start. Like any other skill, you need to be patient and take plenty of time to practice. The beginning is the toughest, but the learning curve is fairly steep once you learn control. I love music, and this book is a great beginning to learn how to make it.

I bought eMedia Guitar Method, Vol 1 and 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist. For myself I greatly prefer 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist. I thought eMedia was way over priced for what it offered. I guess if you are really struggling with the guitar, can't even finger a C chord after a few weeks of practice and like songs like Michael Rows a Boat Ashore eMedia would be perfect. 99% of the songs they teach I would never care to play. The Chord finder was cool but no songs for most of the chords in the chord finder so I was unsure how to use them. On the other hand I thought 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist was great. I should point out that you really should have a DSL or cable connection to the internet for this book. It comes with nothing but the publisher's website and it has 100's of videos, mp3 and midifiles for the information in the book. I've ordered a few of Mr. Arnold's books and I should also point out that he's an author that targets a student that really wants to play well and maybe form a band. His education style is more like one musician to another budding musician rather than giving you stuff that is corny or uninteresting. He also interacts with you via email if you have questions. So I guess what I'm saying is eMedia is fine if you really just want to accompany children or actually like campfire songs on the other hand if you want to learn stuff you wouldn't mind playing with your friends or in a band then I'd go for the 1st Steps.

I'm a total beginner and bought 1st steps along with 2 other popular
beginning guitar books. I found that I ended up working out of 1st steps
the most, and here's why. All the books had diagrams that explain the
basics of the guitar but 1st steps has more diagrams, and pictures and also
lots of helpful files on the publishers website. As a matter of fact the
website works really well with the book. I also felt like the guy who
wrote the book seemed to sense what my next question or problem might be and
then he'd provide the answer right when I needed it. This was particularly
true with the chord diagrams where he gives really great pro hints on how to
make these chords sound better quicker which was something I really
appreciated, but which neither of the other books had. Of course they all
have diagrams of notes on the guitar, positioning for both hands,tuning and
diagrams of the chords. But I knew I was doing things right when I was able
to look at the pictures in Ist steps and the videos that are on the website.
I could see in a minute with the videos and pictures what I needed to do.

the book also has a whole section of chord progressions with suggested
rhythms for playing the chords along with audio files to hear them. This
made learning the progressions a lot more fun. You would think all
beginning books would include some real music to play that sounded cool!

Finally from checking out the 1st steps website you could see from all the
FAQs how different all we beginners are. It was also great to be able to
contact the author Mr.Arnold via email and get his take on what direction I
should go to reach my goals. Books are great but having someone give you
personal direction was a real bonus with 1st steps. So I think that this is
a really excellent book to start out with, it seems to have everything you
could want, and more.

I bought my twelve year old son an electric guitar for the holidays. It was a big expense for us, but our son is a very serious young man, and promised he'd practice and teach himself to play. So we all got together around the computer and decided to get "First Steps for a Beginning Guitarist" because it sounded the most like an "interactive" product. I
have to say that it is! My son got a little confused a few days into studying the book, and since an e-mail address is given to contact the author, he wrote in a question. Within one day he had his answer, and was back to happily practicing again. I'm very impressed, and recommend this book.

I found this book to be amazing in all it has to offer. There are easy to understand explanations of music theory, rhythm, proper playing technique for a beginner, and (as I got into it) some really nice chord progressions. To top it off there is web support from the author. I asked a couple a questions and got an in-depth response in two days from Mr. Arnold. Mr. Arnold's response made me feel as if he cares about me like I am a student of his. He said in his e-mail "many times it only takes one misunderstanding to throw off the whole process of learning, and this is why web support is so crucial in learning correctly." He wasn't talking down to me but answering my questions and being helpful. He pointed me to the publisher's website, which offers a member's area were you can download a lot of free stuff. I particularly found the free book "how to change the strings on an acoustic steel string guitar" to be very helpful. It was 10 pages long with pictures of every step in changing a string. I picked up a couple of good tips along the way, and realized I was doing some things totally backward! The fact that there are pictures and videos really clears things up. I also found the audio files from the web to be very cool; they are all in midi files or mp3's so it was easy to play them with my browser, and there were even links to other free programs to play the files. Overall from my browsing other beginning guitar methods in my local music store and also on the web, this book is in a class of its own.

... Reviewed by: Bob Spear

Bruce Arnold is an accomplished jazz guitarist and educator. I reviewed three of his instruction books: 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist; Chord Workbook for Guitar; and Music Theory Workbook for Guitar.

I also listened to an incredible jazz music album he provided for my listening pleasure. As a player, he is awesome. As a writer of instruction manuals, he is very good for the more advanced student. I compared his books with the Mel Bay series, which I use for my students (and on which I learned). His go into much more depth than those I'm accustomed to. Ideally, I would introduce his material after a couple of months.

I am eager to see some of the other books he has in his series of over thirty instructional manuals. I believe depth is the best term to describe what this educator has to offer. He takes on some of the more difficult aspects for guitarists and digs deeply into the subject material. I would have killed to have manuals like these when I was in college.