Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself to Play Guitar (Book & Enhanced CD)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent guitar instruction book for beginners. I had never even picked up a guitar before, but thanks to this book I am playing songs on the guitar without the expense of lessons. This book will teach you how to read notes and also where they are located on the guitar, as well as what fingers to use on the left hand. This book also teaches tabulature for those interested in that. All around, this is a fantastic guitar instruction book for beginners.

this is a great book if you are an absolute beginner! it made playing very easy, and was not discourging at all, like some other books i've tried that started out too hard or were too boring. i've finished it, and feel like i have a good foundation in guitar now.

I do not understand all the other reviewers who recommend this as a book for beginners. I have never played guitar, or any other musical instrument, and this book is not helpful.

It's only 80 pages long, and 68 of those pages require that you know how to read tablature. They only spend one page teaching you how to read tablature, which is completely inadequate for someone who is a complete beginner. There is minimal text in the book - everything is taught through tablature. There is almost no guidance on how to hold the guitar, and no guidance about hand positioning. No way is this a good book for an absolute beginner.

I recommend getting a DVD where the show you how to hold the guitar, position your hands, and strum. I assumed that would be on the "enhanced" CD, but it isn't. The CD is a joke - way too complicated for a beginner and poorly made. The CD would've been impressive 10 years ago, but it is very weak by today's standards. No video, small window size (it fills about 1/4 of my screen), and minimal explanation of what you're looking at. If you're a complete visual learner, this book and CD may be helpful. If you have been taught the basics, it might be helpful. As a beginner, it is pretty much worthless. The poorly produced DVD that came with my guitar is infinitely more helpful than this book and CD.

this is a great instructional book and cd for beginners! written well and has a lot of pictures to guide you along! 5 stars! :)

This book, along with the CD, is so easy to follow. After two weeks of lessons from the book, I'm more capable with my guitar then I was with a month of face to face lessons with my local guitar instructor. The book's lessons are very easy to follow, and along with the CD you can check out if the songs your playing actually sound how they are supposed to sound. What else can I say? If you really want to learn how to play the guitar, this book is your best bet to get started.

If 1) you have never had a guitar lesson, 2) no one has ever taught you how to play four or five basic chords and 3) you are a good sit-by-yourself-and-learn kind of person, this book may be just what you are looking for. I bought it as a gift to give along with a person's first guitar - and it worked for them!
Good luck to you, too!

I started as an absolute beginner. This book and CD have been great. I'm learning songs, learning to read music and "tab". The enhanced CD-ROM material is very helpful.
It's a very good place to start.

For a beginner who is truly willing to practice, the book is excellent. One wants to move ahead because of the appearance of simplicity at the beginning, but that is a mistake. Taking the time to do the rote work over and over makes the book and CD a great way to get started.

I used to play a little years ago and bought this on whim, wanting to get back into it. I'd say the lessons are a pretty efficient way to brush up on basic music theory and regain finger dexterity. But a few negatives: 1) the musical arrangements to play along with are really boring and not appealing, 2) the lessons are sort of terse and I don't really know if a complete beginner could feel comfortable with the lack of further explanations, 3) similarly I feel like the benefits are fairly limited, there is little discussion of musicianship, such as how to use practice time, how to build a repertoire, how to build aural skills, and so on, or even how one should approach the lessons.

In summary, I feel I got more or less my money's worth and that others could benefit from the product too... but don't expect too much from this.

I purchased this item for an 11 year old, and she thinks it's wonderful. She's already started playing short songs on the guitar and I credit this product for doing so.

The book is very descriptive and educational, definitely the best Teach-Yourself book I have seen yet. The notes were easy to learn and the images they showed made learning easy as pie!

Definitely a must have for a new guitarist!