Teach Yourself VISUALLY Guitar [Paperback]

Charles Kim (Author)

Book Description

Series: Teach Yourself Visually | Publication Date: January 4, 2006

Do you learn faster by seeing and doing than by wading through tedious instructions? Then pick up a guitar and start strumming! Teach Yourself VISUALLY Guitar shows you the basics—photo by photo and note by note. You begin with basic chords and techniques and progress through suspensions, bass runs, hammer-ons, and barre chords. As you learn to read chord charts, tablature, and lead sheets, you can play any number of songs, from rock to folk to country. The chord chart and scale appendices are ready references for use long after you master the basics.

Concise two-page lessons show you all the steps to a skill and are ideal for quick review

• Each skill, chord, or technique is clearly described
• Detailed color photos demonstrate proper fingering and technique
• Concise and understandable instructions accompany each photo
• Helpful tips provide additional guidance

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

• Step-by-step instructions

• Hundreds of color photos

• Bonus audio CD

Longing to learn guitar? Don't fret. Teach Yourself VISUALLY Guitar shows you what you need to know—photo by photo and note by note. Whether you choose an acoustic or an electric guitar, you'll begin by getting into the proper position and playing basic chords. Then you'll progress through strumming and picking, barre chords, arpeggios, suspensions, bass runs, soloing, and much more to play songs in any style. Plus, in this revised edition, you get all-new coverage of how to read music, even more photos and examples to help you grasp techniques, and a companion CD packed with audio help on everything from tuning your guitar to keeping rhythm.

Concise lessons show you all the steps to a skill and are ideal for quick review

• Each skill or technique is defined and described

• Detailed color photos demonstrate each step

• Step-by-step instructions accompany each photo

• Helpful tips provide additional guidance

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Charles Kim plays guitar, electric and upright bass, pedal steel, banjo, violin, alto saxophone, piano, keyboards, and drums. He teaches guitar, bass, songwriting, recording, and music theory at Chicago’s renowned Old Town School of Folk Music. A multifaceted musician, producer, and composer featured on numerous albums, Kim is also a composer and sound designer for film, TV, dance, and theatre companies. His scores have been commissioned and featured by the Royal Academy of Art, Showtime, and the History Channel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Visual; 1 edition (January 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076459642X
• ISBN-13: 978-0764596421
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Learning guitar the easy way., September 23, 2010

By 

Gone Again "Gone Again" (APO, AE, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Teach Yourself VISUALLY Guitar (Paperback)

The contents of the book are easy to follow. The material is presented in a way that I could learn from the ground up, how to play the basics needed to progress to the next level without paying a personal tutor. I purchased the book used (previously a library book) with around ten pages loosely fitted in the book. (no missing pages) Keep in mind the ratings for used books before ordering. I felt lucky to recieve a complete book. (The best part is, the loose pages were the chords I need to lay out to practice anyway. BONUS!)I was not disappointed with my purchase and look forward to ordering TAB books in the future.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but typos will make you scream, September 17, 2007

By 

ActionDude (NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Yourself VISUALLY Guitar (Paperback)

Very well put together. Not enough info on guitar care. The pictures of the finger chord are ok, but you can not always tell exactly where the fingers are. A fret/string/dot chart would have been enough. An occational picture just to show the proper finger placement would be ok.

The biggest program is in the chord progression section there are typo's in the several of the chord charts. Very confusing. I'm glad I checked it out at my library. The book could have been so good if co-written with a several beginning enthusiasts to find out the missing connection.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best teachers around, December 14, 2010

By 

B. Forde "Travelled" (Glasgow) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Teach Yourself VISUALLY Guitar (Paperback)

I bought the book before I also took a few classes with Charles at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. It prepared me really well to start taking actual lessons.

As excellent as the book is, if you live in Chicago and have an interest in learning music, especially guitar you need to take him for class. It is intense but fun, and you will learn so much from him. All the teachers are tremendous, Charles, Dawson, Jacob Sweet and Beshaw stood out. Charles is a technique taskmaster and a lot of fun in class. Highly recommend Charles book, his class and the OTSFM. The absolute best.