100 Tips For Guitar You Should Have Been Told (includes CD) [Paperback]

David Mead (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2006

This guitar tutor shows you how to learn more efficiently and includes guidance and comments from great guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, David Glimour, Brian May and John Williams.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Sanctuary; 1 edition (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860742955
• ISBN-13: 978-1860742958
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #426,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss this book, trust me., November 13, 2000

By 

Sergio Orozco (Mexico, D.F. Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Tips For Guitar You Should Have Been Told (includes CD) (Paperback)

I found this book to be a real jewel. Basically, it teaches you how to effectively play the guitar by "feeling" and ear rather than by memorized tablature licks. (The book makes an emphasis on lead-guitar playing, altough it has a neat rhythm-playing section). The author states that unfortunately, tablature has become a mainstream method for guitar teaching, and while tablature certainly has its own merits, the author views tablature as a musical equivalent of a "paint-by-number" painting; I couldn't agree more with this particular point of view. The book is rock solid and contains just the right amount of music theory to get the point in question through; it also contains numerous quotes by extremely talented guitarists (Satriani, Vai, Edward Van Halen, etc.) that support the author's point of views. Is the method effective? I have a cousin I consider to be a very talented guitar player (he has been learning guitar for two years aprox.). As an example on his playing ability, he learned to play perfectly Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover" from tab in about a week. I have had this book for around three months (I have been self-learning for about 8 months), and last time he saw me play & improvise, he just screamed in awe "how the hell did you learn to do that???". I found out his guitar teacher regarded improvisation as an "extremely difficult" and "only for the gifted" stuff. This book shows it's certainly not.

After you digest this book, I highly recommend Troy Stetina's Speed Techniques for Lead Guitar. I believe it's the perfect complement for this book.

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Short on Substance, September 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: 100 Tips For Guitar You Should Have Been Told (includes CD) (Paperback)

I am experienced guitar player. The title of this book promised a list of useful tips for someone who has been playing the guitar for a while. Instead, the book provides a only a free-formed discussion aimed at beginners. Still, I read the book in anticipation of learning something useful "that I should have been told." I was disappointed to find the book to be little other than a pep talk telling the reader to forget about "academic" learning and play from the heart. While it seems like the author spends half the book denigrating the learning of scales, about the only real substance in the entire book is in the several pages devoted to scales. Without these much-maligned scales, where is the player supposed to find the notes for expression?

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learning to play guitar? This is the ideal first book., May 14, 2002

By 

sir_isaac_newton (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Tips For Guitar You Should Have Been Told (includes CD) (Paperback)

I wish I had this book when I started learning to play guitar in the late 70's, I would have made much faster progress. This book tells you what you need to learn. It also gives you a pretty good indication of how much emphasis should be placed on the various aspects of playing. It also talks about the oft overlooked non-technical aspects that are an essential part of great music. The author really has cut to the chase here -- the book is focused like a laser on giving the reader only the most useful information. Too many other books wander off into esoteric specialist topics without first identifying the core subjects and covering them -- I know, I have some truly awful guitar books from the late 70's. This book contains the distilled knowledge of years of learning, teaching and of interviewing great guitarists. I have already learned much of what David teaches here myself the hard way -- reading countless books and magazines, taking lessons, etc.. I intend to work through this book though (at this stage it should not take to long) to fill in gaps and reinforce what I should already know. The author is very methodical in his approach. He is a regular contributor to (and former editor of) Guitar Techniques magazine, which is probably the best guitar magazine available. I find him to be entertaining, insightful and amazingly candid ... which is refreshing. If you have not yet learnt the pentatonic scale in all position, or do not know all the open position major, minor and 7th cords and the A and F shape barre chords -- you should definitely buy this. Even if you do know that, consider buying this -- it could save you a lot of time/money/energy. If you are already a professional/expert player -- there is probably nothing much new here for you, other than some interesting quotes for top guitarists, and you might find it interesting to see how concisely and originally the author has covered this topic.