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Learn to play the guitar
Learn to play the guitar
Most people, at one time or other, have yearned to play guitar. Some people even rush out and buy a brand new guitar and enrol in lessons without even giving it much thought. But unfortunately, the majority of people don't continue. It all becomes too hard and they lose enthusiasm. The other reason that they fail to master the guitar is simple - they haven't read the inspirational book, 'Guitar For Dummies'.
'Guitar For Dummies' contains everything that an aspiring guitar player needs to know. But best of all, it is jam packed full of advice that even more experienced guitarists can benefit from too, for example, position playing, which means that you forget about picking or strumming open strings and instead go down the fretted pathway of playing.
To show you just how popular this particular book is, it has already notched up sales of more than half a million copies. And the demand for it is stronger than ever.
The content of 'Guitar For Dummies' has been divided into seven parts.
The first part of the book is an introduction to guitar playing. It looks at the different physical parts that make up the instrument, and also shows you how to tune it so it sounds just right when you start playing. And by the time you have read the last chapter in this part of the book, you will know the correct posture for playing the guitar, but more exciting than that, you will have played your first chord!
The next part of the book focuses on the basics of playing. It is here that you will learn how to play both major and minor chords, and how to play your favourite tunes without even knowing how to read music.
The third part of 'Guitar For Dummies' is titled 'Beyond the Basics: Starting to Sound Cool'. If you've already been playing the guitar for awhile now, I suggest that you start reading the book here. You'll soon amaze yourself with the new skills and playing styles that you pick up.
The next part of the book is all about diversification. There are separate chapters there, each of which is devoted to a different style of playing. These styles include rock (class rock 'n' roll and modern rock); blues (electric blues and acoustic blues); folk (arpeggio style, thumb brush style, Carter style, and so on); classical (arpeggio style and contrapuntal style); and lastly, jazz (using extended chords, altered chords and rhythm comping).
If you need advice about buying a guitar, all is revealed in the fifth part of the book. This is where you can also find out how to look after your guitar, including basic maintenance tips and repairs.
The next part of the book is titled 'The Part of Tens' and it consists of two interesting sections: 1) the bios of ten top guitarists that you should read, for example, Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix; and 2) the details of ten top guitars that you should know about, for instance, the Gibson Les Paul and the Fender Telecaster guitars.
The seventh, and final part, of 'Guitar For Dummies' has been broken down into three appendices.
The first appendix shows you how to read music. Although lots of people have learnt to play the guitar without knowing how to read music, it is no great disadvantage either to know at least the basics of music notation.
The second appendix lists the chord diagrams of 96 of the most widely used chords.
There is also a companion CD that comes with the book and the third appendix describes its contents. In fact, the CD contains every music example that is used throughout the book and that equates to more than 160 different examples. So slot the CD into your computer's CD drive, get out your guitar out and start playing along.
To find out more about the 'Guitar For Dummies' book, point your browser at the 'Guitar For Dummies' Web site.
If you've never played the guitar before but you're keen to find out more about it, start by reading this particular book. The same advice applies if you've tried once before to launch your guitar playing career but never persisted with it.
Of course, the other sorts of people who will enjoy 'Guitar For Dummies' are those people already playing guitar but who are now serious about mastering it.
If you only ever read one book about playing guitar, make sure it is this one.