Guitar: Music, History, Players

by Richard Chapman, Eric Clapton (Foreword)

Featuring a foreword by legendary guitarist Eric Clapton, this definitive look at the popular and versatile musical instrument explains how the guitar is used in various styles of music, from classical and flamenco to blues, folk, country, and rock, tracing the two-thousand-year history of the guitar and profiling three hundred key performers and their contributions to the music world. Reprint.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Reference

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A meticulously researched and scholarly book by a man who knows more about guitar and guitarists than anyone I've ever come across. That said, this consummate historian of guitar was let down by his editor(s). Aside from some obvious errors (e.g., Art Garfunkel was never a guitarist), the excessive use of some clumsy adjectives ("characterful"? "rumbustious"?) was often distracting. In addition, several other favorite - and unnecessarily ornate - words (e.g. "melodiousness"?) were repeated so frequently throughout the text that I began groaning. This undeniable expert needs to both keep a thesaurus close by at all times and ensure his editor(s) are awake when reviewing his work.