Complete Guitar Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide to Playing Like a Pro

by Marek Walisiewicz, Jamie Dickinson

Covering every aspect of learning how to play the guitar, from choosing an instrument and using a pick for the first time to starting a band and writing your own music, The Complete Guitar Manual is a complete course of professional lessons that works both as a personal tutor and a comprehensive textbook. The Complete Guitar Manual is the ultimate self improvement guide for all aspiring guitar players great for aspiring guitarists and professionals alike, the book includes techniques and step by step photographic instructions that help you build new skills or hone existing ones.

Includes a DVD with video sequences showing how to play and how it should sound.

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 2011

Reviews

[Freda Mans-Labianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a ton of useful information in this book. I was amazed at how well laid out it is and how much you can learn. I do believe you need some existing music knowledge to fully comprehend all the tips and even just the general talk. I had already known how to read music, so I found it easy to learn where to find the notes on the guitar. The neck became a composition of music turned sideways, and I was able to learn quickly. I think people with no prior understanding of anything music, and not just singing along with the radio, will struggle a bit more. This book, along with the DVD, are so great for beginners. I plan to use this book for a long time yet, since I am so green, but so far it has taught me a lot.

3.5/5

[Daniel Ouellette]

J

[kubby]

found this in the local library (in a small town i am visiting, the library has many, many piano books but is quite limited in the way of guitar books) as i've been wanting more after the first guitar manual i got a couple months ago.
it has many photographs, but seemingly of all dudes. the only female name i've come across so far is on page 65, pj harvey, in a list of guitarists similar to the style of kurt cobain. there may be more females, but i've only had the chance to flip through a couple times and start reading from the beginning.
i picked it up as i wanted further reference for playing chords.
in the back of the book there are around thirty pages of a chord directory! the diagram layout of these is flipped from how i was initially learning to read where/which strings are. this said, they are also easy to read, cleanly laid out and with color coding for placement of fingers.
it has helped me see better the tab in relation to the chord notation. i may not yet have the musical vocabulary to explain all accurately enough. there are many diagrams, and throughout the book there is color on the exercises as well as photographs of hands showing proper fingering.
the notation (the five horizontals) is printed rather small throughout. i am nearsighted, and can read it, but if the book was filled with songs to play, i would find more difficulty with it. there are exercises, but not pages to play. there is also much explanation, the extant of which i have not yet seen in my limited exposure to guitar manuals. it would seem to give a good base understanding.
the first chapter is informative yet frustrating, as it seems geared toward independently wealthy consumers, to spend fancy free time finding the just right guitar (and amp if electric) no matter the monetary cost. ignoring that, chapter two goes into theory and chapter three is the meat of the book with the building sessions of playing.

so far i like this book.

there is also a dvd that comes with this book. chances are i won't watch it, but might if i had this book under other circumstances. so, i do not know how the dvd is.

[Yycdaisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book the chord charts are not illustrated in the usual ways i.e. facing left or up. It's disorientating to see them facing right, so some people may want to skip this one. There's a lot of information here though that might appeal to someone who can't access a teacher. The DVD has to be played on a computer as it needs to access the internet. It was a bit cumbersome to use, but the examples are clear. (Since a computer is needed, perhaps something like eMedia Guitar Method would give better value?) Not sure how to rate this one, maybe 3.5 but looses points because of the chord illustrations.