The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing the Guitar

by Frederick M. Noad

Explains how to select a guitar, understand chords and melodies, how to read notes, explore different musical styles, and details how guitar music is written.

Genres: Music, Reference, Self Help, How To, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jason Koivu · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the spine, the title is written so that the words "The Complete" and "Guide to" are very small indeed, so small in fact that when reading the title from a few feet away it appears as if this book is called Idiots Playing the Guitar. I kinda wanna read that book.

I'm not saying this is a bad book, not in the least! However, it's still a boring old text, regardless of the Idiot's Guide's attempt to fun-it-up with some "kooky" cartoons. Nonetheless, if you're picking up a guitar for the first time, you could do worse than to make this your beginner's go-to text...believe me. The only book I had while learning was one that was nothing more than page after page of chords, hundreds of diagrams of hands on the fretboard. No how, what or why ever explained. This one does a very good job at walking you through the basics.

It begins with a bit of history, moves on to explain what a guitar is (remember this is an Idiot's Guide), gives you tips on what to look for when buying a guitar, as well as advice on how you're going to be handling your ax (<- That's rock-n-roll slang for guitar, kids!) and then proceeds to the actual playing of music.

You can learn the musical staff if you wish, and if you're planning a professional career in music, you probably should, but if you're just learning to play for fun or starting a band with friends, tablature - the guitarist's cheat sheet - is provided for every song included in the book for practice.

Every chapter has a half-page section called "Guitar Gods," in which they give a brief rundown of a virtuoso. And it's not just all about popular rock guitar gods either. The book has various sections detailing a number of different styles of music in which the guitar plays a prominent role, and each of those "Guitar Gods" sections includes relevant players to that style.

So, while I've been writing this review, I've been trying to remember how I came into possession of this book. My edition is from 2002. That's about 14 years after this kind of basic, intro to guitar playing info would've been helpful to me. I bet my brother bought it and it ended up in my collection when he moved and unloaded some of his stuff on me. Oh well, this might actually come in handy. My teenage-aged dreams of being a rock legend have slipped away, but now and then I occasionally like to bust out with "Iron Man," and frankly I am quite rusty. Running through the songs herein might help oil the ol' finger joints. Plus, I never did learn the flamenco style...Oh good lord, if I learned flamenco my woman would want to make the sweet, passionate love to me all of the day and all of the nighttimes! I'm not sure I've got the cojones for that...

[Leah Markum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good supplement to watching YouTube videos. It's easy to get lost, watching a video for this basic, that song, but not really understand what's in between. Videos give you the bare minimum to play popular songs, but a good book makes you well rounded and gives you a sense of direction. Now I understand hows and whys of different postures, hand positions, what chords really are, how to play finger style when I had to be on YouTube for a long time before learning you don't always strum--you can't learn what you don't know to look for. This book also focuses on classical style, something I didn't know about until more recently, which is more my preference. Don't know any classical songs off hand? This book is full of them. This book goes on to cover musical notation and chapters on different styles like folk, rock, jazz, and country, including a few sample songs. I think continuing from this book and returning to videos I'll have a lot better idea what I need and want to learn, and progress better.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always pleased with CIGs I use, including this one. I've been taking guitar classes and this is a very good supplement for additional self- study. I worked through the whole thing over several months, a chapter or two a week, just to get regular practice and try new things. There are some good practical tips about things like finger position, decent trivia and tidbits, and worthwhile practice songs. Once it gets to more intermediate+ stuff it kind of makes a jump fast though -- but I plan to go back and rework each chapter again for review anyway.

[McClellan Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

More traditionally rigid in its teachings for guitar than I'm interested in, but it's a solid reference guide for guitar basics and will get you where you want to go to play more interesting music.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

More lefty books needed

[William Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to use and learn. But their list of famous guitarists was weird. They included Paul Simon (who I love as a song writer/ artist) but forgot Slash? The song options also aren't so exciting.