Play Electric Guitar: From Beginner to Band in 3 Months [With CD]

This book takes an agressive approach to learning, with each "week" adding a lot of new concepts. I know a little bit about music, but I'm new to the guitar. For me, I like it a lot. People who don't play another instrument might find it more intimidating, I'm not sure. But then, no one is forcing you to finish a week's lessons in an actual week. What's good: it starts you off right away playing decent music. It begins with chords and some useful theory. You're moving down the neck right away. Playing along with the CD is fun, and it forces you to keep up with the tempo. If the book had been proofread better, I'd give it 5 stars. For example, there are places where the text has both a fret number and standard musical notation, and the fret number is wrong. The book refers you to play along with the instructional CD backing tracks, but it doesn't tell you which track number to play. It's easy enough to figure out what was meant, but a little more care would have been better. The wall chart is nice. I haven't used the color-coded stickies on my guitar (I think they're a little silly), but maybe some people would find them useful. Despite my little gripes, I really like the organization of the book, and it's a nice package with the CD and chart.

I'm am an instructor and I am considering using this book. The string numbering convention is no different from any other guitar book. This book provides a structured schedule, cd examples, a chord poster and jam tracks. More books should be like this one.

i just started using this book never having played before and am finding it totally easy to follow. the friendly narrative guides the reader through every step, explaining the most simple of terms and concepts clearly and concisely. and yes, the CD is funky and you can play along with it more or less straight away AND sound good, which keeps you motivated. horses for courses eh, i like this book a lot.

This electric guitar course takes you from absolute beginner to a level where you can start playing in a band. The three months mentioned in the title may be a bit optimistic, but the level of difficulty increases rapidly with each chapter, so you find yourself making quick progress. Each chapter is built up around a backing track on the CD, where you can try out the lessons in that chapter. The backing tracks, which are done in variety of pop styles, are also great for jamming along, so even after going through the material you'll have use of the CD. The book is not a reference book (go to Ralph Denyer's The Guitar Handbook for that), and the course is limited to rock music, but other than that (and the cheesy pick included) it comes highly recommended.