Playing Guitar

by David Hodge

Learning to play the guitar has never been easier! Idiot's Playing Guitar begins with an introduction to different types of guitars and their parts, followed by helpful information on how to choose a guitar. You'll learn how to tune the guitar (supplemented with online audio), how to correctly hold it, how to read tablature, and about basic rhythm. Much of the remainder of the book gives you easy-to-follow instructions on learning chords, and each lesson is followed by a fun practice session and a simple song with which to practice the newly learned chords. In addition to over-the-shoulder color photos showing fingering positions and accompanying two-color chord charts that show exactly what to do, you can hear the chords, exercises, and songs performed from additional content online.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 3, 2013

Reviews

[Yycdaisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some good things about this book, but also some drawbacks. It's more of a resource book as you would need a lot of supplementary material to really learn everything presented. That said, a beginner would probably do ok for the first hundred pages or so as everything is explained quite well. Everything is presented in standard notation and tab. There is supposed to be access to tracks which others have said are hard to find. I didn't bother to look for them as it's possible to read the music notation, but that might be a deterrent for someone just learning to read music. Try guitarnoise.com.
After the first hundred pages at Part 4 is Growing Beyond the Beginner Stage. This is where it starts to go really fast. My opinion is there isn't enough material to really solidify all the new chords and other concepts. The songs used are good examples though for what David Hodge presents, and are beautifully arranged. Most people who get to an intermediate level would likely pick up other books anyway, or check out his or other's websites.
The book could have used a coil ring binding, it's hard to keep open.

[J A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional book for beginners. Well illustrated and practical introduction to playing guitar. Finally a really great book for someone wanting to learn how to play. This is first book after many others that I've actually found useful and fun to use. The publisher could make it easier to find the audio files, but David Hodge through his lightning fast email responses pointed me in the right direction. He is generous with his time and informative. The audio files for the practice tracks are located on the lower portion of the book description in "Book Extras" on the ORDER page. Very important! You will not regret buying this book. Thanks David!

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for beginners, explains every guitar technique in an ease and comprehensible way.

[Xavier Edoh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've barely cracked it open and I've already noticed that the audio tracks that the book says are available on the website are no where to be found. Because of that, I'm already being let down because the book seems to rely on these tracks for a majority of the exercises.

[Phyllis Mcguire]

I agree with the previous reviewer. Do not buy this book as it does not have the audio tracks on line that it promises. A real cheat to the consumer. I give this book zero stars for misleading the consumer and offering something it does not deliver!