Guitar Theory For Dummies: Book + Online Video & Audio Instruction

by Desi R. Serna

Serious about jamming, understanding, and creating guitar-driven music? Easy. With an approachable and engaging style, Guitar Theory For Dummies goes beyond guitar basics, presenting the guidance intermediate to advanced players need to improve their improvisational and compositional skills. Plus, with access to audio tracks and video instruction online you can master the concepts and techniques covered in the book.

Key content coverage pentatonic and major scale patterns; the CAGED chord system, chord progressions, and playing by numbers; roots, keys, and applying scales, plus modes and modal scales; intervals and chord extensions; popular song references and theory applications that help you understand how to play popular music and contemporary guitar styles, and create music of your own.

This title also features companion audio tracks and video content hosted online at Dummies.com The expert instruction and easy-to-digest information provides comprehensive guidance on how to apply music theory concepts to fretted instruments If you already have a handle on the basics and want to know more about the building blocks and theory behind guitar music, Guitar Theory For Dummies has you covered.

Genres: Music, Reference, Nonfiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Linda]

3.7-ish maybe.
I have been dipping in and out of this book for a looonnnng time and have now read the whoooole thing, and I do consider it to have a lot of good information. There is definitely a lot of theory, as it applies to the guitar and fretboard. I would not recommend this for a total beginner wanting to learn guitar; it was good for someone like me who knew a thing or two about a guitar thing or two already.

Mostly I liked his sensibility, tips, and sense of humor but *BIG SIGH ROCK MUSIC SIGH* sometimes it just felt...male. Not only because the vast majority of recommended tracks or "here's a list of songs that use this major scale we just talked about" are by male musicians but the author himself and his presumed reader. Example, "Brown Eyed Girl" -- lots of brown eyed girls will love to hear you play it, he tells us, as will the blue eyed girls standing in front of the stage pointing at their eyes saying "sing blue eyed!" hehehehe! OK, no, many of your readers will not in fact have that experience, and stop calling young women old enough to be in music clubs hearing your shows "girls."

I must say I enjoyed the chapter on playing in modes. Poor Locrian.

[Paul Marchand]

Finally, a theory book that I love. I inherited my copy; otherwise, I would have been totally put off by the price of the online access to the visual parts of the course (the paperback is all I own so far - the online visual aids are expensive to the tune of a few hundred bucks). I began reading, and wow, this guy makes sense. His teaching is clear, organized, and complete to the minute detail. I'm making progress without the visual aids. (I will very likely purchase them in the near future - self-discipline and budget dictates), but the amazing thing is that his style and concepts are so clear I can struggle without the visual aids and stay interested. It will probably take a year or two at my age to get through the exercises. I am already discovering and inventing new riffs, and for the first time, I understand where they come from. The result is awesome. I've been playing 12-string guitar and 5-string banjo, and I even own a dulcimer and a tiple. Each instrument is opening its soul after all these years of darkness in the mysteries of the fretboard. Thank you, Desi Serna, Thank you...

[Dan Charnas]

The author did a wonderful job of making what I would consider difficult theory understandable by using everyday conversational language to communicate to Guitar "Dummies" like me. I found the audio and video tracks to be helpful.
The fretboard illustrations in many instances were hard to read. It appears that the publisher had to shrink them to fit into their allotted spaces, and those fretboard illustrations where black dots are used with reverse type (i.e., white type) inside them to show chord fingerings or scales are quite tough to decipher.
In a similar vein, many of the notes and tabulature illustrations are in small print but legible - at least they were for me.
I spent a lot of time with this book and will continue to keep it handy for reference.

[Ye Yint Aung]

Nice and awesome

[Glenn Manifold]

Explains theory in the best way i’ve been able to understand. Wish i’d had this when i was 14

[Bobo]

good