Guitar For Dummies

Description

The bestselling music guide - now updated and with a FREE DVD! Have you always wanted to learn to play guitar? Who wouldn't? Think of Jimi Hendrix wailing away on his Stratocaster...Chuck Berry duck-walking across the stage to "Johnny B. Goode"...B.B. King making his "Lucille" cry the blues. No doubt about it--guitars are cool. Guitar For Dummies gives you everything a beginning or intermediate guitarist needs: from buying a guitar to tuning it, playing it, and caring for it, this book has it all--and you don't even need to know how to read music. Full of photo-illustrated exercises and songs you can play to practice the techniques discussed in each section, this step-by-step guitar guide will take you through the basics and beyond before you can say "Eric Clapton."
Helps you choose the guitar and equipment that best fits your needs and budget Shows you how to build strength and dexterity while playing Teaches you to play in different styles, including rock, blues, folk, jazz, and classical Fully revised and updated, with an all-new interactive DVD packed with video and audio clips that help you learn, tune, and play along, Guitar For Dummies is the perfect introductory guide for any novice acoustic or electric guitar player. CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of the e-book file, but are available for download after purchase.

Author description

Mark Phillips is Director of Music at Cherry Lane Music, where he has edited or arranged the songbooks of artists such as John Denver, Van Halen, Guns N' Roses, and Metallica. Jon Chappell is an award-winning multi-style guitarist, arranger, author, and former editor-in-chief of Guitar and Home Recording magazines.

Table of contents

Introduction 1 Part I: So You Wanna Play Guitar 9 Chapter 1: Guitar Basics 11 Chapter 2: Tuning Your Guitar 17 Chapter 3: Getting Ready to Play 25 Part II: Starting to Play: The Basics 37 Chapter 4: Getting Started by Strumming Chords 39 Chapter 5: Playing Melodies -- Without Reading Music! 57 Chapter 6: Adding Some Spice with 7th Chords 67 Part III: Beyond the Basics: Starting to Sound Cool 83 Chapter 7: Playing in Position 85 Chapter 8: Doubling Up with Double-Stops 95 Chapter 9: Stretching Out: Barre Chords 103 Chapter 10: Special Articulation: Making the Guitar Talk 127 Part IV: A Pile of Styles 153 Chapter 11: Let's Rock: Rock Guitar Basics 155 Chapter 12: Bluer Than Blue: Blues Guitar Basics 183 Chapter 13: Around the Campfi re: Folk Guitar Basics 207 Chapter 14: Maestro, If You Please: Classical Guitar Basics 233 Chapter 15: Sunglasses and Berets: Jazz Guitar Basics 249 Part V: A Guitar of Your Own 263 Chapter 16: Shopping for a Guitar 265 Chapter 17: Guitar Amps, Effects, Cases, and Accessories 281 Chapter 18: Changing Your Strings 297 Chapter 19: Guitar Wellness: Basic Maintenance 309 Part VI: The Part of Tens 325 Chapter 20: Ten (Or So) Guitarists You Should Know 327 Chapter 21: The Ten Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time 331 Part VII: Appendixes 341 Appendix A: How to Read Music 343 Appendix B: 96 Common Chords 353 Appendix C: How to Use the DVD 357 Index 371