1st Steps for Beginning Guitarist

The guitar is the most popular instrument in the world yet most students of the guitar are self taught. This book is a comprehensive method addressing the needs of two types of guitar students: those with no prior musical training and students who consider themselves to be intermediate or advanced beginners. No matter what type of guitar you play, this book will give you the information you need, and trouble shoot the various pitfalls that can hinder the self-taught musician.

The author knows from over 25 years of teaching experience that students form most of their good and bad habits in the first six months of practicing. It is therefore extremely important to use a method book that clearly and concisely covers the important subjects of proper playing technique, tuning, picking, strumming, music theory and rhythm. Furthermore, the only way a student can remember the information learned is to apply it. To help you apply the information found in the book we have supplied numerous approaches that you can use to quickly develop your abilities.

This book is designed to allow you to tailor your practice to your own learning style and the information you are interested in at the moment. If you would like to start with background information we provide you with detailed information on:

Care of your Guitar.
Holding the Guitar (multiple pictures and videos covering this subject also provided).
How to use a Guitar Pick (multiple pictures and videos covering this subject also provided).
Tuning the Guitar (multiple mp3 files).
Notes found on the Guitar (a chart showing all notes on the guitar).
Music Theory (written in simple terms with more music theory articles on our website for further study).
Nuts and Bolts of learning Rhythm.

If you want to get right to the chords you need to learn, we cover:

Both Open and Barre Positions for Major, Minor, and Dominant Chords.

10 graduated chord progressions with 3 different strumming styles per progression in the styles of hard rock, rock, folk, blues and country.

The hardest part of learning the guitar for a student is switching between chords. This unique method book contains chord progressions using both "open" and "barre" chords that gradually take a student from a beginning level to an advanced level.