Originally Posted by: Akira..."The Complete Guitarist", by Richard Chapman. The bible of guitaring...
I beg to differ!!!
I have the book.
The graphics are cool. The history of guitar is pretty nice too. So is all the informastion about recording, amps and so on.
But as a book to use as a beginner to learn? Hell No!!
I even wrote to that Chapman dude (through his publishers) to air my disappointment with the book as a source of guitar instruction. He never wrote back, though.
It starts off like it's for a novice (what with all the stuff about how to tune and your first chords and everything), but the information gaps are too large/the learning curve too inclined. More often than not, it seems to me the author assumes you're using the book like some sort of encyclopaedia, or you have a reasonable amount of other material, or you have a teacher, or that sort of thing.
If like many kids you learned something like a recorder or a clarinet (I played a recorder) and you used, like I did, a good recorder book to learn, you'll understand why I find The complete Guitarist wanting. My recorder book taught you one note. Just one. Simple 4/4 beat. Then adds a semiquaver somewhere. A second note. A coupla more rhythms. Another note. After three notes, you could play "Three blind mice". My point is it takes you from absolute complete beginner, and teaches you the instrument. It even teaches you how to reasd music, coz you learn notes a note at a time.
The Complete Guitarist is definately a good book to have. And I'm sure once you have it, you will learn something from it. But it can't be your primary text.