The Ultimate Guitar Compendium


Azrael
Gargoyle Instructor
Joined: 04/06/01
Posts: 2,093
Azrael
Gargoyle Instructor
Joined: 04/06/01
Posts: 2,093
07/10/2007 2:29 pm
Hello fellow guitarists!

As you know there is a vast amount of guitar-teaching books out there, more than one of them claiming to be THE ultimate tome of wisdom. Well.. if there was THE ultimate tome of wisdom, then there would be no need for hundreds and thousands of books, right?

Anyway - i'd like to hear from you guys:

What are your personal experiences with instructional guitar books?
Which one(s) do you ypersonaly like best and why?
What were you missing in those books?
What did you expect from those books?
Did they meet your expectations?

Imagine you will write the ultimate book - what would you put in it? What would you like to read in THE ultimate book?

Looking forward to your thoughts

Azrael

[FONT=Times New Roman]Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves. What you decide to do every day makes you a good person... or not.[/FONT][br][br]

# 1
earthman buck
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Joined: 10/15/05
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earthman buck
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07/10/2007 9:54 pm
I have a book called "Totally Guitar: the definitive guide" by Tony Bacon and Dave Hunter which I find to be awesome. It has an introductory section about the basic history of the guitar, a section with some easy lessons, a section that tells you how to change strings, set intonation, remove pickups, etc., a section about effects pedals and how they work, and a section with pictures of all different makes of guitar from just about every company you can think of it.

It truly is a great book. If you could combine something like that with some harder lessons, you'd have one helluva book.
# 2
ren
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ren
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07/10/2007 10:43 pm
Books I'd rate:

Like Akira - Chord Chemistry and Satch's secrets, for more or less the same reasons. Any book without can be improved with a CD of examples etc. When I first got the satch book I wasn't in a position to imagine what hitting a harmonic with the bar dipped before raising 6 tones, down 2, up 1 and so on - with the audio I'd have stood a better chance.

Maybe random, but another fav of mine is 'Talking Wood' by Andy Manson (UK Luthier for those who don't know). It's more a diary of his life including building a crazy multi-necked guitar/mandolin/thing for John Bonham. All very inetresting - bits on building guitars, bits on playing, love of guitar in general, him playing gigs and then just a Joe waking up and getting on with his day. No idea why it appeals, but it does.

For me now, no book matches my expectation because it will inevitably raise questions it doesn't answer.

The ultimate guitar book would I guess have to include absolutely everything. The basics I guess would be a grade 8 type syllabus for scales / chords / theory etc. For example, this (a 4mb pdf, so only click if you want that!).

After that it would have to break down technique. Legato, Alt/Economy/Hybrid picking, fingerstyle, tapping (up to 8 fingers), sweeping, acoustic stuff (percussive bits perhaps?), muting technique in different situations. The inevitable speed building etc. Diatonic Harmony at least and then maybe onward.

I guess that book would be pretty heavy. Might have to be split into 'foundation' and then style specific modules. I guess as I believe I'll never stop learning, I'd also have to believe that no book could contain all the information...

I guess that didn't help at all...

Check out my music, video, lessons & backing tracks here![br]https://www.renhimself.com

# 3
Gargy
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Gargy
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Posts: 142
07/11/2007 2:20 am
Originally Posted by: Azrael

Imagine you will write the ultimate book - what would you put in it? What would you like to read in THE ultimate book?

Azrael


The ultimate 'book' for me would be more a book on tape (EDIT: Or CD... this is the 2000's); I'm one of those rare people who learns things better from hearing them than seeing them (I have passed college courses without taking a single note on paper or reading the text before). If I were making it, I'd start with basic scales (the major scale in the open position, etc.) then move on to simple chords, barre chords, etc. Of course I'd have a booklet to go along with it (since its hard to explain what a barre chord is with spoken words alone).

As far as books I've owned, I've only had one and that was a book demystifing the penatonic scale and it's various shapes and positions. Everything else I've looked at was pure garbage (mostly because I'm an audio-based learner so it isn't neccesarily the book's fault).

Now that I think of it, I also have had mixed success with artist songbooks (I know they aren't really 'instructiona' per-se but hear me out). I learned more from a single Metallica Book and an instructor's assistance than I learned from any other book, magazine, or course that I've ever encountered. I remember he even got us started on Van Halen's Eruption before I had to cancel my lessons to move half-way across the country again *grumble*
# 4
hunter1801
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hunter1801
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07/11/2007 2:36 am
Originally Posted by: GargyThe ultimate 'book' for me would be more a book on tape (EDIT: Or CD... this is the 2000's)


Tape?! What the heck is that? I think I remember reading about something called a "tape" in a History book. :p
# 5
Gargy
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Gargy
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07/11/2007 10:22 pm
Originally Posted by: hunter1801Tape?! What the heck is that? I think I remember reading about something called a "tape" in a History book. :p


Some of us from the 1980s and 1990s have used them back before CDs really caught on (And of course this was all LONG before we had these new-fangled MP3s)

EDIT: I remember back when cars actually came with only tape decks (Actually, a Ford Taurus I rented in 2004 had only a tape deck, but it must've been an older model)
# 6

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