Learn to Play the Guitar - Phil Capone

Learn To Play The Guitar by Phil Capone.

I started learning to play the guitar about two years ago. Being a student I couldn’t really afford lessons so I decided to try the self-taught approach. I headed out to a music store and bought an acoustic guitar and a learn how to play the guitar book. I tried really hard to learn it but the book just was not helpful and after a while I lost interest as I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere with it. My guitar was left in my bedroom unused until about 6 months ago. I stumbled across this book after it was recommended to me by a friend that I should give learning the guitar another go. The book cost me £12.99 which I thought was a very reasonable amount and I bought it from amazon.co.uk.

The book claims to get you playing the guitar with minimum fuss which is actually what I needed. I was willing to put in the effort to learn how to play but I wanted to see results fairly quickly. The book certainly does teach the basics, if you already have some knowledge about playing the guitar then I wouldn’t recommend this book. It is a hard back book and all the pages are on a binder which is extremely useful as when you are working your way through the book the pages stay where they are meant to. There are 33 lessons in total.

The book explains everything you need to know about the chord and scale libraries, the fingerboard, notes for left-handed players, getting in tune, how to sit comfortably with the guitar, where to put your right hand, how to read a guitar TAB, chords, riffs, basic strumming patterns, basic finger picking patterns, chord progressions, the minor pentatonic scale, pentatonic riffs, barre chords, open chords, expressive techniques and lots more.

The presentation of the book is very tidy. It is the perfect size so that you can fit it in your guitar case or in your bag. For every instruction there is a picture which clearly shows what you need to do. The titles are in bold and therefore certain sections are easier to find. The steps are clearly shown in coloured boxes and instructions are given in italics. There are ‘top tip’ boxes which give you more useful information on how to play the best. There is a chord and scale library at the back of the book which clearly shows all the chords you need to know and which fingers to put where.

There is a also a CD which comes in the back of the book which is highly useful to practice with. Throughout the lessons there are references to which tracks on the CD correspond with the lesson. It is really helpful as you can hear what you should be sounding like so you know how well you are getting on.

Overall the book is very useful to any wanting to learn how to play the guitar. Here are some of the most useful bits in the book:

*The Glossary of Terms: I find this really useful to learn some guitar lingo.

*The Chord Library: I use this a lot when I am practicing and need some help with chords.

*Lesson 5 Reading the TAB: I had no idea how to read guitar music before reading this.

*Lesson 2 Are you sitting comfortably?: This was very useful when I first started playing as I had no idea how to hold the guitar and reach the fingerboard.

*Lesson 25: In this lesson you learn how to play ‘House of the Rising Sun’, one of my favourite tracks ever.

I find this book really easy to follow and understand. I am still working at my guitar playing and I am not exactly a pro yet but this book has definitely brought me a long way. It is good to have a book that I can go back to time and time again. I quite like the self-taught approach, especially with a book as helpful as this. The pictures are great in the book, they are really clear and help me to get the chords right.

I think that this book is suitable for all beginner guitarists, whether you are having lessons or not this book is sure to be of some help.

The book can be bought in most good music stores or via the internet, RRP £12.99.

Published by Apple Press.
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