For all the years I have been playing a guitar, I have never seen a "learn how to play guitar" book that provides a means of learning how to play a guitar in an easy to understand format which provides for the beginning guitar player plenty of clear and bold illustrations. So I thought it was about time to make available such a guitar book. I truly believe a picture tells a thousand words and this explains why I believe it doesn't take hundreds of pages of words to show someone how to play a guitar. I decided to present a guitar book which contains less words and more of what I like to call SEE & DO so that you wont spend a great deal of your time reading but spend a greater portion of your time with your hands on the guitar. You will discover that this learn to play guitar book will not overwhelm you with more than you need to know at this early stage of learning to play guitar, however will provide you with only the must know basics, learning techniques about getting started on the guitar and only the essential guitar chords, presented in simple to understand illustrations. You will find that by focusing and learning the most commonly played guitar chords and how they work together. With the information provided in this guitar book, you will be on your way to playing the songs you enjoy as well as your own creations a lot sooner.
On another note, you may also wish to get a copy of a handy and quick reference guitar chord chart: The "First Stage" Guitar Chord Chart Learn How To Play The Most Commonly Played Guitar Chords!
INTRODUCTION: A Little Taken From The Introduction Page You will discover that this learn to play guitar book will not overwhelm you with more than you need to know at this early stage of learning to play guitar, however will provide you with only the essential guitar chords in a simplified method. You will find that by focusing and learning the most commonly played guitar chords, you will be on your way to playing the songs you enjoy as well as your own creations a lot sooner.
CHAPTER 2: How To Tune Your Guitar
Includes the proper way to keep your guitar in tune with a clear and easy to understand illustration for each string the simple quick check method to tell you whether your guitar is in tune, also how to eliminate slippage - or the slack that occurs when tension on a string is lessened...
The best way to tune the guitar is by using any number of quality pitch pipes, tuning forks or battery powered guitar tuners which are available at any fine music store.
It is critical that you keep and play your guitar in tune. Another important, but often overlooked point, is to learn which tuning peg tunes which string, and the direction you have to turn the pegs to raise and lower the pitch of the strings. Learning this very mechanical aspect of the guitar will save you much time and confusion now and in the future. One last fine point about tuning; always tune your guitar so that you are raising the pitch to the correct note. That is to say, you should be tightening the strings as you tune your guitar, as opposed to loosening the strings, to achieve the desired note. This practice eliminates slippage or the slack that occurs when tension on a string is lessened, causing the string to quickly go out of tune again.
Please, take note of the arrows in the diagram on the following page. One end of the arrow points to the note which is to be held down with the second finger during the tuning process. The other end of the same arrow points to the open string which will be tuned to the note that is being held down at the opposite end of the arrow.
-Diagrams Illustrating How To Tune Each String Are Shown In The Book-
CHAPTER 7: Instant Chord Changes
Shows you how you can instantly change a chord to another chord by just lifting a finger...
As you become more familiar with positioning your fingers to form Barre chords, you will discover that you can make two or four different forms of chords from just one chord.
It is easy as lifting one or more fingers. In the chord diagrams below, we begin with one of the most commonly used finger pattern forms for the Major Chords, in this case, the F Major Chord. By lifting the gray colored number 2 finger, Middle Finger, you will create an F Minor Chord, then by lifting the gray colored number 2 and 4 finger, Middle and Pinky Finger, you will create an F Minor Seventh Chord and finally by lifting the number 4 finger, Pinky Finger, you will create an F Dominant Seventh Chord.
You can now move the entire F Major Chord finger pattern toward the body of the guitar to the next fret and you will be able to do the same with the next chord which will be an F# Major Chord. You can continue doing this up and down the guitar neck forming more and more chords.
In the first two diagrams below you can instantly change a Cm Chord into a Cm7 Chord by lifting just one finger. When you lift the gray colored number 4 finger, Pinky Finger, off the Cm Chord you will create a Cm7 Chord as illustrated in the second diagram.
In the second two diagrams below you can instantly change a Cmaj7 Chord into a C7 Chord by lifting just one finger. When you left the gray colored number 2 finger, Middle Finger, off the Cmaj7 Chord you will create a C7 Chord as illustrated in the fourth diagram.
-Viewing the clear And boldly illustrated diagrams in this book will show you how easy this is to do-
Be sure to look over the TABLE OF CONTENTS on this site to view the other guitar learning information that is included in this guitar book to determine whether you want to add this must have simplified pool of information to your guitar learning adventure...
