Media at a Glance
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Guitar Songs & Styles For Dummies,
Enhanced Edition
by Mark Phillips
Director of Music, Cherry Lane Music
Jon Chappell
Award-winning guitarist and author
Guitar Songs & Styles For Dummies, Enhanced Edition
Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
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Copyright 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ
Published simultaneously in Canada
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ISBN: 978-1-118-13324-8
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Introduction
Y ou and your guitar can combine to play a multitude of styles, and whether you want your guitar to rock n roll, wail some blues, pick some folk, or go classical, this book can help you achieve your dream.
Playing rock or blues on an electric guitar can put you out in front of a band, where youre free to roam, sing, and stir the passions of your adoring fans. Playing classical or folk on an acoustic guitar can make you a star in a more intimate setting or a guitar hero at a campfire singalong. The bottom line is: Playing any kind of guitar can bring out the music in your soul whether you play for an audience or just for yourself.
About This Book
Guitar Songs & Styles For Dummies showcases the skills and techniques you need to focus your guitar playing on four of the most popular styles in music: rock, blues, folk, and classical.
Playing the guitar
Although this book includes plenty of sheet music you can use to play pieces of music, you dont have to be able to read music to play guitar. In fact, many great guitarists dont read music, and many who can learned to do so after they learned to play the guitar. Repeat after us: You dont need to read music to play the guitar.
So, no music-reading required, but it helps to understand guitar tablature, which is a guitar-specific shorthand for reading music that actually shows you what strings to strike and what frets to hold down on the guitar for creating the sound thats called for. Tab (as its known to its friends and admirers) goes a long way toward enabling you to play music without reading music.
As you look at the music, you may notice little letters above some notes. Classical guitar notation indicates the right-hand fingers with the first letters of the Spanish names for the fingers: The thumb is p (pulgar), the index is i (indice), the middle is m (media), and the ring is a (anular). You may also see these notations used in fingerstyle guitar.
Looking and listening to the e-book
This book is enhanced with media clips that help you see what to play, hear how to play it, and combine both senses in video clips. So, along with the numerous two-dimensional illustrations and bars of written music that can help you understand how to play guitar, you can expand your experience into auditory and visual dimensions with a simple click or two:
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Video intro (0:20)
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