Chappell Jon - Guitar For Dummies

Guitar For Dummies, 4th Edition

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015951123

ISBN 978-1-119-15143-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-15308-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-15307-8 (ebk)

1. Table of Contents

So you wanna play guitar, huh? And why wouldnt you?

You may as well face it: In the music world, guitars set the standard for cool (and were not just being biased here). Since the 1950s, many of the greatest stars in rock n roll, blues, and country have played the guitar. Think of Chuck Berry doing his one-legged hop (the duck walk) across the stage while belting out Johnny B. Goode; Jimi Hendrix wailing on his upside-down, right-handed (and sometimes flaming) Stratocaster; Bonnie Raitt slinkily playing her slide guitar; Garth Brooks with his acoustic guitar and Western shirts; B.B. Kings authoritative bending and expressive vibrato on his guitar Lucille; or Jim Halls mellow jazz guitar stylings. (Even Elvis Presley, whose guitar prowess may not have exceeded five chords, still used the guitar effectively onstage as a prop.) The list goes on.

Playing electric guitar can put you out in front of a band, where youre free to roam, sing, and connect with your adoring fans. Playing acoustic guitar can make you the star of the vacation campfire sing-along. And playing any kind of guitar can bring out the music in your soul and become a cherished lifetime hobby.

Guitar For Dummies, 4th Edition, delivers everything the beginning to intermediate guitarist needs: From buying a guitar to tuning the guitar to playing the guitar to caring for the guitar this book has it all!

Believe it or not, many would-be guitarists never really get into playing because they have the wrong guitar. Or maybe the strings are too difficult to press down (causing a great deal of pain). Guitar For Dummies, 4th Edition, unlike some other books we could mention, doesnt assume that you already have the right guitar or even any guitar at all, for that matter. In this book, you find everything you need to know (from a buyers guide to buying strategies, to guitars and accessories for particular styles) to match yourself with the guitar and equipment that fit your needs and budget.

Most guitar books want you to practice the guitar in the same way that you practice the piano. First, you learn where the notes fall on the staff; then you learn about the length of time that youre supposed to hold the notes; then you move on to practicing scales; and the big payoff is to practice song after unrecognizable song that you probably dont care about playing anyway. If youre looking for this kind of ho-hum guitar book, youve definitely come to the wrong place. But dont worry, youll find no shortage of that kind of book.

The truth is that many great guitarists dont know how to read music, and many who can read music learned to do so after they learned to play the guitar. Repeat after us: You dont need to read music to play the guitar. Chant this mantra until you believe it, because this principle is central to the design of Guitar For Dummies, 4th Edition.

One of the coolest things about the guitar is that, even though you can devote your lifetime to perfecting your skills, you can start faking it rather quickly. We assume that, instead of concentrating on what the 3/4 time signature means, you want to play music real music (or at least recognizable music). We want you to play music, too, because thats what keeps you motivated and practicing.

So how does Guitar For Dummies, 4th Edition, deliver? Glad you asked. The following list tells you how this book starts you playing and developing real guitar skills quickly:

• Look at the photos. Fingerings you need to know appear in photos in the book. Just form your hands the way we show you in the photos. Simple.
• Read guitar tablature. Guitar tablature 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 to create 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. Dont try this stuff on the piano!
• View videos and listen to audio tracks. More than 80 short videos enable you to see how key selected techniques are executed. You can also listen to all the songs and exercises in the book performed on nearly 100 audio tracks. Doing so is important for a couple of reasons: You can figure out the rhythm of the song as well as how long to hold notes by listening instead of reading. We could tell you all sorts of really cool things about the audio tracks, such as how they have the featured guitar on one channel and the accompaniment on the other (so you can switch back and forth by using the balance control on your stereo), but, aw shucks, we dont want to brag on ourselves too much.