4 out of 4 stars
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Learn To Play Guitar by Gareth Evans is a comprehensive systematic guide to playing both acoustic and classical guitars. The book comprises of five brief chapters that include an introduction, the fundamentals, chords, playing shapes, and reading rhythms. Each chapter closes with several questions that aim to ensure that the fundamental concepts explained are comprehended by the reader. The answers for the items are provided at the back of the book.
The book begins with precise details on the correct position to hold a pick, then moves on to instructions on tuning a guitar. Next, the reader is introduced to tablature, the major scales, fretting hand technique, chords, strumming technique, changing between chords and strumming.
A great feature of this book is that photographs are used to illustrate what the author demonstrates in his explanations. The photos demonstrate correct and incorrect methods involved in guitar playing. The illustrations of the notes and chords are shown in easily readable sizes that are well positioned on the page. As a reader with limited knowledge of guitar playing, I feel confident that with a close reading and re-reading of this book I would have little or no difficulty in reading the guitar music from the explanations and illustrations shown. However, I feel that someone with a rudimentary knowledge in reading music may readily follow the musical pieces provided. The book uses standard musical jargon such as a metronome, pentatonic scales, and barre.
This book serves as an ideal guide for a beginner to intermediate player to understand the fundamental of playing guitar and reading guitar music. I liked the use of international and straightforward music pieces like Jingle Bells and Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars. The book was exceptionally well written, as I was hard press to find any apparent errors beyond punctuation omissions. The only feature I disliked is that the majority of the illustrations and photos were in black and one. I think that the use of colored photographs would be more appealing visually.
I would rate this book as a 4 out of 4 stars, as it is a comprehensive, user-friendly and skilfully written book that painstakingly hones a beginner’s skill from a novice player or music reader to that of an intermediate music player and music reader. The book also offers additional supportive material via the website links provided that works smoothly linking the user to the other resource materials including an audio track of the musical pieces. I would readily recommend this book to children or adults who have an interest in learning to play the guitar.
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Chip’s World: Complex #31 and The Caretaker
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