Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1: Bk/Online Audio

Very basic to help beginners to get started playing. Simple to follow and understand. Recommend for anyone starting out and not knowing where to begin. If you know 8-10 chords and can play a few songs, this first one in the series is too basic. There is a progressive series of these books available: 1, 2, 3, etc.

Good Beginner Book

I have looked at numerous beginner guitar books, and I currently have about six others that I've checked out from the library, but I keep coming back to this one. I love that there is no TAB in this book. To me, TAB feels like cheating. You have to learn how to read TAB and then you get used to it, and then you feel like you need it. But even books with TAB usually also have the standard music notation written out above to clarify the rhythm, etc. So why not just use the standard notation in the first place instead of learning two systems? And this book, more than any other, taught me how to read music. It's simple. You learn a few notes on one string, and then you practice a few songs that use those notes. Then you move to the next string. There are no shortcuts! If you just steadily work at it, you get to the point fairly quickly where you can look at a note and automatically play it on the right string on the guitar. Yes, the music is basic, and I suppose some of it is boring (I found myself wanting to skip a few like Yankee Doodle), but I actually loved most of the tunes (especially the folk songs). It's helpful to have some idea what a song should sound like so you know if you're on the right track. To me, this is a good book to get if you're willing to put in the time and actually learn to read music. You learn chords too as you go along. But the chords aren't the focus, and I actually liked that. It's easy to get frustrated with learning guitar because a lot of people and books will tell you that all you need to learn is a few chords and then you'll be playing songs in no time. But they don't tell you how hard learning chords, getting them to sound right, switching between them in time, and singing along will be. This book actually gets you playing melodies quickly, and the chords come in time as your fingers toughen up.

This is a good well-rounded book that I found easier to learn with than some other systems such as Mel Bay. This book has been around in one form of another for twenty years or more, so don't expect super modern songs. The focus here is mainly sight reading and a few chords, although there is a full chord chart in the back the book really takes its time addressing more chords. So if strumming is your main emphasis, there may be other books out there that focus on a faster approach for chords. All in all its a good book and hard to beat for beginner guitar. Songs are not too hard but this is not really a self-study course I don't think. Make sure you get the one with the CD, its a must.

I just picked up guitar in April 2017. I have some good online resources for learning, but i was lacking material for learning to play melodies. This is the book my sons had in their school’s beginner guitar class. I started it a week ago and am learning well. It is a thin book. I don’t take issue with that. Books *way* back in my day in band weren’t thick comprehensive bricks either. I gave up playing an instrument decades ago. Learning an instrument and bringing music to one’s life is invaluable. If the material is clear and teaches the basics so a student can progress to the next level it has value. The author has other books to support that progression. This must be an effective learning style if it is still being used today. All in all, I am so pleased i can learn on my own, as i am decades from having a teacher in public school to tutor me. :-) i am on my own in this review. I received no benefit from the author or anyone else.

Hal Leonard was my first dive into the world of playing guitar. That was in the mid 90's. Now the next generation of the family is wanting to learn. It's a great text for building a solid foundation for reading music, counting, and learning proper technique. It may not be the best text for self-instruction. But with someone that has learned the ropes it provides a great teaching platform for budding musicians that want to build a basis for music theory.

This book tells you all in small steps: how to read notes, where those notes are on the instrument. Also important how to hold the guitar, what fingerings you have to use in order to play efficiently and start out from the beginning with a good technic for the right hand as welll as for the left hand. It tells you in simple ways how to count correctly and get the rhythm right. There is also an introduction into chord playing and at the end of the book is a summary of all the chords you have learned so far. Several scores give you opportunities to play with somebody else classical duo pieces. But even though the book has an easy approach it is better to have a teacher helping you go through the pages, step by step.

I am not a guitar player but I bought this for my brother who is just starting. It was recommended to me by a friend. Anyway my brother took his first guitar lesson yesterday and his teacher says this is the gospel of guitar books. So I actually did really good.. Without knowing.