Edited by Marek Walisiewicz, Louise Abbott, Maddy Edwards & Sarah Tomley
DK Publishing, $25.00, 352 pages
The Complete Guitar Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide to Playing the Guitar is like the Bible for every guitar player – from novice to veteran. Chock full of easy-to-follow instructions and photographs, anyone who picks up this book is sure to find it an invaluable asset.
Being completely green when it comes to playing the guitar, I thought I would check this book out myself to get a feel for the instrument considering I have both an acoustic and electric at my disposal. With most books, I have always felt overwhelmed with the wording and overall lack of instruction. This was not the case at all with this book. Not only do they describe in detail how everything works, but you also have full color photographs to illustrate each direction. And if THAT isn’t enough, you also have a DVD that provides demonstrations of every exercise that is covered in the book.
Along with being one of the most comprehensive books when it comes to learning the guitar, there are also chapters on guitar maintenance and even a chapter on becoming an artist – which includes writing material, playing for an audience, forming a band and how to record your music to get it out in the world. Although I would never consider this for myself, I appreciate the extensive research that went into the material and understand how invaluable this information would be for someone who would like to start a music career.
If you’re just picking up a guitar, or looking to further your knowledge, I would highly recommend this book to every guitar enthusiast out there. For all of the information that is contained in this book, I would go as far as saying that it’s worth its weight in gold. Fortunately for everyone, it doesn’t cost that much and is affordable for anyone’s price range.
Reviewed by Missy Wadkins