This book provides a thorough introduction to the world of electric guitar playing. Both rhythm and lead playing are covered along with essential elements such as slurs, slides, note bending and vibrato. Beginning with the basics of reading music and tablature, you will quickly learn how to make the most of the guitar pickups, get good amplifier settings and make some great sounds.
Through the course of the book, you will learn how to play chords in both open position and movable shapes, along with all the essential techniques for lead guitar playing. You will also learn to understand rhythms, scales and keys as well as how to invent your own licks and solos. There is even a special lesson on how to use guitar effects to create great sounding parts.
To improve your skills even further it is recommended that you use a metronome or drum machine with all the examples in the book. Play each one through until you can do so easily from memory. If you are serious about music, a good teacher can often help you progress much quicker than you could on your own.
The best and fastest way to learn is to use this book in conjunction with:
- Buying sheet music and song books of your favorite recording artists and learning to play their songs. By learning songs, you will begin to build a repertoire and always have something to play in jam sessions.
- Practicing and playing with other musicians. You will be surprised how good a basic guitar/bass/drums combination can sound even when playing easy music.
- Learning by listening to your favorite recordings. Start building a collection of albums of players you admire or wish to emulate. Try playing along with one of them for a short time each day. Most of the great guitar players have learned a lot of their music this way.
Using An Electronic Tuner
The easiest and most accurate way to tune your guitar is by using an electronic tuner. An electronic tuner allows you to tune each string individually to the tuner, by indicating whether the notes are sharp (too high) or flat (too low). An electric guitar can plug directly in to the tuner.
There are several types of electronic guitar tuners but most are relatively inexpensive and simple to operate. Tuning using other methods is difficult for beginning guitarists and may take many months to master, so we recommend you purchase an electronic tuner, particularly if you do not have a guitar teacher or a friend who can tune it for you. Also if your guitar is way out of tune you can always take it to your local music store so they can tune it for you. Once a guitar has been tuned correctly it should only need minor adjustments before each practice session. To learn to tune the guitar using other methods see Progressive How to Tune the Guitar.
