Here are some of the positive beginner guitar book reviews that Learning To Play The Guitar – An Absolute Beginner’s Guide has received so far.
If you have always wanted to learn to play the guitar but didn’t know where to start, then this is the book for you. It is divided into 21 lessons covering a range of guitar techniques to get you playing. Practice diligently and you will be able to play many songs using a range of skills required to play the guitar. – Mike Nach, 4 Stars on Goodreads.com
Books that..resonated the most with me include..Anthony Pell’s Learning to Play the Guitar – Lynn Kear
This book is perfect for the absolute beginner. It gives clear easy to follow instructions starting with how to hold the guitar through to playing your first song!! – Michelle Hornsy, 5 Stars on Amazon.com
Fantastic buy. Easy to understand and follow. Gives the basics and takes your learning step by step to another level with every lesson. Definitely recommend !! – Sue Camilleri, 5 Stars on Amazon.com
Anthony Pell has written one of the most comprehensive books on learning to play the guitar that I’ve ever seen. I already play the guitar, and have for nearly 30 years, but I can still remember buying a book that came with cassette tapes (giving away my age now) that taught me a lot, but nothing like this book.What Pell does is to lay out how to play the guitar in a simple and easy to understand way, and then give the reader a website where you can both see in audio form how to do what he’s teaching, and on video so you can see what you’re supposed to do. I need both.
While I can play guitar, reading Pell’s book taught me more than I’d known, like how to do some lead work which I don’t do, and some new picking techniques.
Pell starts the book out with explaining the 3 kinds of guitars, nylon stringed acoustic, steel stringed acoustic, and electric guitar so you know right away which one would work best for you. Each is used in different kinds of music, and since you’ve probably been inspired by a particular type of music, you’ll want to know just how to get the same sound.
While Willie Nelson plays an ancient nylon stringed acoustic guitar and uses it as both a steel stringed acoustic and an electric, you might want to do things the easy way first.
Next you learn the parts of the guitar which is important because you don’t want to go into a music guitar and have someone tell you that your guitar needs a fret-job, or that you have a string that’s off the nut, and look like a fool when you have no idea what they’re talking about(speaking from experience here).
From there, Pell talks about keeping track of your practice time, and tells you that a little every day is better than a lot on one day(we’re talking callouses). He’s a wise teacher and if you go through this book doing exactly what he says,( or you can get private lessons for $50 an hour) you can with enough desire and perseverance, learn to play the guitar. And what do they say? 10,000 hours to master something? Time to get busy and start practicing. That 1/2 hour a day does ad up over the year, and that’s not much to give towards a dream. – Robin Landry, 5 Stars on Amazon.com
I received this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I am very happy with the book and Anthony Pell’s teaching style. I have been playing guitar for a little more than a year, and I still have a lot to learn. I’ve used the Internet and other books to get the basics, but there were still some things I was confused about.This book is organized well, and the lessons are easy to understand. Included are MP3 sound clips along with video clips. Sometimes when learning something complicated like guitar, it’s important to study different teachers because a certain teaching style might be more conducive to your learning style.
This one works well for me because of the word clarity combined with the examples.There are several times in the book when Pell explains something and then states that such and such is more advanced and not part of the beginner’s guide. I am hopeful that this gifted teacher will put out a second book for those of us who successfully made it through the Absolute Beginner’s Guide. – LA, 5 Stars on Amazon.com
I was immediately impressed just reviewing the first few pages. I have always believed that you can pick up useful techniques from different artists that will help you eventually create your own style, but first you must learn how. Before I wrote my review I wanted to be sure that it was not all surface information and then the bomb drops, boy, have I been there! The few guitar instructors (that I have viewed online and purchased a few CD’s from) talk like they are planning to teach the beginner, but their finger movement and chatter is as if you already know what they are doing. I even bought “Guitar for dummies”, guess I must be an idiot! (LOL) Believe me, that is total frustration and a waste of money. I learned absolutely nothing from any of it and tended to give up.
So I took up a guitar class to learn how to play my guitar develop correct techniques. That has helped considerably and in conjunction with Mr. Pell’s book, let’s just say, having the proper tools are very important to a novice guitarist like me! I am one that is very visual and can value all that is provided; reading material, diagrams, the video illustrations and audio that you can play over and over.
I am so appreciative of this 21 lesson instructional book that I was happy to review! I am super pumped under the EXCELLENT tutorage of Mr. Anthony Pell into learning much more about the guitar! Yes, I feel like he is my personal tutor!!!
I have already learned many things from his book that have been a constant worry for me. I am certain with his instructions YOU WILL see results, you have no choice! I really like the fact that Mr. Pell takes the time demonstrating various finger placements!!! I have never heard nor read information explained so thoroughly nor have I seen it demonstrated so easily as to how to change (ex. between G and C) cords more smoothly. One of my greatest challenges (LOL) is the F cord which is pretty hard for most to master from all of my understanding. Mr. Pell shows you a method to “baby step” into mastering the F Cord. He teaches you the use of the Capo, metronome, how to do arpeggios and much, much more! His voice is soothing and unrushed and the book itself is very professionally put together. No jumping around to other things before you are ready to move to the next lesson. I can’t wait to see what he’ll come up with in the future! Until then this is a must have!
He includes a practice log that makes for a more disciplined guitarist, because it is a must to practice EVERY day. Something that I was guilty of not doing regularly and yes, no matter what, your fingers will be sore at first and you will get frustrated. As with any form exercise, your body is in pain in the beginning, but it quickly gets used to using those unused muscles again and you start to see results, guaranteed! I am certain with his instruction YOU WILL see results (oh, did I already say this)! My only complaint is where was Mr. Pell a few years ago? Would have saved me a lot of wasted money! – Judith Johnson, 5 Stars on Amazon.com
I have just started this guide, but from the first few pages, the information is delivered in a very clear manner. Along with the written information, the author also provides extra material on his site. This includes video, audio and print outs. I am a new guitar player, I actually started learning using the Rocksmith 2014 game on the PS3, however they do not teach proper ways of holding the guitar with the fret hand, etc, so before unknowingly learning bad habits, I decided to buy actual guides that teach all the fundamentals. Now I practice from this and other books (as well as Youtube Videos) and then play Rocksmith as a reward.I will update this review as I go along. – Ben Babeshkin, 5 Stars on Amazon.com
As the title states this is a beginner’s guide to learning to play the guitar for those of us who are absolute beginners. It has 21 lessons starting from what equipment is required to play the guitar as well as the different types of guitars, correct ways of playing, the easy chords straight to the more difficult chords and songs that can be played with each chord set.This is a great factual guide full of facts and helpful instructions, with visual and audio help through the entire book.
The author has a great writing style. The book is informative and gets to the point; there is just the right amount of information without being to detailed which normally leads to confusion in other books. The author knows how to captivate his audience and keep them interested rights to the last page. He has added some great pictures which help the reader understand the explanation more accurately. There are also lots of video and mp3 audio samples to further help the reader learn. I love that the author has also concentrated on different styles of music such as classical, jazz, blues, country and Rock & roll, not just one specific style. The author also provides lists of different songs that can be looked up and learned along with the ones that are available in the book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it completely helpful in my journey to learning to play the guitar. All aspects possible are explained in the book from the small instruments and chords required to the more difficult chords and songs. I loved that the book had visuals and audio, as it made the whole experience of the book easier to understand and more exciting. The explanations of all the processes to learning were explained in short detailed descriptions which were accurate and to the point. I also loved all the little extra facts spread out through the book. After reading this book and following all the instructions I feel like I am well on my way to becoming a guitar player, and now I can keep up with all the guitar lingo of those more experienced guitar players around me.
I think this is a great book anyone wanting to learn to play the guitar should read, it is easy and informative. I definitely look forward to any other books produced by Anthony Pell. I would rate this book a 4 out of 4. – Onlinebookclub.org
