Guitar For Dummies: All in One, good or bad choice?

sryanbruen · 20-09-2015 3:17pm #1

Is the Guitar for Dummies: All in One book good for me to get? I am only a beginner at playing Guitar and I am looking for a cheap way to learn. The YouTube tutorials are not helping me that much. Just please answer if the book is good or bad.

Fingers Mcginty · 20-09-2015 6:20pm

check out justinguitar on youtube.

Ol' Donie · 20-09-2015 6:58pm

I got Guitar Excercises for Dummies a few years back. Found it pretty good. In my experience combining resources is the best approach, so I would use the book & justinguitar as mentioned above (as a start).

But I'm not a teacher.

Rigsby · 21-09-2015 8:45am

sryanbruen wrote: »

Is the Guitar for Dummies: All in One book good for me to get? I am only a beginner at playing Guitar and I am looking for a cheap way to learn. The YouTube tutorials are not helping me that much. Just please answer if the book is good or bad.

IMO it would be a good idea to get a good teacher. Save up and get a set of about six lessons. It will get you off to a good start.

To answer your question. I can only speak for the Bass Guitar for Dummies. I found this to be very good for those starting from absolute scratch, but again IMO the best book out there does not even come close (from a learning aspect) to having a good teacher.

The ideal situation would be to have a teacher recommend a book, and then work through it with you.

sryanbruen · 21-09-2015 6:01pm

Rigsby wrote: »

IMO it would be a good idea to get a good teacher. Save up and get a set of about six lessons. It will get you off to a good start.

To answer your question. I can only speak for the Bass Guitar for Dummies. I found this to be very good for those starting from absolute scratch, but again IMO the best book out there does not even come close (from a learning aspect) to having a good teacher.

The ideal situation would be to have a teacher recommend a book, and then work through it with you.

The problem with that is of the teacher, I am packed every day! School every day and other activities taking place other days such as singing lessons, piano lessons, youth club etc. So should I get the book?

Rigsby · 21-09-2015 8:26pm

sryanbruen wrote: »

The problem with that is of the teacher, I am packed every day! School every day and other activities taking place other days such as singing lessons, piano lessons, youth club etc. So should I get the book?

It is a case of sorting out your priorities. Where there's a will, there is a way. Lessons take one hour a week and practice takes on average one hour per day (ideally every day). Still a lot of hours left in the day for other activities.

Should you get the book ? As I mentioned earlier, I found the "Bass Guitar for Dummies" to be helpful. I dont see why the "Dummies" book on guitar should be any different. You get out of it, what you put in.

GrayFox208 · 25-10-2015 1:50pm

No you should get a teacher. If you have 3 other things to do there's room to get a guitar lesson in there once a week. Learning from a book isn't going to help you if you are starting from the absolute scratch, even as mentioned 6 lessons and then the book will be better. There's no better thing that a seasoned guitar player being able to tell you what you're doing wrong.

Think of it like this: you can't learn to drive a car from a book

You won't learn the quote unquote right way to play guitar from a book. It's really easy to pick up bad habits when you haven't got someone telling you when you're doing it. The books might be okay but you can easily overlook things without a teacher. And to be honest if you're so busy you can't do an hour of lessons you're probably too busy to every day practice the guitar. You'll need an hour out of your day to practice that, I assume the same for piano so I don't see why you can't do a lesson once a week for an hour. It's the same thing with the book except not in your house.

sryanbruen · 25-10-2015 2:07pm

GrayFox208 wrote: »

No you should get a teacher. If you have 3 other things to do there's room to get a guitar lesson in there once a week. Learning from a book isn't going to help you if you are starting from the absolute scratch, even as mentioned 6 lessons and then the book will be better. There's no better thing that a seasoned guitar player being able to tell you what you're doing wrong.

Think of it like this: you can't learn to drive a car from a book

You won't learn the quote unquote right way to play guitar from a book. It's really easy to pick up bad habits when you haven't got someone telling you when you're doing it. The books might be okay but you can easily overlook things without a teacher. And to be honest if you're so busy you can't do an hour of lessons you're probably too busy to every day practice the guitar. You'll need an hour out of your day to practice that, I assume the same for piano so I don't see why you can't do a lesson once a week for an hour. It's the same thing with the book except not in your house.

It doesn't really matter now but thanks anyway 'cuz I have an iMac which gives me free Guitar lessons on GarageBand and it is doing an absolute shockingly good job!

Guitar For Dummies: All in One, good or bad choice?

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