This is a book that has been voted by The Rolling Stones magazine as one of the top 3 guitar books for beginners. There’s a reason for that because every aspect of it has been specially designed and written for absolute beginners. It is also one of the more affordable books out there. It takes you step by step through the basics of rhythm guitar and lead guitar playing. Just as the strings on your guitar start with a low E and end with a high E, the notes in a scale begin with a low version of that first note. (In this case, it’s a low C.) And they end with the same note, played one octave higher. (In this instance, it’s a high C.) Like scales, exercises can help you learn more about music theory and improve your speed, strength, and dexterity along the fretboard. Here are some examples of finger exercises that you can practice to help you level up:

John Gilmore has gone on record to say that his world has been changed, after reading this book. Tony Beltram cannot stop praising this book enough, stating that his musical goals have got clarity and are within reach, after reading this book. You find a voice and a style of your own after going through this book! The book is a culmination of so many popular guitar and teaching techniques from around the world, and it contains 3 versions. The first part talks about the basics such as tuning, musical staff, basic chords and also contains over 80 songs which are super fun if you’re starting out. Book 2 covers a little more complex stuff (which is where you’ll have all the fun) like fingerstyle playing, syncopations, some more interesting, complex chords, etc. Book 3 covers a few advanced techniques like major and minor pentatonic scales, shapes which you can move along the fretboard, techniques like hammer-ons and pull-offs. The more you train your ear to listen to how different a chord sounds when played upwards versus downwards, the easier it will be for you to develop your own internal rhythm and dissect strumming patterns on your own.Nowadays new ways and trends have emerged to help you in your guitar lessons, some of them are in our free books. As you learn the notes and techniques to play your guitar, you need to learn how to read sheet music. Another way to read the musical forms is with the tablature, although it will take you a few readings and lessons to get used to its use. It is good that before you focus on learning chords, you play a few notes on the guitar. Mark Phillips is an author, arranger, composer, and guitarist with an experience of more than 40 years in the publishing field. In the ’70s and early ’80s, he was the Director of Popular Music at Warner Bros. Publications, where he edited and arranged the songbooks of artists like Neil Young, James Taylor, the Eagles, and Led Zeppelin. He has also worked with legends like John Denver, Metallica, Guns and Roses, Van Halen, to name a few. He has got tons of experience taking classes in ear training, sight-singing and counterpoint. Start slow with the exercises: When you first come across guitar exercises, it might be tempting to play them fast. But speed without clarity will not help build your skill. It’s much more important to play slow enough to play each note clearly, rather than speed up and go sloppy. So start slow with each exercise by setting your metronome at a comfortable BPM (beats per minute) and then slowly build up your speed.

Memorizing the fretboard and building your muscle memory on the guitar is one of the biggest challenges faced by beginners and advanced players alike. It is a super underrated skill. It helps you in so many musical scenarios, whether it is songwriting, improv solo-ing with a band, figuring out shapes, memorizing the fretboard is a must. Some professional guitar players and teachers argue for this to be one of the most useful guitar books ever. Zen Guitar not only covers crucial concepts but also motivates you by sprinkling inspiring quotes all throughout the book. If you have read it once, I guarantee that you’re going to want to read it again! Surprised to see a non-guitar book here? Don’t be. Being a musician is not just about playing your instrument, but also about your attitude towards your instrument and your performance. While this book might not contain much technical guitar information, this is equally as important as any guitar book. Purely psychological. Technically, a scale only includes seven notes. However, playing just seven notes leaves it feeling incomplete. The term “octave” contains the Latin root for “eight.” It’s that eighth note—the higher version of the root note for each scale—that makes every scale sound complete.

LEARN BASIC GUITAR TECHNIQUES

What hooked me to this book is that it simply covers so many facets of the guitar. It starts off with helping you to buy your first guitar, choosing your first guitar amp. Then it takes you through basic playing skills, like tuning, preparing to play, basic music theory, scales, and beyond, etc. It contains a bunch of exercises which if done properly and with a bit of patience, you’re guaranteed to master this instrument! You will end up learning a lot about playing or chord vocabulary, but also about the parts of a guitar, its anatomy, guitar electronics, etc. It talks a lot about recording, the evolution of technology from the ’90s as well (always good to know a little bit of history).

Learning to play your first song on guitar is a micro-education in itself. It gives you an opportunity to apply the chords you’ve learned to a song you enjoy. You get to learn more about the structure of a song and different techniques to make a piece of music come alive. Throughout my career, I’ve come across several aspiring musicians looking to learn the guitar, but aren’t sure how to start or go about it the right way. I’ve also come across an equal number of beginners who are frustrated with YouTube guitar tutorials because they find them sharing incomplete or narrow concepts but not the full picture. If you find yourself nodding to any of the above, then say no more, because I’ve got you covered! This is not specifically suited for guitarists who want to go in-depth with their study of music theory and take their playing to more complex avenues, but meant more for students who are just starting out and want to just play for fun, for personal enrichment. This book lives up to its title! Before I share the list of my favorite guitar books, I want to share some tips that helped me stay disciplined while learning from guitar books myself. Here are some of the golden tips that can be very helpful: Music theory can be a very intimidating factor for anyone who’s new to the field – that’s quite natural. This is because the theory is a visual thing that describes something that we hear. It takes time for our brains to process that, initially. This book throws all the scares, myths, and misunderstandings of music theory that one can have, out the window!A lot of vastly experienced musicians as well have held this book in high regard, quoting that they visit this book from time to time for inspiration and it never fails! Just throwing this out there – that while you can figure things out easily by looking at the Chord Wheel itself, it may not be readily apparent how minor keys work. But they do explain how to do that further down in the chapters – so you’re sorted. A strumming pattern is a specific way of playing up and down strokes on your guitar. While a number of songs call for you to strum chords in an alternating pattern—switching between upward and downward strokes, other songs call for an irregular strumming pattern. For instance, an irregular strumming pattern may have you play a chord in an “up-up-down-up” pattern repeatedly. Acoustic Guitar Primer Book for Beginners by Bert Casey – Best Book For Learning Acoustic Guitar Playing

I might be just a teeny tiny bit biased here – this was my first ever guitar book, and I pretty much taught myself using this book. That’s why, let me tell you from personal experience, that this is one of the best guitar instructional books of all time! Here ends our selection of free books in PDF formato for learning how to play the guitar. We hope you liked it and already have your next book! This book is known as the Fretboard Bible. It revolves around unique tuning systems. This is a book that, in my opinion, should be owned by all guitar players. This is a book that is primarily based around the CAGED system of playing. It explains why a guitar is tuned a certain way. (Never thought of that, have you?)Charles Kim is a renowned guitarist and educator and he teaches guitar, songwriting, and music theory at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. This is a lovely book for beginners. This is quite a popular guitar book which is quite similar to the teaching methods of ‘Guitars for Dummies’ which we read about earlier. It takes you through a wide range of topics, like Parts of a guitar, How to hold a guitar properly, What amp to choose, simple, popular songs to strum, hammer-ons, barre chords, and so on and so forth. Dan Elwine is a super popular, widely respected guitar luthier, repairman, and guitar builder. He is a pioneer and an inspiration to many luthiers all around the world. Now that we’ve gone through a series of guitar basics, do you feel more confident in your ability to learn to play guitar? The principles covered here apply to both acoustic or electric guitar and can be built upon over time. Take it note by note, chord by chord and you’ll discover that learning to play guitar is a lot easier than you think. Practicing guitar scales can help you become more familiar with the notes on your fretboard and train your ear to recognize individual notes. You can learn how individual notes sound together and better understand chord composition. Learning to play scales can also help you build speed, dexterity, and finger strength. There are two recommended ways to tune your guitar, one is by ear, and the other way is with a clip-on tuner.