Rating: 
Summary: Great Workout!
Review: A great workout for a beginning guitar player. This book really helped me to understand basic theory and then apply it directly to the guitar.
Rating: 
Summary: I love this book.
Review: Another amazing book by Mr. Arnold. Bruce knows damn well that most guitarists are self-taught, and therefore don't have the same music theory training that other instrumentalists do. This book is his response. In an easy to understand manner, Bruce has the reader learning music theory, how to build chords, and all in a workbook/quiz-like manner that is both challenging and enriching. I have used this book, and found that my guitar playing has improved because of it. I recommend this book to anyone aspiring to be a great player of ANY genre.
Rating:
Summary: I would have killed to have these when I was in College!
Review: Bruce Arnold is an accomplished jazz guitarist and educator. I reviewed three of his instruction books: 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist; Chord Workbook for Guitar; and Music Theory Workbook for Guitar. I also listened to an incredible jazz music album he provided for my listening pleasure. As a player, he is awesome. As a writer of instruction manuals, he is very good for the more advanced student. I compared his books with the Mel Bay series, which I use for my students (and on which I learned). His go into much more depth than those I'm accustomed to. Ideally, I would introduce his material after a couple of months. I am eager to see some of the other books he has in his series of over thirty instructional manuals. I believe depth is the best term to describe what this educator has to offer. He takes on some of the more difficult aspects for guitarists and digs deeply into the subject material. I would have killed to have manuals like these when I was in college.
Rating:
Summary: A complete study of intervals and arpeggios
Review: I found this book to be a great investment. It took me about 2 months to work through the book but now I have a completely different understanding of the music theory and how it relates to my guitar. I also took advantage of the publishers website which is stock full of information and free downloadable information. Mr. Arnold also gives email support for his books so that was an added value. He didn't even mind if I was asking question not related to the book. A really great teacher!
Rating:
Summary: A complete study of intervals and arpeggios
Review: I found this book to be a great investment. It took me about 2 months to work through the book but now I have a completely different understanding of the music theory and how it relates to my guitar. I also took advantage of the publishers website which is stock full of information and free downloadable information. Mr. Arnold also gives email support for his books so that was an added value. He didn't even mind if I was asking question not related to the book. A really great teacher!
Rating: 
Summary: Dry and unimaginative as the dullest textbook you remember
Review: I have been a guitarist for 25 years, albeit an unharolded one, and I bought this book with the intent of polishing my skills. I have just finished the introductory theory section pracitcally needing toothpicks to keep my eyes open. Do you remember the highschool or college class where you thought the subject sounded thrilling but the textbook was stultifyingly dull? This is it! This is certainly a "work" book that will take the "playing" out of your guitar sessions
Rating:
Summary: Heavy, serious, difficult, worth attention
Review: I have found nothing better than this, but you have to know that music theory is tough stuff. I am sure I will be entirely a better person if I can get through this book. I will certainly be a better guitar player. I actually love it but find it hard and slow going. This may say more about me that the book, but there you are. I have been learning blues and folk guitar for 18 months and feel I need this stuff.
Rating:
Summary: help i need someone
Review: I needed a lot of help in my fingerboard knowledge and this book helped me gain the insight to understanding how chords are build and their relationship to the guitar. I highly recommend this book as a source for improving your general musical knowledge and specific understanding of the guitar.
Rating:
Summary: Great Method for the serious minded
Review: I own this book and 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist and I find them both to be well written and aimed toward the serious beginning guitarist. I would say if you just want to learn a few chords, know what a scale is and have vague knowledge of chord construction then this is definately not the book to get. This book gives you a 100 pages or so of exercises where you have to fill in the answers to questions about how various chords are build. You have to fill in this information both on a staff and on a fretboard diagram. I've been working through this for a couple of weeks now and I'm on page 20 so you can see this isn't a quick study. What I'm finding though is I'm starting to see interval relationships by just looking at the guitar which makes my ability to tell someone what the 5th of any key is or other such interval knowledge. So one of the bi-products of this book is it teaches you how see interval and chord relationships on the fretboard so you can use the visual information to find answers to any music theory related question that you might encounter. For instance I've been downloading some information on the internet about playing a blues riff and it talked about playing a 5th to a 6th on the low E and A string. I knew instantly what that was and could move it around to other strings and it made me understand and learn the blues quicker. I think one of the best things about getting any of Mr. Arnold's books is it allows you to enter their member's area for free. This is an incredible resource filled with 100's of videos and MP3 files to help with various aspects of learning the guitar. Some of the resources are completed and some are still under construction. For instance The Music Theory Volume One book has videos on how to apply major triads to the guitar all over the neck. I've just started on this but it seems promising. I think it's going to help me directly apply the information I'm learning to the guitar fretboard in a musical way. Once again this is not easy, when I first watched the video I thought it was pretty overwhelming to learn the major triads all over the neck. I think the first video will probably take me a month to master. But I'm inspired to do this because Mr. Arnold shows in some of these videos how the major triad can be used as a music fill to sound like Jimi Hendrix. Since Hendrix is one of my idols this really made me want to learn the chords on the fretboard because I could see a direct application. So I guess what I'd like to convey is this book is hard, not a whole lot of fun to do the exercises but I'm learning something that seems to be really helping and for me that's the trade off. I don't mind working hard if I get something back in return. If you are like that too then this is a good book to get.
Rating:
Summary: Great Method for the serious minded
Review: I own this book and 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist and I find them both to be well written and aimed toward the serious beginning guitarist. I would say if you just want to learn a few chords, know what a scale is and have vague knowledge of chord construction then this is definately not the book to get. This book gives you a 100 pages or so of exercises where you have to fill in the answers to questions about how various chords are build. You have to fill in this information both on a staff and on a fretboard diagram. I've been working through this for a couple of weeks now and I'm on page 20 so you can see this isn't a quick study. What I'm finding though is I'm starting to see interval relationships by just looking at the guitar which makes my ability to tell someone what the 5th of any key is or other such interval knowledge. So one of the bi-products of this book is it teaches you how see interval and chord relationships on the fretboard so you can use the visual information to find answers to any music theory related question that you might encounter. For instance I've been downloading some information on the internet about playing a blues riff and it talked about playing a 5th to a 6th on the low E and A string. I knew instantly what that was and could move it around to other strings and it made me understand and learn the blues quicker. I think one of the best things about getting any of Mr. Arnold's books is it allows you to enter their member's area for free. This is an incredible resource filled with 100's of videos and MP3 files to help with various aspects of learning the guitar. Some of the resources are completed and some are still under construction. For instance The Music Theory Volume One book has videos on how to apply major triads to the guitar all over the neck. I've just started on this but it seems promising. I think it's going to help me directly apply the information I'm learning to the guitar fretboard in a musical way. Once again this is not easy, when I first watched the video I thought it was pretty overwhelming to learn the major triads all over the neck. I think the first video will probably take me a month to master. But I'm inspired to do this because Mr. Arnold shows in some of these videos how the major triad can be used as a music fill to sound like Jimi Hendrix. Since Hendrix is one of my idols this really made me want to learn the chords on the fretboard because I could see a direct application. So I guess what I'd like to convey is this book is hard, not a whole lot of fun to do the exercises but I'm learning something that seems to be really helping and for me that's the trade off. I don't mind working hard if I get something back in return. If you are like that too then this is a good book to get.
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