The Guitar Cookbook

Rating:
Summary: An Ok technical reference for intermediate and advanced
Review: ...players. This is book is a fairly comprehensive guide to the technicalities of guitar music (not equipment). Some intuitive players might argue that the benefits of such knowledge are questionable. However, I have fairly geeky tastes and this will appeal to like minded folk. Despite the cover claims I don't think this is a book for beginners (there is a very good book by David Mead for that) however it is a good technical reference for intermediate and advanced players.

In terms of what I liked:
- Clear well printed diagrams
- readable text (mostly)
- Covers some less common topic, like ear training
- Some unusual topic (e.g. motifs), too early to tell if this info. is useful or not.
- Some of the scale diagrams were quite good (showing root, thirds, etc.)

Did not care for:
- Dry content overall
- uninspiring (although clean) format
- no image, color or CD
- might be overly geeky/technical for many

It reminded me a little of those fact-dense Grimoire books -- although this seems more reader friendly.

You will not learn to play guitar from this book but you might gain a better understanding of the technicalities of music. I think Frank Zappa once said something like: "Reading about music is like dancing about architecture" -- that thought sprang to mind reading through this book. You might want to flick through this one before you buy.

Rating:
Summary: The Guitar Cookbook
Review: As a beginner guitar player and at 58 yr. of age and a music theory novice this book appears to be what I personally have been looking for. I find the explanations easy to read and understand but I'm sure I'll revisit the text often. Herein lies my only problem, where's the "index"? As text, touted as also being a reference, without an index referencing can be very time consuming. Perhaps I'll look at Jesse's web page to see if he has since made an Index available.

Rating:
Summary: True to it's title
Review: The book is reference book with various topics for all levels. Nothing is covered in a manner where it is difficult to understand. It's very straight forward and easy to understand. It's target audience is large so there is some material may not be useful to others. Like I said, it is indeed a cook book. A collection of recipes(tips, insights, knowledge) on various topics. I like the book but nothing really stands out to me strongly about it yet. I bought it mainly because I the author's work on other things.

Rating:
Summary: True to it's title
Review: The book is reference book with various topics for all levels. Nothing is covered in a manner where it is difficult to understand. It's very straight forward and easy to understand. It's target audience is large so there is some material may not be useful to others. Like I said, it is indeed a cook book. A collection of recipes(tips, insights, knowledge) on various topics. I like the book but nothing really stands out to me strongly about it yet. I bought it mainly because I the author's work on other things.