The Art of Playing Rock Guitar

Rating:
Summary: A truely interesting and unique book
Review: If you have several books already, and are looking for something interesting and unusual -- this could be what you are looking for. Written, illustrated and published by the author this book has more character than any I have previously encountered in a book (and that's a good thing). The book is looking a little dated now: funny clothes and hair styles in the black and white photographs. The author is rightly very proud of his work (and his playing), but the self-admiration becomes a little insufferable at times. There is some really good coverage of pick-ups configurations and various technical day-to-day aspects of guitar that are not well covered in other books. There is a lot of theory, and the author seems to have spent a lot of time thinking about this and refining his ideas. I haven't found it particularly useful so far, the amount of information (and fairy crude presentation) make it tough going -- but to be fair I did not buy this book to work through -I have other books for that. I bought this book as something to dip into from time to time when I get tired of the other books and magazines, when I need to look at something different. If you are starting out, buy a simpler more straight forward book to start off with -- this could be intimidating. Certainly check this one out later though.

Rating:
Summary: Loads of Info- Horrible Organization
Review: Learning to play guitar from this book is like reading stereo instructions. This book is obviously written by a true guitar lover- it has interesting drawings, a piece on the history of string instruments and loads of diagrams... BUT this book is rendered to near-incoherent status by its poor organization. The book is organized in chapters, with big headings and loads of diagrams, but when you read the book, you begin to notice that the writing is attrocious. I have read and re-read chapters a half a dozen times and still find myself confused as to what the heck he's trying to say. I was so enthusiastic when I first bought this book because it looked so thorough. I'd get so frustrated, however, my girlfriend finally resorted to hiding the book from me. Finding a good guitar instruction book is SO hard- I feel your pain- but take it from me that this is not the sort of book any beginner would want to own.

Rating:
Summary: Loads of Info- Horrible Organization
Review: Learning to play guitar from this book is like reading stereo instructions. This book is obviously written by a true guitar lover- it has interesting drawings, a piece on the history of string instruments and loads of diagrams... BUT this book is rendered to near-incoherent status by its poor organization. The book is organized in chapters, with big headings and loads of diagrams, but when you read the book, you begin to notice that the writing is attrocious. I have read and re-read chapters a half a dozen times and still find myself confused as to what the heck he's trying to say. I was so enthusiastic when I first bought this book because it looked so thorough. I'd get so frustrated, however, my girlfriend finally resorted to hiding the book from me. Finding a good guitar instruction book is SO hard- I feel your pain- but take it from me that this is not the sort of book any beginner would want to own.

Rating:
Summary: Exactly what I was looking for in a Guitar book!
Review: Richard Daniels book "The Art of Playing Rock Guitar" is by far the best guitar book I have studied from to date. I would highly recommend this book, especially to beginners. The book has adequate detail on all the topics discussed. I found that it takes a little while to get "into" the book (lengthy intro, etc.) but that these sections are necessary and once "in" its VERY informative and hard to put down. I would recommend this to someone who is a serious beginning guitar student! This book has helped me and will continue to as I finish it off. This book SHOULD be ranked up their with "The Guitar Handbook"!

Rating:
Summary: The best book on guitar I read so far
Review: This book is the best book I ever read on the guitar. It starts at the basics by explaining how the major triad is derived from overtones and subsequently explains the CAGED system and essential scales in blues and rock. Stuff that never made sense becomes clear when reading this book. Buy it if you want to understand what you're doing.
I also recommend The guitar handbook by Ralph Denyer.

Rating:
Summary: Nice, but hard to understand at times.
Review: This book, when you know what all the diagrams mean, is awesome. I don't know all the diagrams, though. It doesn't really go into that much detail on what the diagrams mean. It doesn't show standard tablature either, it has it's own form, which makes it even weirder. The text content, on the other hand, is very well written. It goes over all the aspects and qualities of rock guitaring. I recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Nice, but hard to understand at times.
Review: This book, when you know what all the diagrams mean, is awesome. I don't know all the diagrams, though. It doesn't really go into that much detail on what the diagrams mean. It doesn't show standard tablature either, it has it's own form, which makes it even weirder. The text content, on the other hand, is very well written. It goes over all the aspects and qualities of rock guitaring. I recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: It's great! - But he has an ever better book.
Review: WOW! What an intense piece this is. You cannot just read this book. You must read it and then study it, to take full advantage of this work. I believe that is what the author intended - a knowledge-based textbook. However, Richard Daniels wrote "Blues Guitar - Inside and Out" which far surpasses anything on music of which I am aware. It (Blues Guitar) maintains the reader's interest in order to teach of the art. It too, is not a book to be just read. You read it, and then study it. Anyone interested in music, especially guitar, must read these books.

Rating:
Summary: It's great! - But he has an ever better book.
Review: WOW! What an intense piece this is. You cannot just read this book. You must read it and then study it, to take full advantage of this work. I believe that is what the author intended - a knowledge-based textbook. However, Richard Daniels wrote "Blues Guitar - Inside and Out" which far surpasses anything on music of which I am aware. It (Blues Guitar) maintains the reader's interest in order to teach of the art. It too, is not a book to be just read. You read it, and then study it. Anyone interested in music, especially guitar, must read these books.