Guitar For Dummies

Mark Phillips is a former director of music at Cherry Lane Music, where he edited or arranged the songbooks of such artists as John Denver, Van Halen, Guns N' Roses, and Metallica. Jon Chappell is a multi-style guitarist, arranger, and former editor-in-chief of Guitar magazine.

Introduction 1 Part I: Getting Started with Guitar 7 Chapter 1: Guitar Basics: The Parts of a Guitar and How It Makes Music.9 Chapter 2: How to Tune Your Guitar.15 Chapter 3: Preparing to Play: Holding the Guitar and Reading Guitar Notation 23 Part II: Ready to Play: The Basics 35 Chapter 4: The Best Way to Begin: Strumming Chords 37 Chapter 5: Playing Melodies without Reading Music! 55 Chapter 6: Adding Some Spice with 7th Chords 65 Part III: Beyond the Basics: Starting to Sound Cool 81 Chapter 7: Making Things Smooth by Playing in Position 83 Chapter 8: Doubling Up with Double-Stops 93 Chapter 9: Stretching Out: Barre Chords 101 Chapter 10: Special Articulation: Making the Guitar Talk 125 Part IV: A Pile of Styles 153 Chapter 11: Ready to Rock: Rock Guitar Basics 155 Chapter 12: Bluer Than Blue: Blues Guitar Basics 183 Chapter 13: Around the Campfire: Folk Guitar Basics 207 Chapter 14: Maestro, If You Please: Classical Guitar Basics 233 Chapter 15: Sunglasses and Berets: Jazz Guitar Basics 249 Part V: A Guitar of Your Own 263 Chapter 16: Shopping for a Guitar 265 Chapter 17: Eyeing Guitar Amps, Effects, Cases, and Accessories 281 Chapter 18: Changing Your Strings 297 Chapter 19: Guitar Wellness: Basic Maintenance 311 Part VI: The Part of Tens 327 Chapter 20: Ten (Or So) Guitarists You Should Know 329 Chapter 21: Ten Great Songs for Beginning Guitarists 333 Part VII: Appendixes 337 Appendix A: How to Read Music 339 Appendix B: 96 Common Chords 349 Appendix C: How to Use the Website 353 Index 369