best guitar books

[dunkelfalke]

hello forum

i seem to stuck a bit and i want to become a better musician.
so, anyone can recommend a couple of really really good guitar books for... hm, well, not for an absolute beginner, but rather for an intermediate player with a bad playing style i think.

also any music/harmony theory books which are very easy to understand and made from a guitarist standpoint.

thanks in advance!

[RJB]

Not really books, CDs and DVDs. But I've been eyeing some of the course at Truefire. they have some samples online here. And some where on the site you can order a sampler CD.

[UnklMickey]

personally i'm quite partial to Chord Chemistry by Ted Greene.

i guess my copy is quite old. it looks like this:





these days he looks a bit more conservative:

[Ripper]

Books are great guys, but I have found that the best way to improve your chops is to jam with others...trade ideas etc.

[RJB]

That's the beauty of TrueFire. Videos to se how the stuff is played, theory breakdown and jam tracks

[johnss]

The Guitar Cookbook by Jesse Gress is one of the best theory/harmony books that relate directly to guitar that I have seen in roughly 30 years of playing music.

[echobase2002]

I like "the guitar handbook" by Ralph Denyer. It is simple to intermediate and covers the bases pretty well. It even has history, some schematics, and maintenance. An all around good guitar players manual.

I have a tip, but it's not a book. Go to the record store and get something you normally don't listen to, but also don't hate. Take it home and learn how to play it. Get something used so you don't hate yourself for paying full price for something that stinks. Better yet, borrow something from the library. If you have problems learning songs by ear, go get a Chuck Berry album and start practicing. I rate this skill equally with technique and knowledge of theory.

I find when I get stuck or stale, it's because I keep playing the same songs and I'm not learning anything new. Traditionally, I play heavier classic rock, blues (read as Freddie King), and early punk rock (read as The Clash). My first "role model" was Rivers Cuomo (blue album and pinkerton).

First time I felt stale I went out and borrowed some country albums from a friend. It gave me a completely different view on the major pentatonic. Same notes, just different phrasing.

Next time, I bought the Police, Bob Marley, and Sublime. All reggae or variations on the same theme. Made me start looking at chord progressions a little differently. I learned a lot about rhythm then too. It's a lot harder to be on beat when every chord is muted or staccato.

Lately, I've taken to a lot of surf instrumentals.

Eitherway, as long as it's something you don't despise or something completely out of your experience (like trying to play Segovia the first time you pick up the instrument), you are going to learn something. Then it's just up to you to apply this new style to what you already know.

Think of the auto industry. We invented it in the USA, other countries and cultures learned it, made it there own, and then beat the hell out of us in marketshare!

[sumgai]

echobase2002 said:

........
Lately, I've taken to a lot of surf instrumentals.

Ah, finally, a player after me own heart!

I predict that echobas22002 will go quite far along the path of success! ;D

In learing to play surf music correctly, you will be forced to abandon preconceived notions of the standard chord progression whether to choose the major minor scales to play over them. You will learn how to play a variety of ethnic musical styles, all of which can be translated back into rock, blues, country, swing, fusion....... you name it. It ain't just about the reverb! (Although that sure helps!!)


sumgai