Hello dear readers, today's review will be the first in a series of reviews on Adam Satur's Playing Guitar Musically. Today we will be discussing the first several chapter of his book, both giving a general overview of them and critiquing them. These first few chapters show a stellar example of how someone should start guitar, from the very basics (parts of the guitar, holding guitar and the like), the student slowly gets up to notes and tuning to a good warm up routine these first few chapters are quite excellent and can help a guitarist of any level.
The first chapter (not counting the intro) is entitled Parts of the Guitar. While many more experienced guitarists might want to skip this I would recommend that all readers of the book read over these 2 diagrams because there are some pretty nifty vocab words here. For example, where is the tailpiece located on the guitar? This chapter could help you out. My one big criticism is that I feel that the electric guitar should maybe not be a Les Paul which features and oddly placed pickup selector and one or two other weird things. At the same time I can't think of many other guitars that might work there, a strat maybe? The acoustic guitar diagram is pretty much perfect, however a note that not all acoustics have 2 strap buttons might be good. I might be nitpicking but I feel that a lonely beginner might have difficulty with these things. Overall though this chapter is pretty straightforward and fairly good for what it is.
The next chapter is called Holding the guitar and Basic Technique. This chapter is also fairly straightforward, but again, very good. The description on how to hold the instrument is very well written and could really help a lonely beginner work out his position problems. The basic technique portion is also pretty good. It does a remarkable job of showing how to play a guitar without a pick while using no complicated diagrams. My one qualm is that I feel that fingerpicking might be beyond some beginners (it was for me) but I would agree with Adam's opinion that it's good to know how to play without a pick. All in all though this chapter is very readable and I think it could help a beginner learn how to play without any outside aid.
Following that is the chapter on Notes and Tuning. This chapter is very cool because right away it teaches the student the chromatic notes right away giving the student all 12 tonal possibilities. The chapter itself is pretty well done and fairly educational. However it might go over the heads of some youngsters. This chapter is the first example of the self-discipline that will be required later in the book. The tuning portion of the chapter is pretty normal and doesn't feature a lot of special tuning tricks but it gets the job done, and honestly there's not much more you can do when talking about tuning.
The final chapter that we will talk about today is the one on Excersices and Finger control. The first basic excersice given is actually very good, it's the chormatic scale. This get's the student's fingers moving right away. It might be nice to recommend Flight of the Bumblebee as an extension on this as it is a pretty simple chromatic piece. The next part of the chapter is on finger control or, my new addiction. Adam starts off showing some pretty simple finger exercices that gradually get more and more evolved. This can lead to hours of fun away from the guitar, so be sure to read this chapter! In brief, this chapter really gets the fingers moving and prepares the student for a life with the instrument.
In conclusion, these first few chapters of Playing Guitar Musically are pretty essential for any wannabe virtuoso guitarist. They simply teach you so much and explain it in such easy to understand ways that this book is a joy to read. From the very essential parts of the guitar, to the basics of technique and then on to simple theory these chapters really get some good ideas in a young guitarists head and teaches them to be not just a guitarist but a musician! This book is worth getting even from just the first few chapters so go buy it, NOW.
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