Reddit Reddit reviews The Guitar Handbook: A Unique Source Book for the Guitar Player - Amateur or Professional, Acoustic or Electrice, Rock, Blues, Jazz, or Folk

We found 32 Reddit comments about The Guitar Handbook: A Unique Source Book for the Guitar Player - Amateur or Professional, Acoustic or Electrice, Rock, Blues, Jazz, or Folk. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The Guitar Handbook: A Unique Source Book for the Guitar Player - Amateur or Professional, Acoustic or Electrice, Rock, Blues, Jazz, or Folk
Alfred Publishing Co. Model#00330105
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32 Reddit comments about The Guitar Handbook: A Unique Source Book for the Guitar Player - Amateur or Professional, Acoustic or Electrice, Rock, Blues, Jazz, or Folk:

u/zodd06 · 13 pointsr/Guitar
u/cbg · 11 pointsr/Guitar

My two cents:

  • Electric - a cheap electric is far easier to play than a cheap acoustic. While it will be important to build callouses and finger strength (both of which are facilitated by playing an acoustic steel string), I feel it is far more important for you to enjoy playing and make some initial progress. If you can get some momentum in learning/playing, then you can start worrying about strength, endurance, etc. If you give up after 3 months b/c your hands hurt and you haven't made any progress (b/c it hurts to practice), strength, endurance, and everything else is moot. However, if you really want to play acoustic, consider starting with a nylon-string (classical) guitar.

  • I would look for a used electric, probably something like a Mexican-made Fender or a lower-end asian-made guitar (Ibanez, Jackson, Schecter). Many folks like the Epiphone entry-level models... I haven't played one so I can't say.

  • As I said above, electric is more likely to get you quickly to the point of playing something interesting and enjoying it.

  • In my experience, most guitarists do not read music. (Many have only a superficial understanding of theory and some don't even know scales or chords by name). Significant portion of those that do read cannot sight-read (self included). Anyway... it's perfectly reasonable to learn to read while learning to play. Barring that, tablature is widely available and very popular. Well-made tab is useful and often will include rhythmic information.

  • Get started by learning some riffs and songs you like. Also, learning something like the 12-bar blues will let you start playing with friends and that can greatly enhance your enjoyment and learning.

  • Being self-taught is fine. Many guitarists never take lessons. I personally have benefited a lot from taking private lessons. However, practicing and playing new stuff will get you a long way. I recommend getting a good book to use as reference. The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer is a personal favorite.

    Have fun and good luck!
u/Cenobite · 11 pointsr/Guitar

The best book on the subject I've ever read is called The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer. It contains everything from the history of the instrument all the way through to diagrams on rewiring your own pickups. My favourite section, though, is on theory where everything from modes to modulation gets covered in quite some depth.

I've had that book for about ten years now. It's worn out and in pieces, but I still read from it everyday and I'm still learning new stuff.

Edit: Found it!

Edit 2: Read a monthly magazine called Guitar Techniques. It's a british guitar mag with lessons by pros like Guthrie Govan, Geoff Whitehorn, etc. Unlike rags like Guitar World which are 90% ads and 10% interviews with celebrity guitarists who can't play worth a damn, GT focuses on improving your playing. Obviously it has a healthy dose of theory for all skill levels covered in every issue.

u/EtherCJ · 7 pointsr/Learnmusic

Everything this guy said is gold. I would add a couple things.

  • If you are completely new to guitar and not adverse to spending money:
    http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269624397&sr=8-1
    You can get a lot of this info on line, but the book is a classic.

  • You really want to pick a few songs that you really like and want to play as your goals. It helps you with focus and inspiration. And if you tell us what type of music you are looking to play to start I can recommend more books or websites.

  • For guitars you really get a lot more bank for the buck for a few bucks more. Basically from 100 up to 600 dollars the guitars really improve every bit you spend. However, BloodyThorn is right about wasting guitar equipment. This is why there is so much used equipment on craigslist.

  • For buying a beginner guitar, don't be afraid of buying used. Try craigslist. But if you have a friend that plays, get him to come along and help check it out. And if you decide to keep with the guitar and you outgrow the guitar after a year or two, then you can always use a guitar that you can afford to lose. Much nicer to take your second $150 guitar with you on a boat than your only $700 (or $2000) dollar guitar.
u/pigz · 5 pointsr/Guitar

Ralph Denyer's 'The Guitar Handbook'


I had a copy of this book back in the late '80s that I'd lost at some point. Bought a newer edition a few years back when I found it. Takes you through all aspects of the instrument, and the basics of playing it.

u/guitarnoir · 5 pointsr/Guitar

The Guitar Book, by Tom Wheeler is one of my favorites:

https://www.amazon.com/guitar-book-handbook-electric-guitarists/dp/0060145595

I suspect there must be an updated edition from this century.

I also like The Guitar Handbook:

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Professional-Acoustic-Electrice/dp/0679742751

I'm sure there are others, but those are the books that first came to my mind.

u/Gizank · 5 pointsr/Guitar

I've had this book for years and use it all the time.

I'm very interested in this one as recommended by grampageoff up there.

u/Adddicus · 4 pointsr/Guitar

Even cheap guitars can be real players if they are set up properly.

So, either get it set up properly (much cheaper than a new guitar) or learn to do it yourself (even cheaper and not terribly difficult). There are lots of books that can tell you how to do it. I learned from Ralph Denyer's Guitar Handbook

u/TangoThanato · 4 pointsr/Guitar

The Guitar Handbook is one of my favorites.

u/rcochrane · 3 pointsr/guitarlessons

The FAQ recommends this book, which is an excellent guide for beginners. As for books of music, what style of music do you want to learn?

u/troll_is_obvious · 3 pointsr/Guitar

The Guitar Handbook should be handed out with every first guitar.

u/smcha4 · 3 pointsr/melbourne

Yep, this book recommended to me by my teacher 17 years ago is my bible. But I guess these days you could probably youtube anything.

u/aeropagitica · 2 pointsr/Guitar
u/Phil_Tact · 2 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Like the other guy said, talk to your mates.
I also highly recommend this book. http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751

Even if you're not a guitar player there are chapters covering amps, pa equipment, live sound, effects, etc.

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/Guitar

The guitarist handbook - Ralph Denyer

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751

I started out with this book a few years back, and because of its lack of pictures and illustrations, I thought it wasn't all that complete.

After buying several other books, I found myself using this one more and more because of how thorough and complete job it does covering all topics. If something is not mentioned in this book, it lets you know where to find it.

u/geetarzrkool · 2 pointsr/Guitar

Here's a great site that explains the CAGED system, which in turn explains the fundamental layout of the fretboard very well.

http://www.cagedguitarsystem.net/

A great all-around book is "The Guitar Handbook" by Ralph Denyer. It has everything from Theory to construction to influential players and the history of the guitar in one handy resource.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751

u/GTroy · 2 pointsr/Guitar
u/tallpapab · 2 pointsr/Guitar

Perhaps it's this popular book that I have and like The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer

u/presidentender · 2 pointsr/Guitar

I took a one-semester guitar class in college, which had The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer as a required textbook. Now, we could've gotten away without the book for the content of the class. The only time we referenced it for class purposes was to use the chord chart.

But man, I'm glad they made us buy that book. It's got everything: music theory, history, terminology, setting up electronics... everything. Except songs. There are no songs in it.

u/azvibe · 2 pointsr/Guitar

Pick up The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer. This will teach you literally EVERYTHING about the guitar. This is an incredible resource of information if you want to learn the guitar from different views. It will teach you tricks for tuning (including alternate tunings, theory, tableture, and so on.

u/mainsoda · 2 pointsr/Guitar

Glad to see that you're on the road to guitar independence. It's great because nobody can know better how you want your guitar to play than you! This book has everything, it is indispensable. The Guitar Handbook

u/thaddio · 2 pointsr/Guitar

(http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751)[http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751]

this book is pretty good for all around knowledge. there's a bunch of theory basics, amp discussion, guitar setup, etc. probably not the greatest detail about guitar setup, but it explains most of the theory and has nice drawings.

u/carpeggio · 1 pointr/guitarlessons

I am avoiding playing songs by ear, right now. I'm learning to walk before I run by simplifying it and focusing on the sounds of scales. I'm working on my music theory knowledge alongside my ear. I'll play the scale from a book I'm working in, and listen to the sound of the scale, notes, and chords.

This book.

u/mooglor · 1 pointr/Guitar

If you want a recommendation, this book is widely regarded as being a must-have for all aspects of guitar, it has a pretty good section on maintenance and setup. I learned that little tidbit from it.

u/ZeroEclipse · 1 pointr/Guitar

What is a book equivalent to this, but for bass guitars?
https://www.amazon.ca/Guitar-Handbook-Professional-Acoustic-Electrice/dp/0679742751

u/sunscapes21 · 1 pointr/Guitar

There is a Guitar Handbook written by Ralph Denyer. Buy him a copy and it will be a perfect place to learn about chords, intervals and scales. Buy a real book please, not ebook.


https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Professional-Acoustic-Electrice/dp/0679742751

​

u/DerKaiser023 · 1 pointr/Guitar

This book is one of the most useful tools for any guitar player/musician I have ever read.

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Professional-Acoustic-Electrice/dp/0679742751/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1522698934&sr=8-11&keywords=Guitar+book

It really breaks down a lot of concepts really well, can help make you a more refined guitar player almost no matter what your skill level, and will give lots of insights into basic music theory. I highly recommend it.

u/BrettyB88 · 1 pointr/Guitar

Like cap said, any book with information you don't know will help regardless. With that said, I'll still share the book that helped me immensely when I was beginning to learn: "The Guitar Handbook" by Ralph Denyer

I could not stress enough how much this book taught me. When I was in 8th grade only 2 years into playing, I would take this book out from the school library over and over until I moved on to high school in 10th grade. I read the thing front to back twice, taking pages of notes and practicing at home. There is so much information in this book that it's hard to believe how I've never seen someone recommend it before. It taught me more than any website has, including Ultimate Guitar which I also visited at the time (not to discredit the place). It teaches you technique, music theory (very, very extensively), repairs, performance technique/technology, etc...

Alright I'm done fapping over it haha, but case-in-point: I highly recommend this book. For $4.50USD used, it's a steal.

u/Mad-Mike_R83 · 1 pointr/Luthier

I started in the late 90's when I did not have internet access at home so these were my resources....

The Guitar Handbook - https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751

Constructing a Solidbody Guitar Roger Siminhoff - https://www.amazon.com/Constructing-Solid-Body-Guitar-Complete-Technical/dp/0881884510

And I saw how Leo did it in "The Fender book" - https://www.amazon.com/Fender-Book-Complete-History-Electric/dp/0879302593/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473794173&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Fender+Book

That and watching a lot of episodes of "The New Yankee Workshop" and seeing how I could apply that knowledge to building a guitar.

u/UncleBodin · 1 pointr/Guitar

/u/LeSel's comment should clear up this particular problem, but as general advice: don't try to learn this stuff off random web pages. Get a book that explains things logically. You can get Denyer's Guitar Handbook for less than a buck on Amazon plus shipping and it will save you many, many hours of frustration.

u/theabolitionist · 1 pointr/Guitar
u/danihendrix · 1 pointr/Guitar