The "First Stage" Guitar Book: Learn How To Play Guitar Easily & Quickly! by Chris Lopez

From the Publisher

The "First Stage" Guitar Book is for the anxious beginner who desires a direct no frills method to learning how to play guitar without pages and pages of reading before you start putting your fingers on the strings and begin strumming some music right away; it is also a great reference guitar book for those who already play some. Recently revised and updated with more easy to understand guitar learning information.

All instructions are boldly and clearly illustrated in the most easiest to understand finger shapes.

This must have guitar book is a generous welcome addition to better understand all other guitar books you may already have in your learn how to play guitar collection.

The "First Stage" Guitar Book introduces and guides you to learning:

• Clear and bold illustrations of the most commonly played guitar chords for every key in the easiest to play Open & Barre chord shapes, for example, Major, Major 7ths, Major Dominant 7ths, Minor, Minor 7ths, and 9ths

• The absolutely must have Chord Combination Chart which clearly illustrates which chords go with chords in the same key. Practice chord progressions galore in every key. You will enjoy putting your own creations together with this indispensible chord chart

• Simple techniques of changing one chord to other chords of the same root note names by just lifting a finger or two

• Transposing any chord progression to the key that is the most comfortable for your voice

• Power Chords

• How to read and write in Tablature (Tabs)

• A simple method to maintaining a steady rhythm while strumming

• Clearillustrations of every note on the guitar neck fret board and where each note is located in standard notation and sheet music

The coil bind format allows the guitar book to remain flat for easy viewing of both the left and right side of each page.

Special Note: Both The "First Stage" Guitar Book and The "Guitar Book" (red cover) contain the same learning information. Here you have a choice of which cover art you prefer. This text refers to both the Coil Bind and Paperback Editions.

What People Are Saying

Russ Hucek
Finally, an enjoyable method to learning to play guitar. Chris Lopez makes the complex appear simple. -- ( Russ Hucek - Kradle Guitar Picks- July 2001 )

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

Read an Excerpt

You will discover that this learn to play guitar book will not overwhelm you with more than you need to know at this early stage of learning to play guitar, however will provide you with only the essential guitar chords in a simplified method. You will find that by focusing and learning the most commonly played guitar chords, you will be on your way to playing the songs you enjoy as well as your own creations a lot sooner.

Includes the proper way to keep your guitar in tune with a clear and easy to understand illustration for each string – the simple quick check method to tell you whether your guitar is in tune, also how to eliminate slippage - or the slack that occurs when tension on a string is lessened...

The best way to tune the guitar is by using any number of quality pitch pipes, tuning forks or battery powered guitar tuners which are available at any fine music store.

It is critical that you keep and play your guitar in tune. Another important, but often overlooked point, is to learn which tuning peg tunes which string, and the direction you have to turn the pegs to raise and lower the pitch of the strings. Learning this very mechanical aspect of the guitar will save you much time and confusion now and in the future. One last fine point about tuning; always tune your guitar so that you are raising the pitch to the correct note. That is to say, you should be tightening the strings as you tune your guitar, as opposed to loosening the strings, to achieve the desired note. This practice eliminates slippage or the slack that occurs when tension on a string is lessened, causing the string to quickly go out of tune again.

Please, take note of the arrows in the diagram on the following page. One end of the arrow points to the note which is to be held down with the second finger during the tuning process. The other end of the same arrow points to the open string which will be tuned to the note that is being held down at the opposite end of the arrow.

As you become more familiar with positioning your fingers to form Barre chords, you will discover that you can make two or four different forms of chords from just one chord.

It is easy as lifting one or more fingers. In the chord diagrams below, we begin with one of the most commonly used finger pattern forms for the Major Chords, in this case, the F Major Chord. By lifting the gray colored number 2 finger, Middle Finger, you will create an F Minor Chord, then by lifting the gray colored number 2 and 4 finger, Middle and Pinky Finger, you will create an F Minor Seventh Chord and finally by lifting the number 4 finger, Pinky Finger, you will create an F Dominant Seventh Chord.

You can now move the entire F Major Chord finger pattern toward the body of the guitar to the next fret and you will be able to do the same with the next chord which will be an F# Major Chord. You can continue doing this up and down the guitar neck forming more and more chords.

In the first two diagrams below you can instantly change a Cm Chord into a Cm7 Chord by lifting just one finger. When you lift the gray colored number 4 finger, Pinky Finger, off the Cm Chord you will create a Cm7 Chord as illustrated in the second diagram.

In the second two diagrams below you can instantly change a Cmaj7 Chord into a C7 Chord by lifting just one finger. When you left the gray colored number 2 finger, Middle Finger, off the Cmaj7 Chord you will create a C7 Chord as illustrated in the fourth diagram.

-Viewing the clear And boldly illustrated diagrams in this book will show you how easy this is to do-

Be sure to look over the TABLE OF CONTENTS on this site to view the other guitar learning information that is included in this guitar book to determine whether you want to add this must have simplified pool of information to your guitar learning adventure...