Guitar Techniques - But is there anything new on offer here? (Guitar Techniques)

Member Name: Caveat-Emptor

Product:	Guitar Techniques
Date:	03/07/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some great unusual styles included

Disadvantages: Guitar Techniques could have been combined with other tutors in the series to provide better value

Guitar Techniques is (yet another) tutor, available for guitar players...

...but though there is certainly no shortage of guitar tutor books and magazines already on flooding the market - there's certainly a lot more emphasis on interesting styles in 'Guitar Techniques' than most other tutors have.

Along with all the usual run of the mill basics, are more advanced things like two handed tapping (which I'm not a big fan of, but enjoy the odd dabble usually after listening to Eddie Van Halen -lol!), slide guitar (which I just love the sound of), harmonics (which are so difficult for new players to grasp), and slap guitar...

The slap guitar section I found especially interesting as it's a spin off of slap bass technique, and can sound very good on the guitar (well I like it anyway :-), but sadly it's very seldom taught in books and magazines; so the purchase price is probably worth it for this section alone... I was popping notes like a demon in no time, it does get a bit painful on the side of your thumb after a bit if you're not careful though.

I like Hal Leonard who is the author of Guitar Techniques; I've read a few of his books and have always found him to have a very concise strait forward teaching style, and already has a string of other tutor books 'under his belt'.

I really enjoyed browsing the book for interesting playing tips, and the included CD helps get the ideas across well.

I do think that the author could have condensed and combined the info from a number of his books into one volume though - to give better value for money, but on the whole it's still a reasonably long (64 pages) effort, and I love it for the slap guitar section alone... (There are also not so useful tips like how to play guitar with your teeth which I gave those a miss; my dentist bills are big enough already :-)

But on the whole I found Guitar Techniques to be a very useful guide to modern styles of playing...

Best wishes,
Caveat Emptor

Summary: A good, but not a complete guide...