The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing the Guitar

I usually recoil from anything "Idiot's", but when I saw Noad's name on it I was curious. I own several of this famous guitarist/educator's books and thought it would be worth a look. This is a great book! It is appropriate for the absolute beginner; and is also useful to more experienced guitarists. It includes history and interesting guitar information to enhance and add context to the lessons. It does not create the false impression that anyone can learn guitar without hard work and practice; but it does move a student along quickly in simple fashion. I played a beautiful Gomez piece, "Plegaria" from a later chapter in the book (I have not found it anywhere else) at a music circle and it was very well recieved. The CD is also very helpful. I will continue use this book with my students and my own studies.

I have had a fantasy about playing the guitar since childhood, but only recently as an adult took the plunge. I wanted to do more than simple "picking and grinning" so I rejected quite a few beginners' books before I came across Frederick Noad's Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing the Guitar. From the title I was not expecting much depth but found myself drawn in by the clear explanations and step-by-step approach. I particularly enjoyed the Spanish pieces and am currently working on the first part of "Romance." Since all the selections have guitar tablature as well as music notes, it has made it easy for me to dive in and play enjoyable songs before having all the notes memorized. Admittedly, I jump ahead and try to play more advanced music than I am really ready for, but what the heck - I love this book! I'm really learning to play the guitar!

Years ago, I tried my hand at folk guitar, memorizing the few necessary chords to accompany myself, but never advancing any further. Recently, I decided to take the next step and really learn how to play the guitar. In examining several "How To" books I came upon Frederick Noad's, "The Complete Guide to Playing the Guitar." What a find! It has made learning to play the guitar easy, painless, and more importantly for me, fun. His book has taught me to read music, using both tablature and conventional notation, proper finger placement and various other techniques. Each step was carefully and clearly explained, and the book covers a broad range of styles of guitar playing as well as priceless bits of information about the instrument. It is a splended book.

Although this book is clearly intended for self-help I was interested to read it for possible use with my students. I am familiar with Noad's books, having used his SOLO GUITAR PLAYING with great success for a number of years; but I was curious to see what this latest book might have to offer that was new or different. A glance through immediately revealed two major differences from his SOLO book. First, the scope is much wider, with the inclusion of popular styles such as Blues and Flamenco. In addition I found extensive use of guitar tablature as well as standard notation. Students find tablature very easy, and this enables them to play more advanced pieces at an earlier stage. Some teachers regard this as a crutch, bur Noad clearly wants to get students into interesting music as soon as possible. I found the choice of music most appealing, including the famous Anonymous Romance which is credited with drawing more people to the guitar than other single piece. In summary, I plan to use this book with students who wish to experiment with various styles to find where their major interest lies. I find the text clear and interesting. The sidebars with cartoons and information on "Guitar Gods" etc. are a bit overcute for my taste, but are actually quite informative. In contrast the hand drawings by Linda Trujillo are some of the best and clearest that I have seen in any music instruction book. My only regret is that a CD was not included. Nowadays most self-instruction books seem to have these, and I feel that the publishers would be well advised to include this in a future edition. Overall, a fine addition to the teaching literature.