The Hal Leonard Guitar Superbook Survey I think that if you have a basic understanding of music theory (eg. reading music) then this book is great for you. It goes through the basics of guitar playing step by step and the cds are useful as well. I bought a couple of other beginner guitar books, but this book took me farther in 5 days than others did in 2 weeks. Also, the fact that the book contains 4 other books with real songs to play and not just guitar method is a great deal. This is a very comprehensive book--not perfect, but very useful. I am a music teacher and plan to use this to teach a guitar class. I really just wanted to clear something up with some of the comments about the music being an octave too high. If you compare guitar music to the pitches on the piano, you will find that all guitar music in standard notation is written an octave higher than it actually sounds when compared to the piano. It is done that way so the notes can fit on the staff without a lot of ledger lines and is thus easier to read. The notes on the guitar actually lie on both the bass and treble clefs so writing the one octave higher allows the notes to fit more onto one staff without having to use two such as piano music requires. Someone trained to read music on a guitar would never notice until they tried to play their music on the piano and discovered the discrepency. So it is not a mistake that was overlooked by the publisher as one reviewer suggested--that is just how it is done for very practical reasons. This is a perfectly good method book. This is a great book for people who have a basic understanding of music theory. Beginning Guitar Superbook has a nice layout, and a step by step method that is easy to follow. The CD's are helpful, and give you a good reference for the lessons. CleverJoe. com three thumbs up! I am a beginner guitarist. This book has chords, simple melodies, some popular songs, and CDs filled with audio examples of how the songs are played which can be used to play along. A music teacher friend of mine showed me this book prior to my ordering a copy of my own so I knew what was included in the book. I am comfortable with chords, scales, and starting to learn the notes for entire songs. I am thinking of ordering another guitar book from HalLeonard with simple songs that have been popular on the radio. I teach beginning guitar lessons from my home. I am primarily a piano and choir teacher but have taught guitar for about 15 years as well. This is my favorite book because it is really 5 books combined, and therefore it covers lots of different concepts. In one lesson, a student can work on reading melody notes, playing chords, fingerpicking, and improvising rock riffs to the CD accompaniment. The layout is very friendly and easy to read. I am going to start requiring it for all students.
http://gradebit.com/1238