All About “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar”

Hello to all!

This page is dedicated to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar, which came out in March 2010. This book is a tutorial for those who have never played a guitar before and who are more interested in the electric guitar or rock acoustic style of playing.

Accordingly, the focus of this book is on finesse and how important developing the proper touch is when playing electric guitar. Here is a look at the “Contents at a Glance:”

Part 1: Let There Be Rock

1   Start Me Up

You need an electric guitar to play rock music! First you get a quick rundown on what makes the electric guitar tick and then you get tips on how to purchase your own rock guitar.

2   Come On Feel the Noise

Once you have your electric guitar, it’s time to get it in tune and to start playing! You learn how to hold your instrument, how best to position your hands, and then you play some warm-up exercises and songs.

3   I Read the News Today Oh Boy

In this chapter, you get a brief lesson on reading guitar tablature and music notation and then move on to playing double stops, which are two notes on adjacent strings.

Part 2: Pick Up My Guitar and Play

4   Finding Finesse

Rock guitar is all about finesse, and in this chapter you learn about vibrato and string bending as methods to quickly develop the necessary touch for playing the music you love.

5   Power Chords to the People

Power chords are simply double stops with a single added note. By the end of this chapter, you are able to play literally hundreds of songs.

6   Some Rhythm (and a Bit of Blues)

Rhythm is king in rock music and any guitarist worth his or her keep has to be able to maintain a strong and steady beat. Here you learn both straight rock and swing rhythms.

7   Some of the Lowdown on Chords

Even lead guitarists need to know how to play chords. This chapter introduces you to almost all of the open position chords and you also get a taste of blues-y seventh and ninth chords.

8   Rocking in Bits and Pieces

Just because you have six strings on your guitar, you don’t want to hit all of them all of the time. Learning to play partial chords and arpeggios speeds your development as an electric guitar player.

Part 3: Rocking the House

9   Breaking Through the Barre-ior

Knowing 4 barre chord shapes means you can play more than 40 different chords! You also learn about half barre chords and left-hand string muting.

10  Serious Metallurgy

Palm muting and flurries of sixteenth note runs are trademark sounds of metal as well as many other rock genres. In addition to picking up some speed techniques, you also learn about harmonics.

11  Punky and Funky

In this chapter you devote more time to rhythms, particularly complicated ones from punk and funk music. You also learn how to build a guitar riff from scratch.

Part 4: From Scales to Solos

12   A Little Music Theory Goes a Long Way

If you can count to 12, you can learn music theory. It is truly that simple! More important, even a little theory can help you make great strides as a rock guitarist.

13  The Rest of the Lowdown on Chords

When you know how chords are made, you never have to ask to be shown a chord again. In fact, you can come up with ways to play them that most of your friends probably don’t know.

14  Key Personnel

The key of a song tells you what chords are most likely to be played in the song and also gives you big clues as how best to solo. That makes learning about keys very worthwhile, don’t you think?

15  The Rock Guitarist’s Best Friend

It’s truly amazing how many rock guitarists use only the pentatonic scale for their solos. After reading this chapter, you’re ready to start creating some memorable solos of your own.

16  Choosing Colors

Playing a solo is like painting a picture. You can use only two or three colors or as many as you’d like. This chapter shows you that when you learned the major scale, you actually learned seven different scales, each with its own enchanting color.

17  Playing Your Fill

Fills and riffs not only make songs incredibly memorable, they are also the building blocks of great rhythm and lead playing. Here you discover that every fill you create or learn can become a dozen or more of them at your command.

Part 5:   The Quest for Tone

18  You, Your Gear, and the Great Quest

Everyone talks about it, but what is tone, really? And what can you do about developing your own unique style and sound? Ultimately, does your tone come from you personally or your equipment? You also learn about the importance of choosing the right amplifier and find out how different guitar effects increase your options in almost endless ways.

19  Alternate Tuning

Simply changing the tuning on your guitar can give it a whole new sound! This chapter teaches you how to get the “heavy” feel of metal or the signature chord voicings of Keith Richards. You also discover a very cool trick to play instant power chords.

20  Slip Sliding Away

Playing slide is another exciting way of exploring new sounds with your guitar. You learn slide riffs in both standard and open tunings.

One Guitar Noise member who’s bought a copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Rock Guitar, has started a blog that will be giving a chapter by chapter review for the book. And the cool thing is that he’s also posting sound files of his progress. His work on “Double Stop Rock” in Chapter 3 is great!

There will soon be an errata page for this CIG, too – And I appreciate your patience with all this construction going on here on my blog.

Peace