Rhythm Guitar: Essential Concepts Series (Essential Concepts / Musicians Institute)

This is a comprehensive book that focuses on learning all the chords you will need to know to play chordal rhythms. There is no discussion of riffs or much in the ways of technique. There is one chapter on basic arpeggiating. The focus is on strumming, chords, rhythms, harmony, etc.Rhythm Guitar is not necessarily a book for beginners. You will need to know how to read rhythms and music notation to work through this book. I am a guitar teacher and do use the first few chapters with my beginner students. I do not start them right away on this though. Usually after a month or so after learning the basics. I couldn't imagine them trying to do this without a teacher. It would be confusing.The CD does not include recordings of every example, just what you will need. If you are looking for the CD as a "play along", this won't cut it.This book does not teach you songs. It teaches you the chords you will need to play the ones you want though. If you want to learn songs only, this is not the book for you.What this book does provide is a technical and well put together way of learning chords, developing the ability to change between them, playing them with different strumming patterns, and how they fit in style wise.

The book does not come with a CD. It is completely my fault for not recognizing this. However, with all the great example exercises - almost 500 of them, and all the non basic chords used, how can someone who is trying to learn know what they are supposed to sound like? This fact makes this book a rather incomplete guide. I have other guitar books, including three more from the Musician' Institute, and I would rate each of the other three highly, but not this one.

This is a pretty comprehensive book. But don't expect to learn all you can from it alone. It really does need a CD or maybe even a DVD with lectures. Reading this M.I?That said it is a very comprehensive book. If you're trying to learn this at home alone you'll have your work cut out for you. That is a kind way of saying you'll become frustrated. I needed to use software, metronome and instructor to be able to understand what was written down. Maybe it was just me but if this came easily then I probably wouldn't have needed to buy the book. If you have access to the above (guitar software, instructor) then you can add a star or two. If you don't now any music theory at all then subtract 2 stars.Having access to a good instructor and using this as a syllabus is the best route.--------------There is a new version of this book with a CD. Buy that version instead of this version if you're doing self study or want the extra help.

Of course, this book is not perfect, there's some flaws, for example:- there's a gap between the first seven chapters and the rest of the book, the first seven chapters are pretty accesible for a beguiner but, starting in chapter eigth the level required is raised a lot so a beguiner may have a lot of trouble finding his way trougth the examples.- Some aspects doesn't have enought explanation, some chapters may have 3 pages or so and you feel like there's something missing to fully "get" the idea.Eventhought, this is the best book I've seen so far about rhythm guitar, it is by far the most complete in terms of aspects of rhythm playing and has a fairly good amount of chords to show the student. This is not a book for guys just looking around, it is designed for serious study for a reletive long period (It might take nine months to a year of a consistent practice to absorve the content of the book). Botton line, if you want to learn rhythm guitar a little bit further than the average ballad to impress a girl, this is your book.One piece of advice: No book can stand on his own, to fully integrate the content of the book I suggest the Tom Kolb "Chord Progressions" as a companion, and maybe some others as your hability improves.

I was not that enthusiastic with this book...but I was always curious (specially after the good reviews)..finally I decided to buy it and I was not wrong. This book is quite deep in rhythm exercises and chord voicings.As other reviewers posted after the sixth chapter thigs become more advanced so it requires good commitment.Really good!

This book will take you from beginner to solid rhythm player. It is a true musical trip into rhythm guitar and much more useful than a bunch of chord diagrams. Some chord theory is covered, and the chords are related to scales and positions. Short practice examples stress "basic moves" instead of full tunes, which is the best way to learn. If you can get through this book, you will fit in as a rhythm player in just about any style. I give 4 instead of 5 stars because there is no CD included - you do need to be able to read a bit to get the strumming patterns. This book is an excellent companion to "Chord-Tone Soloing", another great book from MI.

this is really a good book for learning basic guitar chords and their upper structures quickly. Lots of exercises. Do them all and you'll definitely improve!!

Very good instructual book!

This is a rhythm guitar textbook. It is a complete reference. Just think that it has 37 chapters and open chords are just ONE of them (all open chords!). The book doesn't stress much strumming patterns. Ultimatelly, there are a lot of strumming patterns inside, but it is not an exhaustive reference on this subject. The book includes all the chords and the thoery to combine them to make excellent progressions (circle of fifths, harmonizing the scales, ghost chords, 3-string voicings etc). Yet, the book is a reference textbook. It will not include a great combination of chords and patterns and strums that will make you happy. The examples are more didactic, rather than musical. For this I would recommend Tom Kolb's book (also from MI) that includes amazing progressions with great strumming patterns, but no theory. A must, if you are serious about guitar.

Recommended by my son's guitar teacher to go with his new electric guitar. I didn't think it looked very inspiring in the photo but when it arrived I was very impressed! It is a very thick book with lots of different sections. Suitable for both electric & classical - well according to my 11 year old!packed with exercises & pieces. Good value for money & definitely a book he can use over a long period of time- currently grade 3 level classical guitar.

Brilliant guitar book, helping me so much with my barre chords .

This is an amazing book, all guitarists learning on their own should have this. It is a MUST!!1.Everything is explained in details, clearly and easy to understand2.There are hundreds of exercises and backtracks on the CD provided3.If you follow the practising guidelines given you will eventually learn to play amazing guitarWell done Musicians Institute

If you want an all round book on rhythm, then this is it.The only down fall with this book is that it doesn't let you know what chord progressions your learning/playing.So you need to look these up & find out for yourself !