As instrumentalists, we go through hours, days, months, and years of practice to get to a point we’ve been dreaming of reaching. And to get there you have to be habituated to the right way of practicing. A lot of times, whether you are a beginner player, or an advanced guy you’re gonna be in phases where you’ve not even realized you’ve been going about your routines the wrong way. This is not specifically suited for guitarists who want to go in-depth with their study of music theory and take their playing to more complex avenues, but meant more for students who are just starting out and want to just play for fun, for personal enrichment. This book lives up to its title! You will end up learning a lot about playing or chord vocabulary, but also about the parts of a guitar, its anatomy, guitar electronics, etc. It talks a lot about recording, the evolution of technology from the ’90s as well (always good to know a little bit of history).

Set aside some time every day for practice: Like any worthwhile pursuit in life, learning the guitar is all about putting in effort on a consistent basis. Even if you have a busy schedule, I’d much rather you spend 15 minutes every day rather than putting in 2 hours once a week. It’s the regular exercises that will build your skills. Charles Kim is a renowned guitarist and educator and he teaches guitar, songwriting, and music theory at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. This is a lovely book for beginners. This is quite a popular guitar book which is quite similar to the teaching methods of ‘Guitars for Dummies’ which we read about earlier. It takes you through a wide range of topics, like Parts of a guitar, How to hold a guitar properly, What amp to choose, simple, popular songs to strum, hammer-ons, barre chords, and so on and so forth. A lot of vastly experienced musicians as well have held this book in high regard, quoting that they visit this book from time to time for inspiration and it never fails!

This book does not contain any musical notations or chord diagrams. Yes, you read that right! But it is a book with an interesting flair. It is not a technical manual on how to play, but it is more a manual for your mind, body, and soul. It teaches that everyone’s got the music of their own and everyone’s unique. Zen Guitar teaches you music in a very refreshing, redefined way, and has interestingly got a few eastern methods of teaching too!

This book covers a lot of music theory, hand and finger independence. The content is concise and clear, super easy to understand and apply! The book is a culmination of so many popular guitar and teaching techniques from around the world, and it contains 3 versions. The first part talks about the basics such as tuning, musical staff, basic chords and also contains over 80 songs which are super fun if you’re starting out. Book 2 covers a little more complex stuff (which is where you’ll have all the fun) like fingerstyle playing, syncopations, some more interesting, complex chords, etc. Book 3 covers a few advanced techniques like major and minor pentatonic scales, shapes which you can move along the fretboard, techniques like hammer-ons and pull-offs.Start slow with the exercises: When you first come across guitar exercises, it might be tempting to play them fast. But speed without clarity will not help build your skill. It’s much more important to play slow enough to play each note clearly, rather than speed up and go sloppy. So start slow with each exercise by setting your metronome at a comfortable BPM (beats per minute) and then slowly build up your speed.

The first lesson in the books to learn to play the guitar is to get to know each characteristic of this instrument. If you are interested, and you want to learn how to play guitar you have to know the strings and each element that conforms it to make its use easier. You must learn to tune the guitar, to know how to clean it, or how to change the strings, because it is also very important when playing guitar. Modern-day legend and one of the best guitarists of the current generation, Guthrie Govan. He’s a phenomenal guitar player from a technical aspect and also feel-wise. He is known for his work with bands like The Aristocrats, The Young Punx, GPS, and has also worked with legends like Hans Zimmer, Steven Wilson. Govan was named “Guitarist of the Year” by Guitarist magazine in 1993. He has also got tons and tons of teaching experience. Memorizing the fretboard and building your muscle memory on the guitar is one of the biggest challenges faced by beginners and advanced players alike. It is a super underrated skill. It helps you in so many musical scenarios, whether it is songwriting, improv solo-ing with a band, figuring out shapes, memorizing the fretboard is a must.Before I share the list of my favorite guitar books, I want to share some tips that helped me stay disciplined while learning from guitar books myself. Here are some of the golden tips that can be very helpful: Call me biased but there’s nothing that sounds sweeter than when you play a chord on a guitar, compared to any other instrument! Surprised to see a non-guitar book here? Don’t be. Being a musician is not just about playing your instrument, but also about your attitude towards your instrument and your performance. While this book might not contain much technical guitar information, this is equally as important as any guitar book. Purely psychological. There are two recommended ways to tune your guitar, one is by ear, and the other way is with a clip-on tuner. Dan Elwine is a super popular, widely respected guitar luthier, repairman, and guitar builder. He is a pioneer and an inspiration to many luthiers all around the world.

The cover of this book contains the circle of fifths picture with something like a chord watch which is a spinnable wheel and it helps you to easily transpose keys by turning it and instantly tells you the relative chords in a scale. This book covers anything and everything to do with guitar chords. Its lessons are mostly based around the Circle of Fifths. This book helps you understand the practical application of the chords you have learned, the relationship between chords and scales, etc. Another way to read the musical forms is with the tablature, although it will take you a few readings and lessons to get used to its use. It is good that before you focus on learning chords, you play a few notes on the guitar. This is another killer book by Damon Ferrante. You are getting about 5 years of experience all wrapped into one book. And all for a super affordable price. I’d call that a steal. This book covers all of the basics, music theory, fretboard theory, chord theory and it is in lesson-based format. It is also extremely useful for people playing the piano cause it covers material in a general format and is not only limited to guitars. Every lesson is clear and easy to understand.

List of the Best Beginner Guitar Books

What hooked me to this book is that it simply covers so many facets of the guitar. It starts off with helping you to buy your first guitar, choosing your first guitar amp. Then it takes you through basic playing skills, like tuning, preparing to play, basic music theory, scales, and beyond, etc. It contains a bunch of exercises which if done properly and with a bit of patience, you’re guaranteed to master this instrument!