2008-06-02 Playing for years and stuck - now unstuck

In common with most of the other reviewers I really rate this book. Easy to read, few words, lots of good stuff presented in a visual way which suits me. It was also not expensive (I think I paid a little over £5) it's good value.

I've been playing for years (decades!) but never really got to know my way around the fret board and my chord playing was always well, quite amateur which I found an embarrassment. There are simple things in this book which have really lifted my playing. I now use a wide variety of chords and different shapes to produce more interesting playing; now I can play each verse of a song with a different set of chords. My "ear" has also improved and I can pretty much pay in any key, any where (after a quick look at the book). I did hope to have a bit more on the blues in this book, but this is great for all the standard rock, folk, jazzy, funky stuff which I play most of the time.

A few small draw backs - 1) some of the examples used by the author I don't know and as my sight reading is poor I can't access all the examples in the book even with tab - but why worry? - just make your own up - I did. 2) the two note lick section is not too well explained, but with some exploratory playing (and a lot of duff notes) I managed to get something tuneful. Should I ever go back to teaching (probably my children - whom I hope will blow me away musically one day) I'd use this book as a reference. I'm going to buy the blues road map next.