10 Minute Guitar Workout [Paperback]

The book starts with some information that will be useful if you haven't yet bought all of you're equipment. If you do already have your gear you'll either find yourself breathing a sigh of relief because you happened to get it right or kicking yourself because you didn't read this before you went shopping. After that comes a series of chapters in which Mr Mead explains things like which chords are worth learning and how you can 'cheat' with the others and suggests an order in which to learn them so that you build up your dexterity as you go*. The last part of the book, the workout itself, and where I'm currently at, is a series of exercises that are designed to improve your playing by developing your dexterity and your 'musical ear'.

Whether you're thinking of buying a guitar or whether you already have one: buy this book. I mean how can you go wrong with an author who emphasises his confidence in a point that he's making by saying that if you prove him wrong he'll buy you a pint next time you see him?

* Here's an excellent example of the kind of things this book reveals: A guitarist friend once showed me a neat 'trick' where he fretted three strings at once using just the third finger of his left hand. This allowed him to play the A chord shape as a barre chord. I tried it but couldn't do it because the last knuckle on my 3rd finger wouldn't bend like that. What my friend didn't point out to me, but which Mr Mead's book does, is that this is kind of like a Yoga thing i.e. you probably won't be able to do it at first but practice will increase your flexibility until you can. The whole book is stuffed with things like this i.e. things you wish you'd been told earlier.

You find yourself reading on a topic you sort of understand only to find it wasn't half as complicated as you first thought. This fresh perspective brought a lot of stuff together for me, and filled in a few holes.

I've only just started the workout, so I can't comment on that yet. But it looks promising.

My only criticism - the author stops a bit short on some topics and leaves you wanting more information - but maybe that's for another book, so long as it's by the same author.