Product Review

"As beginners, we sometimes focus so much on learning all those new and crazy chords that we forget that our fretting hand doesn't actually make much music." For beginners and players who have learned those chords and fingerings, Dan Emery's new Guitar for Near Beginners takes the next step.

To illustrate, he points out, "Thousands of songs have become wildly popular which use just two or three or four chords... but NO songs have become popular which do not have an engaging groove or rhythm." True enough, and Emery sets out to "help guitar students develop rock-solid rhythm." Learn the palm mute, the ballad strum, the bass strum, and move on to the "SuperRock and SuperBallad" strums. "Learn the Scratch and never need a drummer again," says Emery. If you know a chord or two and can play through a song, you're ready to master changing between basic chords in rhythm. Guitar for Near Beginners is for you.