Ebook: The complete idiot's guide to playing rock guitar

From the Publisher: Essential learning material that will be music to any aspiring musician's ears. CD included! The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to Playing Rock Guitar is for the beginner guitarist who wants to get up to speed quickly playing rock music. The earliest exercises up to the more advanced are all focused on the rock genre, not classical as in other books. Teaches all the techniques, sounds, tricks, modes, styles, and gadgets; Covers anticipations and improvisations, unlike the competition; The accompanying CD has 70 play-along tracks.;8: Rocking in bits and pieces -- Pieces of chords -- Arpeggios -- Skipping around -- Crosspicking -- Partially scrambled chords -- Illusion of patterns -- Slurs -- Hammer-on my wayward son -- Pull-offs -- Combining hammer-ons and pull-offs -- Trill of victory -- Tricky tablature -- Sliding along -- Switching to glide -- To (or from) nowhere -- Adding pizzazz with slurs -- Velvet noir -- Part 3: Rocking The House -- 9: Breaking through the barre-ior -- Open and closed cases -- Making the barre -- Keeping straight -- E and Em shapes -- A and Am shapes -- C shape -- Half a barre -- Thumb over option -- Combining barres and slurs -- Hammer-ons and pull-offs -- Sliding barres -- Getting chunky with left-hand muting -- Chunky barre rock -- 10: Serious metallurgy -- Sixteenth pack -- Fast and furious -- Taking a rest -- In the palm of your hand -- Single strings -- Two, three, and more -- Applying pressure -- Anticipations -- Illusion of speed -- More ties -- Finding harmonics -- Natural harmonics -- Squealies! -- Metal mettle -- Further on down the road -- Whamming the vibrato bar -- Tapping -- Sweep picking -- 11: Punky and funky -- Punching it up -- Flawless rhythm -- Making down and up work -- Reading between the notes -- Triple the triplets -- From chord to riff to groove -- Making space -- Smooth moves -- Part 4: From Scales To Solos -- 12: Little music theory goes a long way -- Do? Si, Do! -- Twelve frets, twelve notes -- Putting things to scale -- Major scale -- Mapping things out -- Finding the notes -- Closing down the pattern -- Moveable root 5 and root 6 major scale patterns -- Interlude on intervals -- Major and minor seconds -- Major and minor thirds -- Fourths -- Three fifths: perfect, diminished, and augmented -- Major and minor sixths -- Major sevenths and flatted sevenths -- 13: Rest of the lowdown on chords -- Four basic chords -- Constructing triads -- Majors and minors -- Augmented and diminished -- Suspension of belief -- Sus4 -- Sus2 -- Make it a double -- Making sense of sevenths -- Dominant -- Major sevenths -- Minor sevenths -- Minor major sevenths -- Augmented sevenths -- Diminished sevenths and half-diminished sevenths -- If six were nine -- Nines and add nines -- Piling it on -- Freaky stuff -- Creative voicings -- Slash chords -- Jazzing it up.;Part 1: Let There Be Rock -- 1: Start me up -- Get plugged in! -- Old school philosophy -- Very short history of the guitar -- Sonic boom -- Accidental rocker -- Electric guitar anatomy 101 -- Headstock -- Nut -- Body parts -- Vibrato bars -- Beauty within -- Strings -- Can you spare a nickel? -- Gauging your needs -- Buying your first guitar -- Little research goes a long way -- Taking things into hand -- Can't get to a store? -- Other avenues -- Amplifiers -- Other options -- Necessities and accessories -- Cases and cables -- Straps -- You'll thank yourself one day -- Spares -- Being prepared -- Setting off with a setup -- 2: Come on feel the noise -- Getting in tune -- Learning the ropes, er, strings -- Tuning with a tuner -- Relative tuning -- Posture and position -- Don't get a grip -- Taking a seat -- Taking a stand -- Ready on the right? -- Picking a pick -- Proper picking -- Look ma, no plectrum! -- Left hand -- Fretting the frets -- One finger one fret warm up exercise -- Two strings at a time -- Little rock 'n' roll -- 3: I read the news today oh boy -- Few things to read -- Chord charts -- Cheat sheets -- Fake books and piano/vocal books -- Picking up the tab -- Things of note -- Lines, spaces, and ledger lines -- Converting notes to numbers -- Rhythm notation -- Time signatures -- Quarter notes and eighth notes -- Remember our first two songs? -- Double stops -- Getting around -- One finger or two? -- Rest in development -- Short break -- Tying things together -- Double stop rock -- Part 2: Pick Up My Guitar And Play -- 4: Finding finesse -- Don't be fooled by what you see -- There's more than meets the ear -- Playing vs performing -- You have six strings, but -- Developing the touch -- Giving your guitar a voice -- Vibrato and classical vibrato -- Rock vibrato -- How much and when? -- Minor -- Good vibrato-ations -- Around the bends -- Tracking your target -- Bending tips -- Timing counts -- Types of bends -- Full bends -- Half bends -- Quarter bends -- More tips -- Backward and forward -- Unison bends -- Bending matter -- 5: Power chords to the people -- E chord shapes -- Major and minor -- Eliminating the "tunks" -- E7 and Em7 -- Taking root -- Five or six strings? -- Chord shapes -- Many fingerings of a major -- A7 and Am7 -- Is it major, minor, or something else? -- 5th power -- Heart of rock -- Where's the root? -- Stretching out -- Filling out the power -- Moving about -- Start over slow and easy -- Fretboard map -- Octaves -- Mute point -- You don't have to use a pick -- Power point -- 6: Some rhythm (and a bit of blues) -- Reading for the ears -- Basic strumming -- Upstrokes -- Getting more musical -- Counting to four -- Pattern patter -- Taking a giant step -- Skipping a down -- More rhythms to practice -- Swinging in time -- Triplet -- Swing eighths -- From blues to rock and back -- Woke up this evening -- Alternate picking -- Shuffle rock -- 7: Some of the lowdown on chords -- Where chords come from -- Putting your finesse to good use -- D and friends -- Hitting the strings you want -- D7, Dm, and Dm7 -- More fun with the D -- From C to shining G -- G chord -- Which finger moves first? -- Little bass -- Getting your fingers going -- How to practice changing chords -- Open chord rock -- Sevenths -- Flavor of sevenths -- Back to blue -- How about nine? -- One more note to take note of -- 7 to 9 blues.;14: Key personnel -- Keying in on keys -- From scale to key -- Twelve signatures -- Diatonic chords -- Naming numbers -- Finding clues -- Circling the fifths -- Typical progress with chord progressions -- I-IV-V -- I-vi-IV-V -- I-VII-IV-I -- You've got change coming -- 15: Rock guitarist's best friend -- Five notes and the truth -- It's all relative -- Minor pentatonic scale -- Position playing -- Shifting to second position -- Positions three through five -- Connecting the dots -- Just a phase -- Your first big-okay, little-solo -- Why they call it the blues -- Blue note special -- Three chords-one scale-five blue notes -- Major-minor combo platter -- Blues scale -- Bucketful of blues -- 16: Choosing colors -- Limited options -- Back to basics -- Target practice -- Shifting centers -- One major scale=seven modes --Tonal centers and targets -- Dorian Rock -- Minor incidents -- Natural minor scale -- Harmonic minor scale -- Melodic minor scale -- Keys, chord progressions, and styles -- Segmenting solos -- Personal choices -- Minor madness -- 17: Playing your fill -- Leading the rhythm -- Filling spaces -- Appropriate attire -- Building a fill/riff repertoire -- Copying the masters -- Taking note of notes -- Silly putty principle -- Cut and paste -- Playing with time -- Call and response -- Trading spaces -- Listen to the music -- Commuter train crazy -- Making your own style -- Part 5: Quest For Tone -- 18: You, your gear, and the great quest -- Tone starts with the fingers -- Body language -- Scale length and strings -- Pickup games -- Your partner the amp -- Tubes and transistors -- Added or adding effects -- Effective sounds -- Dynamic control and filters -- Distortion and overdrive -- Chorus line -- Sampler -- Building a chain -- Evolutionary theory -- 19: Alternate tuning -- Nothing standard -- Lowered tuning -- Getting heavy -- Alternatives to lowered tunings -- Dropping the D -- Big and easy power chords -- Combining drop D and lowered tunings -- Drop D rock -- Open tuning -- Open G -- Rolling Stones sound -- Open D -- Open A, Open E, and capos -- Even more open tunings -- Open G rock -- Universe of alternate tunings -- Double drop D -- Almost limitless possibilities -- 20: Slip sliding away -- Little history -- More choices -- Heavy metal or smooth glass? -- Still more choices -- Successful sliding -- Putting your guitar knowledge to good use -- Majors -- Minors and minor sevenths -- Some sample slide riffs -- Sliding in the open -- Slide song -- Afterword -- Appendixes -- Appendix A: Glossary -- Appendix B: For further study -- Appendix C: Track guide to The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Rock Guitar CD -- Index.