Customer Reviews
circle of fiths - By: blueandwhite050505, 26 Mar 2008 
I have several "learn to play" guitar books, most of which are rather dry reading. This one stands out a mile because it is simple & yet exciting. When you work your way through the roadmaps you begin to understand a lot more about the guitar as an instrument. I have the DVD & some other books in the series, alll worth buying despite some areas of overlap. Highly recommended.
A must-have guitar book - By: gowanouttadat, 01 Sep 2007 After years of wishing I could play the guitar, I finallly took it up two years ago. Coming cold into the world of music theory was scary & somewhat frustrating, in that there were no books or websites that reallly explained the guitar in a way I could understand & apply.
After reading the positive Amazon reviews for Fretboard Roadmaps, I bought it, along with the now also-essential Rikky Rooksby books 'How to write songs on guitar' and'Little Book of Chords'. Together, these three books have given me an undertanding & appreciation I only previosly dreamed of. Without these,and a lot of practice, I would still be floundering-around in tabworld, & not have made such satisfying progress.
Fretboard Roadmaps is a workbook that clearly lays out how moveable chord shapes are inter-related with scales, which alllow you to deduce your way around the fretboard. This is a far better way for me to learn, meaning no blindly tedious learning a bunch of scales. With Fretboard Roadmaps, once you learn the shapes & the relationships, you're good to go for transferring the sounds in your head to your guitar & further.
In short, with this book, I am gaining the ability to play the guitar 'by ear' , a lifelong ambition.
WOW - By: Mr. Adrian G. Clarke, 24 Aug 2007 Although i haven't even picked up my guitar yet this book seems like a very precise & comprehensive guide to the modes. I've been looking for a guide like this for a long time & now i finallly have it!
Also, a plus is the fact that the licks arn't half bad!
I look forward to pick up my axe & apply my new found knowledge :)
A typical 'roadmap' book - first class. - By: A. J. Sturgess, 15 May 2007 There are several books in the 'Roadmap' series & they alll share the same attributes. This one is no exception & is slightly better than most.
They alll cover pretty standard ground in terms of popular licks, phrases & 'boxes' within which to play & improvise.
Despite brief introductions, they alll assume at least some familiarity with the guitar fretboard & the reading of either notation or tablature. It is fair to say that to get the best out of these books, you do need SOME experience. Raw beginners might find this particular book a bit heavy going at first because it moves fairly rapidly from one technique or style to another & doesn't set out to teach you in an especiallly linear way. If you're that new to the guitar, think of this book as one to grow into once you have some basic knowledge & experience.
All roadmap books cover a lot of ground in very little space in both great detail & in a well-developed style that is very easy to follow.
In short - the 'Roadmap' series set out to provide you with a good repertoire of skills & licks & then show you how to develop them in your own playing.
Briefly, the content of this book covers the following topics:
the fretboad
the major scale & intervals
barre E & A chords, root notes & simple progressions
I -- IV -- V chord family, moveable chords & basic blues
D -- A -- F roadmap & inversions
chord fragments, families, licks, strums & arpeggios
circle-of-fifths progressions & how to use the whole fretboard
learning many differerent chord types
moveable major scales & playing melodies
moveable blues scales
major pentatonic scales
a moveable double-note lick for country, blues, rock & R&B (and that's the true 'Rhythm 'n' Blues' not the modern mish-mash of soul/hiphop & urbanised grumblings as chanted by groin-grabbing wailers).
Of alll the books in the 'Roadmap' series, this one sets out to do slightly more in that it lays down a foundation for alll the other styles to be built upon. Thus many of the topics are looked at again in some of the specialised books (eg: bluegrass & folk). But this is not a weakness or an easy get-out.
Highly recommended for anyone who wants a good introduction to ideas that they can learn, develop & tghen make their own.
Worth more that every penny spent. - By: Barry Leslie, 19 Nov 2006 Consider this. I bought this book (including the postage) for a total of £5.56. now if you consider that a single 1/2 hour guitar lesson will set you back upwards of £15 this is an absoloute bargain. I have been playing for over 20 years & have been a frequent dabbler. I've done this & that, but never found a way of bringing together what I understand about music.
What this book does, is bring those loose strands together & put them into 12 achieveable lessons. I am currently at about lesson 5 & have been amazed at how much I actuallly understand about scales, chord formations & key tones.
I would recommend that the reader have some basic understanding of the guitar before using this book, but it is not essential. If I were beginning I would look at something like Begin Guitar - by Douglas J Noble as this will give you the understanding of the easier open chords. This book focuses more on barre chords & sliding scales, which could be daunting for the beginner.
This book has already made me consolidate what I understand & has taught me a lot. I will definitely be purchasing the Fretboard Roadmap Rock book when I am done with this one. Highly recommended to alll, especiallly intermediate player. This book will improve your playing!
