RuggedReviews.com Review of The Guitar Principles Chords & Rhythm

Changing chords smoothly while keeping steady rhythm are two of the biggest challenges for beginning guitarists. Throw singing on top of these fundamental skills and all hell breaks loose, especially if you failed to develop sound technique from the start.

The Guitar Principles Chords & Rhythm book by accomplished musician and instructor Jamie Andreas painstakingly breaks down chord changing and maintaining rhythm into individual movements. She uses text and photos to demonstrate the different ways fingers must move from chord-to-chord with the great accuracy and efficiency. And she demystifies rhythm by explaining how to translate different types of musical notes and other symbols when reading music into steady rhythm. The lessons are reinforced by productive exercises.

I used The Guitar Principles Chords & Rhythm book to reinforce the skills taught by Steve Krenz in his excellent Learn & Master Guitar instructional book and DVD set. Krenz does a superb job of showing the basic movements necessary to make chords, but Andreas reduces it down into even finer detail. She stresses the importance of remaining relaxed as you learn these skills. If you tighten up every time you try to hit a note, you'll miss your mark. Her unique approach helped me to work the kinks out of my chord changes while keeping the beat. I can even sing while I'm playing. These skills have helped me to play sheet music in just about any genre.

The Guitar Principles Chords & Rhythm also works well as a companion to Andreas's more well- known book The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar, which teaches the importance of practicing with total awareness in order to progress as a musician. Her approach to guitar is the opposite of the quick and easy sham lessons that abound out there. That's why it works.