My First Guitar: Learn To Play: Kids Paperback – January 30, 2013

I am a private music instructor, and I bought three of the top recommended books for teaching very young children guitar, as I had two 6 year olds sign up in a week. This book won as being the simplest and easiest. It teaches simplified chords using the top 4 strings. It starts with very silly limericks that you can make up a melody for, then goes on to classic kids songs everyone knows, a strong point that many beginner books lack.Some of these reviews are pretty silly- someone said "the diagrams are too complicated," the chord diagrams are classic if you know how to read them. I taught one 6 year old how to read them and the next week I asked her if she could figure out how to play the next chord and she did. People who expect their 7 year old to learn to play with no guidance besides a book may have unrealistic expectations!Great book overall!

This was purchased as a gift for my niece when she was wanting to start learning guitar. I got it and a beginner song book and gave them to her for Christmas. She was about to start lessons in January. It was a great supplemental book for her along with what her teacher used. Her dad said she loved it!

I am an adult learning how to play the guitar. I got this book because I wanted some simple things to practice, plus I'm around young kids a lot, so I wanted to have things to play for them as well. I don't know how to read music at all, so I needed a book to show me chords to play, rather than the regular methods. This book was a fun bit to practice with in addition to my usual lessons. The limericks were easy and quick, and the songs were great to practice on and pick up. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because it would be great if it were longer and had more to it.

Recommended!!

If I were going to write a beginners guitar book for children, I would try to emulate this book! I ordered it for one of my students and it is exactly what I was looking for. It's easy to understand, colorful and fun for the student, In particular, I like the 4 string chord diagrams and strumming exercises which are presented through the use of limericks. This helps the child to strum "in rhythm" with the lyrics without having to read a note of music.As a guitar instructor with over 30 years of teaching experience I highly recommend this guitar book for teaching small children how to play the guitar, "My First Guitar" by Ben Parker is so well written, it's appropriate for any child who wants to learn how to play the guitar whether taking formal guitar lessons or learning on their own.

Simple and easy to follow instructions. Not happy that I paid $13.00 for $3.00 used book.

Good book!

Well constructed & complete accessories included. Grand daughter will love her blue guitar