Justinguitar.com Beginner's Course Guitar (Second Edition)(Copyright 2011)

Years ago I came across these video lessons on Youtube and went right through them all to teach myself guitar completely from scratch. I remember thinking at the time what a good teacher Justin was, and liked the fact that his videos were all round about 10mins long each, so although his Youtube videos took you through a lot of important stuff, i never got bored and actually stuck with them all the way through, and ended up being an alright wee basic guitar player I think, because I did get comments when I played in front of family - they were surprised how good I was starting to get. I was very skint back then and couldnt afford to pay for lessons, so that shows how good these videos were, to take a complete beginner through to intermediate level just through wee 10 minute videos. I gave up guitar to concentrate on a different instrument at that point which I preferred. Fast forward about 10 years and for whatever reason Ive decided to take up the guitar again. So I look him up on the internet and find out he now has an amazing big website with fully structured courses, really improved from just his youtube videos - if that could be possible. So Ive started learning with him again. I bought this book so that I could do a quick 15 mins practice each day without having to watch the videos over and over again. Or take notes. If you just use the videos - youd end up having to take notes and draw out the chord diagrams etc, but by buying the book you save yourself all that hassle. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the book exactly mirrors his video lessons. And its so handy to have the practice schedules and chord diagrams, photos of how to place your fingers etc all to hand to see at a glance any time you want. This guy is really a brilliant teacher, his lessons really worked on me 1st time round (the only reason Im having to start from scratch again is because i need to build up my hand strength etc again and try to remember all the chords) and I enjoyed following his course (most importantly) so Id definitely recommend buying this book either as a written accompaniment to the videos or even just to go through on its own. Best musical instrument-learning book Ive ever bought.

Justin is an amazing guitar teacher. His online resources are huge and this book is packed full of information.I bought this book for off line learning, something I could follow and make written notes with. It has not disappeared me and I will not hesitate to buy the other levels and his song books too.

After toying with the idea of learning to play the guitar for over 20 ywars and a couple of false starts, in early 2020 I took the plunge and bouggt an acoustic. I bought this book a couple of weeks later having never heard of Justin before, but in my research I was only hearing good things about his lessons and teaching style. The book is very good quality and clearly laid out, the ring bind is perfect for this type of book.After getting started I quickly got the first 3 chords down and was strumming along to Three Little Birds in a couple of weeks. If there's anything I was unsure of, I watched his Youtube videos which go hand in hand with this book. I also splashed out on his song book which is also superb.To be honest though, I hit a bit of a brick wall after 5 months and decided to have proper lessons. I am still having lessons but I still use both of my Justin books and watch his videos. The wall was of my making, getting hung on things that held me back. My teacher thinks it's good to have an alternate option to keep things fresh.Justin's teaching style is firm, honest but with an endearing personality.Buy his books, they will help you as they continue to help me. I'm not sure if I will need the next course book but I will definitely buy his other song books

First discovered Justin whilst exploring you tube. With his online tutorials coupled with this book you work at your own pace and it makes it a fully integrated experience. It's like having a guitar tutor sit with you and takes you through all aspects. He gives you a daily schedule to work to and the modules are broken down into manageable chunks. His online lessons are free but to be honest it costs money to set all that lot up. You could just freeload off his generosity but to be fair I felt morally obliged to buy this and his songbooks to help support the work he does. Small price to pay for him teaching you a life skill in my opinion. I've not seen anything else online or elsewhere that makes learning guitar this well. Justin is infectiously enthusiastic and a great player and not too up his own arse to have a laugh at himself sometimes.It's a bit more like intermediate but just for example check out his videos playing Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" and "Old Man". They are brilliantly transcribed. Forget all the other tabs out there because they are wrong; Justin has a good ear and gets it bang on. That Maton Messiah he plays them on sounds great too. Thanks Justin.

Really impressed by this course. Old man learning new tricks here but the course is so well put together and so enjoyable I have made some real progress, and all scepticism is gone. Doing this course by myself alongside my kids taking lessons with an instructor. Really look forward to each new stage. You do need to buy the song book that accompanies it to get full benefit though, but I think it’s all amazing value. Prob need to get the books in the right editions to match properly so look out for that. Great background in it as well, which is a nice thing as it covers awkward questions kids sometimes throw up. Gets you into encouraging the kids to pick up the guitar more, and they are more into it naturally seeing me have a go myself. Something I always wanted to do. There is a lot of junk out there in teach yourself books, but this is outstanding, logical, carefully put together tuition, that ensures you walk before running, gets the basics down first, and then brings you on. I was hooked in a week.