Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #178630 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Synopsis
Learn all about playing and backing traditional Irish music using the famous DADGAD open guitar tuning. This book contains sections on how to use the tuning, the chords, hints on the playing of Irish music and of course plenty of the very best traditional tunes in easy to read tablature as well as notation. A demo CD wtih all the tunes from the book is enclosed.

Customer Reviews

Doesn't quite deliver....
(This refers to the earlier edition)

There is a need for a comprehensive book on dadgad guitar, which covers the scales and chords of this tuning fully, along with examples in the styles most often associated with it.

I think Ms McQuaid missed an opportunity here to fulfil that need and write a standard text. In the event, she gives some general hints (including how to change strings, which is hardly relevant) and a mass of chord diagrams with nothing to really link the various forms. Her presentation of the theory of accompanying Irish music is rather poor (no mention of harmonised scales for example, surely the basis of all chord progressions) and there is no explanation of the structure of scales and chords as it relates to the layout of the dadgad fretboard (scale 'boxes' for example.) There is a collection of example tunes in tablature, but without chords.

She also has a somewhat bossy tone (if you can't tune the guitar properly you have no right to play it - no right?! excuse me but it's my guitar, thanks.) I wouldn't like to play in a session with her - God help you if you play the wrong chord!

In fairness, this is a useful resource if dadgad tuning attracts you and you are prepared to experiment with the chord diagrams given. However, it does read like a hotchpotch of her own knowledge and could benefit from being more methodical and based on a more thorough theoretical basis. Perhaps the next edition will be more substantial and more fully answer the whys and hows of this attractive tuning.

not the best
This was a disappointment. Much of the book is written about the background to guitar accompaniment in irish music. The tablature is not clearly written without any standard notation to go with it, not at all easy to follow.

A great introduction to Irish traditional guitar
This is a great place to start if you have a desire to learn Irish guitar - both accompaniment and melody. With a background on the music theory and guitar basics, it leads onto explaining the DADGAD tuning and why it is so popular in irish music...