Customer Rating: 
Summary: Rock Guitar Songs for Dummies is All Right Now
Comment: This is a great book, even for non-dummies. It would be great if it included a CD, but perhaps that would have been cost prohibitive. If you can collect the albums that these songs are on, you will have a great and diverse rock album collection.
It might not have a CD, but what it does include is sheet music and tablature for 35 classic rock songs. You can learn a few basic chords and strum along, or get deeper into the licks, riffs, and solos. It also includes notes and tips for each song.
For instance, several songs require tuning down a half-step. Kiss, Van Halen, AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, and even Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys favored this "rock tuning." To have this simple technique explained saved me from endless frustration, trying to pick up the songs by ear. Palm muting is another technique this helpful manual explains. And there are ample examples of "5" chords, that have a very big "rock" sound because they lack the third, and all notes are either roots or 5ths. If the theory and explanations go over the heads of any "dummies" they can just play it, and feel the rock and roll!!!!!
Wild Thing, by The Troggs, is a classic but simple song, and one of the easier ones to play--but there are just a few simple tricks, and this book clues you in on the secrets. Sweet Home Alabama and David Bowie's Rebel, Rebel from the Diamond Dogs album are other simple, yet brilliant, songs that are easy to play, once you unlock the secrets. All Right Now, by Free, from Fire and Water, is yet another example of a riff that sounds so cool, but is so easy to play once you see how.
Smoke on the Water, from Machine Head by Deep Purple? Yes, it's here. Brown Eyed Girl, by Van Morrison, from the groovily titled Blowin' Your Mind!? It's here, too. Walk This Way? Ditto. You got your Cream, your Z.Z. Top, your Police, your Rolling Stones, your Stray Cats, your Steppenwolf--you got your Bachman-Turner Overdrive II, too. So, Who's Next? With all the helpful tips, you Won't Get Fooled Again.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome book.
Comment: If you are looking for a great collection of classic rock songs, this is it. It includes both tab and music and great performance notes to get many of the nuances from the original performers. Many of the songs are very easy to play and you can ramp up the complexity as your playing improves. We used this book to round a out a playlist for a garage band and loved the song selection and format. Just get it.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A Good Resource For Guitarists
Comment: I wish that I could have seen just what songs this book had before I bought it. While the songs range from the 60's to the 80's in style, most of the songs aren't my favorite songs although I do like Walk Don't Run (the Ventures), Sunshine of Your Love (Cream), and Won't Be Fooled Again (the Who). The others I could live without.
However, over all this is a very good book to have around for intermediate to advanced guitar players. If you are a beginner I wouldn't quite recommend this book as most of the music is fairly advanced. This shouldn't come as a surprise as the music was written by accomplished rock musicians and played by accomplished rock musicians. The book tries to help by providing notes at the beginning of the book about many of the songs on the techniques involved and how these songs should be played but still, this is not a book for rank amateurs unless someone with more experience is around to help answer a few questions.
But given the short supply of rock music with both standard music notation and tablature, this book is a good resource for a few good songs to learn such as Hit Me With Your Best Shot, I want You To Want Me, Message In A Bottle, The Boys Are Back In Town, Shattered, Born To Be Wild, and others. Also, what would really help this book is a CD of the songs like those found in the Guitar For Dummies and Rock Guitar For Dummies books, but sadly, I guess for contractual reasons, no CD of the songs is offered here although there could be cover versions but we don't even get those. So for lack of a CD and the limited number of hot rock songs, I give this book only four stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: You don't even have to be a dummy to find this book useful...
Comment: Herriges gives you detailed descriptions on how to play 35 rock classics, from Cheap Trick to Van Halen. Symbols, technical help, notation definitions, a guitar notation legend, a chord chart, and TAB for every song! "Proud Mary," "Smoke on the Water," "Brown Eyed Girl," and "Hey, Joe." A previous knowledge of music notation and tab is helpful, but the references in the back will clear up any confusion.
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