There are instruction books for all kinds of guitar playing. The way the instruction is given varies between the different genres with the teaching of music theory for guitar remaining much the same for all styles.

A classical guitar instruction book will take the student from theory straight into simple pieces, graduating to more complex guitar music without learning chord shapes or improvisation. A jazz instruction book, on the other hand, will be chockablock with exotic guitar chords and scales. A rock or blues guitar instruction book will take you through such stepping stones to improvisation as the pentatonic scales and the CAGED chord system.

For the purpose of this article we will assume you are a complete beginner who wants to dip his toe in the cold and forbidding waters of guitar playing to eventually discover the warm currents of musical satisfaction.

Beyond Bedroom Guitar by Spencer Westwood is an introduction to guitar that immediately leads the student to a certain way of looking at guitar playing. This book is aimed at the medium or advanced guitarist and the beginner guitarist who has got to the stage of being able to strum a few chords. The guitar instruction is based on changing the way we approach learning in general and contains some techniques derived from the field of self-hypnosis. If you want your guitar instruction to be a life-changing experience, give this book a read.

The Only Basic Guitar Instruction Book You'll Ever Need by Jack Wilkins and Peter Rubie starts at choosing your first guitar and moves to tuning and holding the guitar and guitar music theory. We then move onto some songs and chords plus basic fingerpicking. The book's structure alternates between theory and practical guitar work, taking us into more advanced ideas and techniques as we practice what we have learnt from the previous chapters.

Guitar Lesson World: The Book by Patrick MacFarlane is compiled by the founder of guitarlessonworld.com which has been giving us free guitar lessons since 1996. The book is inexpensive and comprehensive and is backed up by audio files that you can find on the website. The only snag is that it is very much based in theory, so if you would rather learn chords and songs without the whys and wherefores, you should probably give it a miss.

Each of the three guitar instruction books I have listed in this article stand out for its unique approach to teaching guitar. They are aimed at guitar students who have already found a serious commitment in themselves to learning how to play guitar. If you are looking for something simpler or for a particular genre, there are many books that will get you started.