Are You Experienced? - Jimi Hendrix. Rock Guitar Textbook
I recommend this book for the following reasons
1. Jimi Hendrix is still without doubt the most influential rock guitarist ever - and his influence grows stronger with time. He still consistently tops musicians polls as the greatest guitarist, with his influence aknowledged by everyone from Hammett to Kravitz, Smashing Pumpkins to Kula Shaker, May to Malmsteen and Vai to Stevie Ray Vaughan.
(In 1967, just before Are You Experienced was released, Fender USA was considering halting production of the Stratocaster due to lack of demand - with its release, sales of the Strat 'went through the roof', and the Fender Stratocaster is now the most popular electric guitar ever)
2. Are You Experienced is one of the greatest - some say the greatest - rock albums ever. There are 17 classic songs on this album - no fillers - at least half a dozen of which are 'musts' that every guitar player is expected to know, and all of which you will regularly hear played by live bands all over the world
3. This material is timeless - it simply has not dated. In fact, the production has an amazingly 'modern' sound using a minimum of reverb, upfront guitars and the tight excitement you can only get from recording a real band playing together in the studio. As a teacher, I can appreciate the value to you of music you will still be playing and enjoying in 20 years time - rather than flavour of the month type bands that are only as popular as their last single
4. Hendrix wrote the book on electric guitar technique - assimilating, adapting and expanding the blues vocabulary of scales, riffs, licks and runs, together with string bending, vibrato and slurring from Muddy Waters, BB King and Buddy Guy, and adding his own musical genius and intensity, along with the now essential elements of distortion, whammy bar dives, feedback and amplified noise. This album/book is basically an instruction manual for how to play rock guitar - you will not find a better tutor book