The author's decision to write this book was based on one basic premise - this is intended to be the book that he would have liked to have had available when he was a beginner, some 25 years ago. "During my groundwork for the book, the task was to recall my own problems from those early days and to provide the reader with the answers, some of which have taken many years and frustrations to resolve. Added to these recollections were conversations with other guitarists in order to discover what their stumbling blocks had been. Perhaps not too surprisingly, many common factors began to emerge, and with the same mystified comment; 'Why does nobody ever tell you about that?'"