As a beginner, I find this book is a little bit above my "play" grade lol. I do like that all the chord boxes are at the top in case you forgot the chord or are unfamiliar with one the song requires. It's just all quite a bit overwhelming to look at for a beginner. Especially if you're like me and just want to enjoy playing some songs for fun and don't expect to ever play professionally. You'll definitely need to go into some music theory to follow along and recognize the symbols and what they mean, tablature, strum patterns, etc. It tells you when you need a capo but a true beginner may not be familiar with the capo yet. I do pretty well with some of these songs just playing along with the chord letters over the applicable section of lyrics which is kind of my level right now. I bought other books that are much easier on the eyes for a beginner. I wasn't quite sure how to rate this book because I'm rating it based on my level of experience not on what it actually offers. To a more advanced guitarist this might be a great 5 star song book! It's got a lot of good songs in it though that I hope I'll be able to fully play some day. I hope the pictures help someone make the right decision for themselves prior to purchasing.