Painless Guitar by Ted Parrish and Wayne Erbsen is written in tablature for the beginning flatpicking guitarist. Priced to sell, it contains 31 songs in the guitar-friendly keys of D, G, C, and A minor, presented alphabetically within each key. Tunes are shown in leadsheet format, with first-verse lyrics beneath the tablature to aid in rhythm reading, and the suggested chords overhead. Along with performance notes, the chords needed to play each song are shown in grid patterns on every page, making the settings easily adaptable for a small group consisting of lead guitar, backup guitar and singer(s).

Complete lyrics and audio files are available online along with YouTube video links with demonstrations of the strumming patterns and other important information from the book.