Complete Fingerstyle Guitar Method Complete Edition: Book & Online Audio (Complete Method)

I have just started, but so far the book starts and builds at a great pace to improve the dexterity of the fretting hand and development of all aspects of the picking hand. I am an intermediate guitar player and only learned to play using a pick. This book may be more frustrating if you don’t already know chord forms and basic arpeggios. Also, so far there are no chord letters, diagrams, or key notation to the progressions. It’s arbitrary to playing the exercises, but my mind likes to make sense of these things. For me it helps refresh theory to understand exactly what I’m playing, but if you don’t have any, this may not be the best book to start. I feel anyone can begin on guitar and develop finger style technique with this book, however a beginner guitar book with chord forms would probably be helpful and expedite development and understanding. For myself and I feel other intermediate guitar players, this book is perfect. I started in the beginner section, but if that’s too easy you can breeze through the exercises until they begin to get challenging. For me personally the intermediate and advanced sections of this book will take some time to master, and I look forward to putting it in.

I'm still very much a beginner so perhaps keep that in mind as you read my review. However, I have purchased quite a few guitar books, and this one is the most helpful. It didn't have real blues pieces (which is what I was hoping and found elsewhere) but it had something better: instruction to get me to where I want to go. What I like best about this book is that it is teaching theory and giving examples that are helping me to apply to other things. The examples are fun to play and easy to modify and play around with. This is a book that I can grow with. I guess those who have been playing guitar for awhile might know all of this stuff, but while I'm quite intimidated by what I'm seeing in the back of the book, the author of the book has already filled with confidence and trust that he can get me there. Well worth the $30, which is slightly less than the price of 2 half-hour lessons. It will take me a year or more to get through this book. I have already bought the author's fingerstyle book, but it's going to be awhile before I get to it, I think.

I love the book, even though I only received it today. I have a degree in music, but have never learned guitar. I can say that this book is strong on the fundamentals, and 99% of playing problems are due to weakness in the fundamentals. It might be a good idea for a total beginner to go through another elementary (flat picking) guitar method before or concurrently with this method. I can recommend this method highly, and so the journey begins.

This is a MUST HAVE for any guitarist interested in learning to play Blues on an acoustic guitar. The book is well illustrated, and the instructions are concise and easily understood. The CD is great and is very helpful in the instruction. The book is very good for a beginner or intermediate guitarist. After getting through only half of the first part of the book, I have noticed dramatic improvements. Do not hesitate in purchasing this book.

The audio tracks playback mechanism is antiquated and really bad. Try and slow them down, which is a great idea in concept, and the tracks get incredibly warbled and unlistenable.Also, track 1 doesn’t line up with example 1 and so on. I hoped for so much more.Back to the drawing board in search of Hugh quality finger-picking instructional book. I wanted to like this.Also, the cover is not very high quality, attracts dirt and won’t last very long. I remember when Alfred had higher quality products. Never again.

Great book and program for fingerstyle players. Have been playing now for over 30 yrs. and found it informative and clear in so many areas. Add it to your guitar library.

Found this on Amazon and took a chance that it would be useful for learning finger style guitar. Not only did my instructor decide that it would work for me, but he is also recommending it for his other finger style students.

I own a lot of books on playing guitar, but if I had bought this one early on, I wouldn't have needed 90% of the others.

Before I write my main review of this EXCELLENT compilation of 3 books, let me explain why I've deducted one star. That is for the enclosed CD which DOES contain all the tracks for all 3 books, but these are filed in three FOLDERS and so won't play if the disc is inserted into a normal CD player. If you have one which recognises and can then open folders - all well and good. The solution for most will be to play the CD using a desktop or laptop computer. If you have software which will burn to CD, you could easily extract (copy) the files from each folder and burn them to 3 separate CDs. Remember that no more than 99 mp3 files can be burned or played on a CD but that's no problem as none of the folders contain too many mp3s.The solution, of course, should have been for the publisher to include 3 CDs and not just one - so 1 star deducted for that.Now I'll review what is otherwise a top-notch book.There are a large number of books which can help you learn to play fingerstyle guitar. This is definitely one of the better ones if you're serious about learning to play fingerstyle guitar, but I would also suggest that you check out this other book as that is associated with one of the best free online tutorial series and associated free pdfs that you are ever likely to find. Take your time and compare them. Alternating Bass Guitar Method: Complete and Progressive Method For Fingerpicking Guitar Now I'll look at this book by Lou Manzini with help from Nathaniel Gunod and Steve Eckels. Nobody could criticise them for not being thorough. This edition of his work is a compendium of several books which cover Beginner, Internediate and Advanced levels of both learning and playing.I will list chapter headings and then summarise or paraphrase their contents.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------BOOK 1 - BEGINNING GUITARChapter 1 -- GETTING STARTED - (Open strings, fingerboard, notation and tab)Chapter 2 -- TECHNIQUE - (position, left and right hands)Chapter 3 -- BASIC FINGERSTYLE PATTERNS - 4 basic starter patternsChapter 4 -- PLAYING TWO LINES - open strings and first use of fretted notesChapter 5 -- BASIC THEORY - scales, key signatures and associated music fundamentalsChapter 6 -- BASIC CHORDS - theory, diatonic harmony, open chordsChapter 7 -- MORE FINGERSTYLE PATTERNS - 3 more patterns of slightly increased complexityChapter 8 -- ALTERNATING BASS - basic bass patterns, slash chords, key styles, 3 etude exercisesChapter 9 -- SOME MORE FINGERSTYLE PATTERNS - 4 new patterns using basic alternating bassChapter 10 - OTHER FINGERSTYLE BASICS - Melody, syncopation. walking bass, harmonizing melodiesChapter 11 - SPECIAL TECHNIQUES - hammers, pulls, harp and harmonicsChapter 12 - ALTERNATE TUNINGS - drop D, open GChapter 13 - FINGERSTYLE PIECES - tips and then 9 quite challenging but interesting pieces in several styles-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------BOOK 2 - INTERMEDIATE GUITARThis also consists of 13 sections:Chapter 1 -- REVIEW OF THE BASICSChapter 2 -- FINGERSTYLE PATTERNS - Reviewing those in the first book and then 4 new onesChapter 3 -- SPECIAL TECHNIQUES - multiple hammers and pulls, artificial harmonicsChapter 4 -- BARRE CHORDS - technique, roots 5 and 6 barres, alternative fingerings, 3 exercisesChapter 5 -- MORE FINGERSTYLE PATTERNS - 4 new patternsChapter 6 -- DIATONIC HARMONY - major scale, triads, 7th chords, diatonic harmonyChapter 7 -- ALTERNATE TUNINGS - drop D, open G, open D, DADGAD, open CChapter 8 -- INVERSIONS - inverting triads, slash chordsChapter 9 -- EXPLORING BASS LINES - walking bass review (from first book), arpeggio bassChapter 10 - THE MODES - Dorian and MixolydianChapter 11 - COUNTERPOINT - 3 kinds of movementChapter 12 - ARRANGING - 5 studies using Scarborough Fair as the exampleChapter 13 - EXPLORING THE STYLES - Fahey, Kottke, Hedges, Legg, O'Carolan, various blues styles including DavisAPPENDIX - Open chords-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------BOOK 3 --- MASTERING GUITARthis consists of 8 densely detailed chapters for which I will only provide titles and VERY brief summaries of contentsChapter 1 -- TONE AND BALANCE - fingernail care, strokes, thumb, controlChapter 2 -- EXPLORING THE HARP - 6 patterns exploring 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 stringsChapter 3 -- CHORD FORUMULAS - 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, mixed intervals, voicingsChapter 4 -- SENSE OF TOUCH - tones, techniques, frames, vibratoChapter 5 -- FINGERSTYLE SPEED - tremelo, 5 patterns, speed, sequencesChapter 6 -- MODERN TECHNIQUES - tapping and harmonicsChapter 7 -- ALTERNATE TUNINGS - 7 different tunings and a summary, arranging, tuning note guideChapter 8 -- ARRANGING AND COMPOSITION - process, method, modulation and other elements-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Phew!!!!!That took a long time to summarise, so imagine how long it took to write and sequence. But as I said at the outset, you cannot accuse Lou, Nathaniel nor Steve of not being thorough and this book certainly covers just about everything you will ever need to know to turn yourself from beginner into a highly competent fingerstyle guitarist. Every section if well written without too much in the way of excess wordage and with a plentiful supply of examples, explanations and exercises. The provision of a CD of mp3's is essential as very few well known tunes are used in the book which is a shame as that would have made it slightly more attractive to those who would like to have explored both well known and original melodies.There are perhaps two main negatives to apply to this book - one minor and the other more serious:1) The cover is a disgrace. Anyone who tries to learn or play guitar in the pose shown on the cover is in for a world of discomfort, probable pain and disappointment. That may be a niggle, but it's not one that should be applicable to a book of this quality and content.2) For such a thick book (287 pages) a spiral binding would have been massively more useful. I found that by using a good-size bulldog clip, I could weigh down those pages which wanted to roll over and shut the book. That was better than risking splitting the spine by cracking the book to keep it open.To summarise - this book is exceptional in its level of detail and carefully developed sequencing of skills, techniques and practise pieces. You will need to be really serious about learning fingerstyle guitar if you start on this course - and as long as you don't mind having so few well known tunes to work with - but it really would be churlish to award anything less than 5 stars to such a stupendous example of a high quality and worthwhile book tutor. Alternating Bass Guitar Method: Complete and Progressive Method For Fingerpicking Guitar

I have been playing the guitar for many years without any tuition and have accumulated a host of bad habits. I bought this book to help rectify them which it is succeeding at. In spite of its length it is very concise; each section will explain a technique followed by short exercises and topped off with an etude or study piece. The etudes are short works written to cover the techniques and are pleasant pieces of music to practice. I find this a much more engaging method than songs such as 'Twinkle, twinkle little start' and 'When the Saints' which some tutors trot out. All the exercises and etudes have detailed information on fingering (which I was in desperate need of) and are in both tab and standard music notation. Although the book assumes no previous guitar knowledge and starts from the very basics my feeling is the initial sections may take a dispiritingly long time for a beginner to master and my advice would be to learn to strum a few chords before tackling this book.

Clear instruction combined with appropriate musical theory.

I bought the book when I was really at the start with playing the guitar. So even the earliest exercises were a real challenge. I am still a beginner, but love the book.

Lou is a very generous teacher! His aim was to cover everything & I think that he may well have done just that!