Acoustic Masterclass: Ed Gerhard -- The Guitar Songbook, Book & CD

Accurate and complete transcriptions of Ed Gerhard's work - essential repertoire for all aspiring fingerstyle guitarists.

I learned Gerhard's version of "The Water is Wide" from an old Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine article, and was thrilled to discover this book. But here's what I found out when it arrived: (a) The CD that accompanies the book has almost no music on it. It is mostly a tutorial to help you with certain snarky technical issues in the individual pieces. Nothing wrong with that, but not helpful if you haven't heard the pieces and would like to know what you're working on in advance. (b) A couple of the pieces are written for use with a slide. (c) Most of the pieces require an unusual tuning. Dropped D tuning is not a big deal, but most of the others are more complicated than that. I wanted this music for performance purposes, and having to stop and tune extensively between pieces makes their use extremely inconvenient, unless you have two equivalent guitars and somebody to tune for you in between. If you know all this and still want the book, it's easy to read and contains both tablature and music notation. Gerhard's work is terrific. But if I had it to do over, I would have passed, based on the above limitations.

Ed Gerhards tabular music book is great for getting started to play some of his compositions. It is easily understood with the guitar tabs as well as the music notes presented in parallel with each other in the book. The audio cd with playing tips are helpful, but I would have preferred it to be video clips presenting these techniques for the user to visually see what Ed do could help a guitar player extensively more than a audio clip. In general I would like to see more books like this from Ed Gerhard, one doesn't only learn hoe to play his compositions but you also practice fingerstyle techniques which improves you overall as a guitar player.

Gerhard plays in many different tunes, if you think about it usually it's just a few strings you have to change. Any experienced guitarist that has heard many Gerhard tunes would know he's not in standard sometimes. I found the tabs to be quite accurate, which saved me lots of time trying to figure out what he was doing just by listening, even with it slowed down. I didn't care if it even came with a cd, but it is a nice extra. And please...before you post you playing one of his songs on Youtube, get an unbiased opinion of your playing by someone not afraid to hurt your feelings. Gerhard's music has a touch few can match and I just hate seeing his songs trashed.

This book has been transcribed to perfection, trying to capture as much as possible of Ed's style. I was able to follow along with Ed's recording, helping to clear up the wall of sound he creates with one guitar. Of course with most charts it is almost impossible to write out all of Ed's inflections, but the main text is solid.The tunings are right on the mark and the pieces written for the Weissenborn really defines the beauty of the instrument.The reader/musician can't go wrong with this purchase, I highly endorse this songbook.

Music is challenging for me; It would help if all the songs were played through entirely--only a couple of them are. The comments he makes about the songs help very little. I'll spend most of my time on just one song in the book.

Nice arrangements of some great songs. "The River is Wide" is one of my favorites and Ed makes an easy arrangement of it to play from. The cd is not so useful. I listened to it once and that was about it. But the book is well worth the cash.

I love it. I'm learning "The Water is Wide"

As a big fan of Ed’s playing, this book is a gift. Each tune is presented with both music & tab, so you have all the tools you need. If you don’t know the tunes so well you can find these tunes online & watch Ed playing them. Not a book for beginners though.

I heard a little of Ed's music and thought it fab. Bought book with CD on assumption it was tabs with a version of each song on CD - not the case CD had useful discussion on 'tips' for playing songs but only 3 songs included. Not the norm for this type of book and not what I expected. Not a good purchase

This item is just what I expected, great melodies and a challenge to tackle....no it is not easy but that would be boring if it was.

The great Ed Gerhard what more to say Legend,

Very good, accurate music score and tab! Strongly recommended to all acoustic guitar lovers.