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Review #16: Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Method by David Hamburger

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Is this one of the best or worst method books for acoustic fingerstyle guitar?

You can learn to play music by simultaneously using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

David Hamburger’s The Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Method is a method book for learning to play solo fingerstyle (or “fingerpicking”) guitar in the American roots styles (folk, blues, ragtime, early jazz, marches).  The book becomes progressively more difficult – the early sections of the book are appropriate for beginner fingerstyle players who have some experience with open chords and the later sections of the book are more suitable for intermediate players.  Advanced players may still find some useful information, inspiration, or fun repertoire tunes.  This is a well-thought-out book with a great progression of information and fun arrangements of tunes.

The book focuses on alternating bass (Travis picking) arrangements and steady bass arrangements (monotonic bass, walking bass, etc.). There are also brief chapters on Drop D and open D tuning.  The material flows in a sensible progression from chapter to chapter as you build skills and knowledge.  Each chapter includes text and playing examples that directly prepare you for a 1-2 page tune that showcases the techniques or concepts being taught.  The arrangements of the tunes are really nice (they sound good and are playable), although don’t usually include any fingering (there is picking hand fingering notated in the examples, but not the full tunes).  The tunes are stylistically similar to those found in Stefan Grossman’s “Complete Country Blues Guitar Book” and Mel Bay’s “Complete Chet Atkins Guitar Method” although with a very different teaching approach.

The book covers a lot of ground in only 74 pages – from beginning Travis Picking to steady bass blues to harmonized walking bass lines to alternate tunings, etc.  While the examples and tunes are of high quality, there aren’t that many examples for each topic, so you won’t get that deep of an understanding of how to apply some concepts to different situations.  One example of this is playing walking bass lines under your melody- you’ll play a few tunes that include this, but you won’t really learn how to build your own walking bass lines so that you can apply them to your own arrangements or compositions.  However, by the end of the book, you will have a firm grasp of the general approaches of playing using an alternating bass (Travis Picking) or a steady bass.

There is not a lot of music theory in the book.  This may appeal to some readers.  However, it adds to the issue that you may not be able to apply a concept like walking bass lines to other situations.

The text is descriptive and helpful.  However, I don’t like how the publisher places the text as a continuous block at the top of the page with the examples clumped together at the bottom of the page.  Harder for my eyes to jump back and forth.

The author includes great listening recommendations that are relevant to the tunes and topics at hand.

The included audio (2 CDs) provides all examples and tunes played at full speed and slowed down.  The guitar playing is clean and the recording quality is high.

All playing examples are provided in standard notation (treble clef) and tablature.

You could use either a steel string acoustic or nylon string classical guitar to work through this book.  You shouldn’t need to fret any bass notes using your thumb over the top.

Published by String Letter Publishing (publisher of Acoustic Guitar Magazine) © 2007.  Distributed by Hal Leonard.

My eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

My music is available on all streaming platforms:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Review #15: Fingerstyle 101 by Dan Thorpe

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Is this one of the best or worst method books for fingerstyle guitar?

You can learn to play music by simultaneously using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Dan Thorpe’s Fingerstyle 101 is a method book for learning to play fingerstyle (or “fingerpicking”) guitar.  The book is appropriate for absolute beginner fingerstyle players who have some experience with open chords.  Intermediate and advanced players will fly through this book and may find a few useful ideas but probably won’t find any revelatory information or inspiring performance pieces.  The author has written this book with older adult students in mind, although any beginning students would certainly benefit from working through it.  The book contains lots of practical advice on fingerpicking technique, playing posture, and strategies for practicing and memorization.  It has sections including “Pro Tips to Make Your Fingerpicking Journey Easier and More Enjoyable,” “The 7 Most Deadly Fingerpicking Mistakes,” and “The 10 Steps for Getting the Most Out of Your Fingerpicking Playing.”  There is one section of the book (less than half the book) with actual playing examples, and these examples are great first fingerpicking patterns to learn along with some practical applications.

There is lots of text in the book.  Fortunately, this text is informative without being bland.  Lots of lists, summaries, pictures, etc.  The text has a large font size so it is easy on the eyes.  Thorpe provides advice for avoiding guitar-related injuries – i.e. information about how to hold the guitar in the classical style to help older students avoid back pain.  There is some psychology about how to learn efficiently/effectively and how to make and set goals.  There is a chord reference guide as well as sections on understanding basic rhythms and reading tablature (TAB).

The playing section in the middle of the book progresses at a reasonable pace for a beginner fingerstyle student.  Thorpe teaches ten fingerpicking patterns, and for each pattern there are three examples.  The first example is as basic as possible over a single chord shape.  The second example has you play the pattern over a simple chord progression (always C G D).  Since you always utilize the same C G D chord progression, you will be able to focus your brain power on your picking hand and the new pattern.  This is also very practical because if you want to fingerpick the guitar while singing, it is useful to try out a pattern over simple chord progressions that you might find in folk or pop songs.  Finally, the third example introduces a more complex chord progression, stylistic elements such as hammer-ons and pull-offs, and sometimes a (very simple) moving melody or bass line.  These third examples are not long enough to be performance pieces, but they may inspire you to add some flair to your accompaniment fingerpicking or to write your own compositions.

The book doesn’t progress far enough to establish a specific style within the umbrella of fingerstyle guitar.  You learn a few classical arpeggiation patterns, a few Travis picking patterns, and a few patterns that have some folk or blues flair.  The book doesn’t get into the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc.  No thumb slaps, guitar body percussion, or tapping.

All playing examples are provided in standard notation (treble clef) and tablature.  Audio recordings are available for all playing examples.

You could use either a steel string or nylon string classical guitar to work through this book.

Published by Rockstar Publishing  © 2015, 2020.  Distributed by Hal Leonard.

My eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

My music is available on all streaming platforms:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album will be released on January 19, 2024. The first single, “Open Road,” was released 10/20/23. Watch it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.  Three other singles have since been released: “Lost and Found,” “The Matador,” and “Pins on the Map.”

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Review #14: Christmas Repertoire Books for Solo Fingerstyle Guitar

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Christmas repertoire books featuring solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements are great for the holiday season!  Whether you simply want to get into the Christmas spirit or you need to perform Christmas tunes at your gigs, there are a number of great Christmas repertoire books.  In this review I will look at three books that I really enjoy: Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide,” Mark Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” (Cherry Lane Music Company), and John Hill’s “Classical Guitar Christmas Sheet Music” (Hal Leonard).

To be clear, all books are suitable for either steel string guitar or nylon string classical guitar.

All three books feature a range of tunes suitable for late-beginner through intermediate fingerstyle guitarists.  Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” features mid-twentieth century tunes like Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bell Rock, and Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!  Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” and Hill’s “Classical Guitar Christmas Sheet Music” both feature traditional Christmas carols like O Come, All Ye Faithful, The First Noel, Jingle Bells, and Silent Night.

Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” and Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” provide both standard notation and tablature, but Hill’s “Classical Guitar Christmas Sheet Music” provides only standard notation (no TAB!!!).

The arrangements in Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” flow really well with nice arpeggiation.  The arrangements in Hill’s “Classical Guitar Christmas Sheet Music” are a mixed bag, but many of them have nice arpeggiation or feature an alternating bass line (Travis picking).  Some of the arrangements are a bit clunky in comparison to the Phillips book.  The arrangements in Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” are also a mixed bag, but tend to be a little stripped down/simplified to make them easier.  While some are great as they are, some are a little uninspiring until you add some extra inner harmony, arpeggiation, or other pizzazz.  The arrangements are great for late-beginner/intermediate players, and they are excellent skeletons/frameworks/starting points from which more advanced players can add extra spice.  The arrangements utilize a variety of alternating bass lines and arpeggiation.

Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” has 16 tunes.  Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” has 22 tunes.  Hill’s “Classical Guitar Christmas Sheet Music” has 30 tunes.

Hal Leonard’s “Fingerpicking Yuletide” is the only book out of the three that has the lyrics written into the music which is nice when playing with friends/family or for helping you to sing the melody out loud or in your head while you are playing solo.

Phillips’ “Christmas Carols for Easy Classical Guitar” is the only book out of the three that comes with recordings of the tunes (mine came with a CD).

All three books are worth buying – it just depends on what you’re looking for.

My eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

My music is available on all streaming platforms:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album will be released in January 2024. The first single, “Open Road,” was released 10/20/23. Watch it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.  Three other singles have since been released: “Lost and Found,” “The Matador,” and “Pins on the Map.”

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Review #13: Fingerstyle Guitar by Ken Perlman

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Is this one of the best or worst method books for fingerstyle guitar?

You can learn to play music by simultaneously using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Ken Perlman’s Fingerstyle Guitar is a method book for learning to play solo fingerstyle guitar in the folk, blues, fiddle tune, Celtic, and ragtime styles.  The book becomes progressively more difficult – the beginning is appropriate for beginner fingerstyle players, and the end is challenging for intermediate and even advanced players.  The book is extremely long (232 pages) and extremely detailed with sections of dense explanatory text.  While I enjoy many of the tunes in this book (especially the Irish, English, and Scottish fiddle tunes), some of the arrangements are clunky, difficult, and not worth the effort.  While I’m happy to have worked through Fingerstyle Guitar, I would not recommend this to most players unless you are specifically interested in older styles of music and you’ve already exhausted other options.

The book quickly introduces alternating bass (Travis picking) arrangements and gradually presents standard guitar techniques including hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, etc.  I like that Perlman provides exercises and lots of short, accessible tunes like Elizabeth Cotton’s Freight Train to build your technique.  The tunes and arrangements are stylistically similar to those in Stefan Grossman’s Complete Country Blues Guitar Book and Complete Celtic Fingerstyle Guitar Book but with more technical explanations.  The book also provides types of tunes similar to those found in Mel Bay’s Complete Chet Atkins Guitar Method although with a very different teaching approach.

While the first five chapters of the book are accessible with some fun 20 second tunes, the book’s difficulty increases starting in Chapter 6.  The tunes move higher up the fretboard, utilizing alternate tunings, and requiring much more fretting with your thumb over the top.  These are important things to learn and prepare you for the fun repertoire-heavy chapters at the end of the book.

The final four chapters of the book provide repertoire tunes organized into categories: “Southern Fiddle Tunes,” “Old-Time Songs and Ballads,” “Irish, English, and Scottish Fiddle Tunes,” and “Rags.”  There are some nice arrangements in these chapters, but I found that many of the arrangements seem to be especially difficult.  I believe that a good arrangement should find a balance between the complexity of the tune and playability, and many of these arrangements just feel clunky to me.  Lots of difficult passages and fingerings even after putting in serious practice.  There are detailed explanations of techniques (hammer-ons, slides, etc.), but little explanation of how to actually play through an individual tune with a smooth performance.  Other books like Richard Saslow’s The New Art of Ragtime Guitar provide smoother arrangements and much more tune-specific help.

If you are a performing musician, you will find that most of these tunes are too short to actually play out at gigs without coming up with your own variations.  The exceptions are the rags in the final chapter which are quite lengthy and difficult.  For the shorter tunes throughout the book, there is no discussion about how to go about extending them for performance.

Perlman provides some cool background information on styles and specific tunes.  The Celtic fiddle tune chapter has great information on the differences between single jigs, double jigs, slip jigs, set tunes, reels, hornpipes, and slow aires, with great examples of each.

The book provides examples in both TAB and standard notation (treble clef).  Each tune/example is presented in its entirety in TAB, and then again in standard notation.  This is great in that it minimizes page turns if you are reading the tune.  It is also highly annoying because all of the fingering details are only included in the standard notation, so if you are reading the TAB version of the tune, you have to constantly flip over and search through the standard notation version.  The author/publisher should have included the fingerings in the TAB.  Also, after the beginning of the book, there is no right hand fingering.

Overall, this book contains a wide scope of valuable information and fun old folk, blues, fiddle, Celtic, and ragtime tunes.  Many of the arrangements feel clunky and difficult to me even after putting in a lot of work.  Many of the explanations of techniques are helpful if you’ve never used them before but are hard to read.  If you want to play fingerstyle guitar, don’t start with this book.

The book doesn’t get into the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc.  No thumb slaps, guitar body percussion, or tapping.

I recommend using an acoustic steel string guitar rather than a classical guitar since there are many tunes that utilize the fretting hand thumb over the top.

Published by Centerstream Publishing  © 1980, 2002.  Distributed by Hal Leonard.

My eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

My music is available on all streaming platforms:

Riding the Wave: my second fingerstyle guitar album.

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album will be released in January 2024. The first single, “Open Road,” was released 10/20/23. Watch it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.  The second single, “Lost and Found,” was released 11/3/23.

Review #12: The New Art of Ragtime Guitar by Richard Saslow

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Is this one of the best or worst method books for fingerstyle guitar?

You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Richard S. Saslow’s The New Art of Ragtime Guitar is a fun, well-graduated repertoire + analysis book for learning to play the fingerpicking guitar style known as ragtime guitar.  It is aimed at intermediate and advanced fingerstyle players, although late beginners can certainly take a stab at the first couple tunes.  The book teaches ragtime guitar through studies of 8 tunes of increasing difficulty.  Each tune is broken down into sections with around 6 measures of the music (treble clef and tablature) on one page and a detailed analysis on the facing page.  Full condensed tunes are in the back of the book.

Out of the author’s eight original tunes, seven are standard sounding ragtime tunes and one is a blues.  Among the ragtime tunes, there is a bit of variation in feel from upbeat and happy to bluesy and minor to jazzy.  There are also several key signatures and some unique harmonizations.  All of the ragtime tunes utilize an alternating bass line as well as some short segments of walking bass line.  The blues tune mainly uses a monotonic bass typical of the Texas blues fingerpicking style.

This is not a method book for learning the basics of fingerstyle guitar in a logical progression from your first notes through to mastery (check out Alfred’s Beginning Fingerstyle, Hal Leonard’s Fingerstyle Guitar, or Mel Bay’s Complete Chet Atkins Guitar Method).  However, there are about 20 pages of introductory text discussing equipment, notation, the ragtime style, and technique.  There is definitely some useful information in this section, especially for novice players.  However, I wouldn’t get too caught up reading this entire section all at once – I would recommend jumping into the tunes which often refer you back to the technique sections of the introduction.  Read the detailed stuff then!

Where the book really excels is in its presentation of the music and its corresponding analysis.  As I mentioned before, for each ragtime tune you will see ~6 measures of music on one page and the detailed analysis on the facing page.  This analysis features detailed directions, techniques, and other tips for the 6 measures at hand.  I usually play through the music once, and then go through the analysis carefully, marking fingerings, anchor fingers, guide fingers, etc. into the music as well as into the condensed version of the tune in the back of the book.  The analysis really does give you insights into how to properly play these tunes (and future tunes from any source) smoothly and musically.

  1. Authentic sounding fingerstyle ragtime tunes.
  2. Good difficulty graduation.
  3. You will spend much more time playing music than analyzing music theory. 
  4. Online recordings of each tune are available.

The book doesn’t get into the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc.  No thumb slaps, guitar body percussion, or tapping.

I recommend using an acoustic steel string guitar rather than a classical guitar since there are multiple tunes that utilize the fretting hand thumb over the top.

Independently published by the author via Acoustic Truth.  © 2011, 2017 (2nd edition)

eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

Riding the Wave: my second fingerstyle guitar album is available on all streaming platforms.

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album will be released in January 2024. The first single, “Open Road,” was released 10/20/23. Watch it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C

Review #11: Fingerstyle Blues by Miggs Rivera

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Is this one of the best or worst method books for fingerstyle blues guitar?

You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Miggs Rivera’s Fingerstyle Blues is an inspiring, well-graduated method book for learning to play fingerstyle blues.  It is aimed at intermediate and advanced fingerstyle players.  Each chapter ultimately provides a full performance tune, but starts by describing a new concept or technique (or two) and providing examples that prepare you for the performance song.  As advertised, this book is focused entirely on fingerstyle blues with deep dives into various substyles including delta blues (Robert Johnson), boogies (John Lee Hooker), slide blues (Son House), and Texas blues (Lightning Hopkins).  There is even a tune that has a modern character with some jazzier chords.

I love how in each chapter the book provides technical exercises that directly prepare you for the upcoming performance tune.  Often the author will simplify a section of the performance tune and then provide more complexity with each subsequent example.  The first chapter of the book presents a somewhat basic 12-bar blues, then provides 5 separate 12-bar variations that each focus on adding a new technique (hammer-on grace notes, slide grace notes, rubato bends, chords fragments, rubato bends on the higher and lower strings), and finally culminates in an all-inclusive performance tune.  Mr. Rivera really hit the nail on the head with his teaching approach.

The author provides some music theory, but only that which is immediately applicable to an upcoming performance tune.  You will spend much more time playing music than analyzing music theory. 

The book includes access to private/un-searchable YouTube video lessons through QR codes.  You will need a cell phone that can pull these up.  These videos are extremely helpful as they include explanations and demonstrations by the author.  These are particularly useful as they show you the proper rhythms and feel.

One thing to note about this book is that it doesn’t emphasize improvisation which is a huge part of blues music.  However, you could learn about improvisation elsewhere (with a private teacher or with a book like Joseph Alexander’s Fingerstyle Blues Guitar) and then implement it into the tunes of this book.

  1. Authentic sounding fingerstyle blues tunes.
  2. Excellent difficulty graduation – examples build off each other and get gradually more complex and difficult.  Cohesive feel throughout the book, especially as the final performance tune pulls from the earlier tunes.
  3. Not much emphasis on improvisation.
  4. Online video lessons are extremely helpful – difficult rhythms and feel are much easier to learn with the videos.

The book does introduce some modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc.  You will learn to play thumb slaps and various percussive hits on the guitar body.

I would recommend that you use an acoustic steel string or electric guitar.  You could use a nylon string classical guitar if absolutely necessary, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Independently published by Miggs Rivera.  © 2020

eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

Riding the Wave: my second fingerstyle guitar album is available on all streaming platforms.

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album will soon be released.