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Review #6: Fingerstyle Guitar from Scratch by Bruce Emery

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

Bruce Emery’s Fingerstyle Guitar from Scratch is an introductory fingerstyle method book aimed at beginner to early intermediate fingerstyle players who want to learn to play fingerstyle accompaniment.  Emery’s sense of humor is infused into the text of the book, keeping detailed explanations lighthearted and entertaining without losing sight of the important information.  The book is focused on fingerstyle accompaniment with arpeggiation and Travis Style / alternating bass patterns.  You will not learn to play solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements (other than a very brief introduction to the topic), but you will receive a great foundation if you are just starting out with fingerstyle.

I mentioned that Emery’s writing is entertaining, but on the other side of the coin you should be aware that there is a lot to read in this book.  Lots of text.  I think this is a good thing overall as it provides the details and insights that will make you a better player.  However, if you just want to play more guitar then it is possible to skip over the text and move from example to example.

  1. Excellent first book for fingerstyle guitar accompaniment.
  2. A+ for entertainment value of the writing.
  3. Lots of short generic examples, but several famous old tunes (Dust in the Wind, Landslide, Girl from Ipanema, Leader of the Band, Blackbird, Camptown Races, and more).
  4. Half the book focuses on arpeggiation, and the other half focuses on Travis Style.  Interesting sub-sections on James Taylor’s style and Bossa Nova.
  5. Audio recordings are available online, although sometimes they don’t line up exactly with the page numbers/examples from the book.  This can be a little confusing/annoying.

If you make it through this book, you’ll have a great foundation for playing fingerstyle guitar.  Emery has written a follow-up book called Travis-Style Guitar from Scratch that dives into solo fingerstyle, but I haven’t had the chance to work through it.  I have no doubt that it carries a similar tone and level of detail.

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.

Written by Bruce Emery and published by Skeptical Guitarist Publications.  © 2003

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.

Review #5: The Gigging Guitarist by Michael Wood

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

Michael Wood’s “The Gigging Guitarist: Traditional Celtic and Appalachian Tunes for Fingerstyle Guitar” provides sonorous and playable solo fingerstyle repertoire for late beginner to advanced guitar players.  As implied by the title of the book, you could actually take the book to a coffee shop/restaurant/wedding ceremony gig and play it from cover to cover.  The tunes are not hard for an experienced player, but the arrangements sound really good!  If you are interested in Celtic tunes like Turlough O’Carolan’s “Si Beag Si Mhor,” Irish or Appalachian jigs or fiddle tunes, or traditional Appalachian ballads, then this book provides a nice selection of enjoyable material. 

Michael Wood’s arrangements utilize neither alternating bass / Travis Picking patterns nor any percussive techniques. Instead, the arrangements utilize arpeggiation to fill the spaces between the melody notes.  The tunes have a flowing style that is easy on the hands and the ears.  Also, the tunes are all in standard tuning.  There are a few where I personally like modifying to Drop D, but it isn’t necessary to do so.

  1. Excellent repertoire in the above-mentioned styles.  You won’t find any of these tunes on mainstream radio in the USA.
  2. The tunes can all be played without any page turns – great for gigs.
  3. The arrangements cause low hand fatigue – great for gigs.  No full barre chords.
  4. No alternate tunings – great for gigs.  You can always experiment with altering the tuning of a song if you feel so inclined.
  5. Optional intros make the tunes sound more polished.
  6. Performance notes at the beginning of the book provide a little bit of background for each tune.
  7. Standard Notation and Tablature.  Almost no picking or fretting hand fingering is notated.
  8. No audio access.

As mentioned, this is a repertoire book full of songs.  This is NOT a method book that teaches you step-by-step how to play solo fingerstyle guitar.  If you are taking lessons or independently learning how to play, this book would be a nice supplement to a method book.   If you like these tunes then you’re in luck because the author has released several more books with additional repertoire!

Acoustic steel string or classical guitar – no thumb over the top.

Written by Michael Wood.  © 2017

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.

Review #4: The Art of Solo Fingerpicking by Mark Hanson

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

Mark Hanson’s The Art of Solo Fingerpicking is a serious method book aimed at intermediate and advanced guitar players who want to expand upon their knowledge of playing solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements utilizing alternating bass (or Travis Picking).  This might be the book for you if you have some experience playing fingerstyle and you want to learn some more advanced concepts and take things to another level.  Do not buy this book if you are just beginning with fingerstyle guitar.

1) The book expands on basic alternate-bass driven solo arrangements with lessons on how to create variations in your picking patterns, how to use chord inversions to modify your bass lines, how to play in alternate time signatures, how to add picking hand rolls to your picking patterns, how to use fretting and picking hand damping, and how to gain speed.

2) Excellent info on picking hand positions and technique.  More detail than almost any book I’ve seen.

3) After presenting a concept there is always a song that utilizes that concept.  This immediate application is satisfying and makes the book feel cohesive.

4) Great repertoire.  Mostly the author’s original songs or arrangements.  No famous songs that you’ve heard on the radio, but the included songs are legitimately catchy, dynamic, and stylistically varied (within the umbrella of the alternating-bass style).

5) High quality audio access is included.

The book does not discuss arranging for fingerstyle guitar (taking a tune or melody and creating a solo fingerstyle arrangement/version).  It also 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.

Published by Accent on Music and Mark Hanson.  Original © 1988.  Distributed by Hal Leonard.

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.

Review #3: Complete Chet Atkins Guitar Method

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

Mel Bay’s Complete Chet Atkins Guitar Method is an excellent method book aimed at beginner and intermediate guitar players who want to learn to play solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements in the style of Chet Atkins (the majority of which utilize an alternating bass/ Travis Style).  If you are interested in this country-blues style of playing that Chet Atkins made popular starting in the 1950s and lasting until his death in 2001, this is a great place to start.  This book ranges in difficulty from easy to intermediate, although a few of the final arrangements are fairly difficult.

  1. Starts with the very basics of music and playing the guitar, but focused on fingerstyle and fairly quickly gets you playing music with both melody and bass parts.
  2. Excellent and thorough look at playing solo fingerstyle arrangements utilizing alternate bass patterns.  Goes through one key signature at a time and covers all the normal guitar-friendly keys (C, Am, G, Em, F, Dm, D, Bm, A, F#m, E).
  3. Very accessible tunes that you can learn and perform.  Many of these tunes are old folks songs – you won’t find any arrangements of popular modern music.
  4. Useful picking exercises to develop technique.
  5. Several classical-esque tunes that are refreshing after lots of alternate bass.
  6. All standard tuning until the final arrangements (a couple are in alternate tunings).
  7. This book does not get into the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc. No thumb or string slaps, guitar body percussion, or tapping.
  8. Audio Access included.

This is not a bad first fingerstyle guitar book to purchase and work through.  Obviously working with a teacher will streamline your development and prevent you from developing bad habits.  If you make it through this book, you’ll have a great foundation for playing fingerstyle guitar.  You’ll also learn some useable and fun arrangements of old tunes.

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.

Published by Mel Bay, written by Chet Atkins.  © 1993

My eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to https://joemcmurray.com/index.php/merch/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

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

Review #2: Hal Leonard Fingerstyle Guitar

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

Hal Leonard’s “Fingerstyle Guitar” is a solid method book aimed at beginner, intermediate, and advanced guitar players who want to learn to play solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements complete with melody, bass lines, and inner harmony. It also has a chapter focused on accompaniment styles for those players looking to play fingerstyle guitar and sing (or accompany another melody instrument.  This book ranges in difficulty from easy to hard, often within each chapter.

1) Good information about choosing an acoustic guitar and other gear.

2) Good fingerstyle arpeggiation and alternating bass patterns followed by musical application of those patterns.  Unfortunately, the musical applications are often disconnected from each other (they don’t build on each other and there isn’t much explanation).

3) Introduces all the elements of playing fingerstyle guitar. Melody, bass, inner harmony, arpeggiation, alternating bass, special techniques, introduction to alternate tunings.

4) Probably the best popular repertoire of any method book on the market.  Hal Leonard presents popular tunes from the Beatles, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, etc.  You could buy the book just for the repertoire.

5) Wonderful chapter on arranging for fingerstyle guitar.

6) Audio Access included.

Personally, I don’t like how the book teaches alternate tunings. It basically gives you a bunch of chord charts and a few examples for Open G tuning.  They do a slightly better job of discussing Drop D tuning.  It would have been nice if they had arranged “Silent Night” (the focus of Chapter 4) in each of these tunings so that you got a sense of why you might want to use them.  Obviously, each alternate tuning causes the melody to lay out differently on the fretboard, and each alt tuning gives you different access to bass notes, inner harmony, harmonics, etc.

Although the book does introduce percussive string slaps, for the most part it does not get into the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc. No guitar body percussion or tapping.

Hal Leonard’s “Fingerstyle Guitar” covers a lot of ground and you could return to it for years.  You could buy it just for the great repertoire.  However, as a method book, I’d first recommend Alfred’s “Beginning Fingerstyle Guitar Method, and if you are into the alternate bass style then maybe Mel Bay’s “Chet Atkins Guitar Method.”

Acoustic steel string or classical nylon string guitar.  Published by Hal Leonard, written by Chad Johnson.  © 2009

eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: purchase a pdf of my eBook at http://joemcmurray.com/index.php/checkout/

Riding the Wave: my second fingerstyle guitar album is available on all streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music.

Review #1: Alfred Beginning Fingerstyle Guitar Method

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:50 — 27.4MB) | Embed

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

Alfred’s “Beginning Fingerstyle Guitar Method” is an excellent method book aimed at beginner and intermediate guitar players who want to learn to play solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements complete with melody, bass lines, and inner harmony. I wouldn’t recommend starting in this book if you are just picking up a guitar for the first time, but if you have your basic chords down then you should be ok.  Even if you are a late-intermediate or advanced fingerstyle player, this book is a great creative springboard for new ideas and inspiration.

1) Good information about general fingerstyle guitar technique and useful music theory (the stuff you really need to know including diatonic chords).

2) Good fingerstyle patterns followed by musical application of those patterns.  These make for great warm-ups/technical skill-builders and they provide creative inspiration.

3) Introduces all the elements of playing fingerstyle guitar. Melody, bass, inner harmony, alternating bass, special techniques, introduction to alternate tunings.

4) Great repertoire.  All original songs (no famous songs that you’ve heard on the radio), but they are legitimately catchy and you could play a coffee shop gig with just the tunes in the book.

5) Audio Access

The book does not get into arrangement for fingerstyle guitar (taking a tune or melody and creating a solo fingerstyle arrangement/version).  It also 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.

This is the first book in a 3-book series (Beginning, Intermediate, and Mastering).  The latter books do discuss more advanced techniques and dive deeper into alternate tunings.  However, this first book is extremely musical.  It’s also worth checking out Alfred’s “Beginning Fingerstyle Arranging and Technique for Guitar.”

Alfred’s “Beginning Fingerstyle Guitar Method” is very thorough and after working through it you should be well on your way to becoming a competent fingerstyle player.

Acoustic steel string or classical nylon string guitar.  Published by Alfred Publishing, written by Lou Manzi.  © 1996

YouTube video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvrb-VyWwuk&list=PLwXQXeSXRs-iAIVuvwZ5V7ah1qs5jf3K8

eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: purchase a pdf of my eBook at http://joemcmurray.com/index.php/checkout/

Riding the Wave: my second fingerstyle guitar album is available on all streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music.