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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.
This book is a gem! Travis-Style Guitar From Scratch, written by Bruce Emery, is a method book for learning to play solo fingerstyle guitar using an alternating bass (in the Travis style). This is one of the best books I’ve found for complete beginner to intermediate players who want to learn this style. The material progresses logically with lots of exercises that build on each other and lead perfectly into performance pieces (old classics like Oh! Susanna, House of the Rising Sun, Jingle Bells, etc.). Each time Emery presents a new concept, he incorporates it into updated arrangements of each tune. 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.
I can’t overstate how effective this book is with my students. Emery will present a single idea like how to play an alternating bass line under an A minor chord. Then he’ll present a series of exercises in which you play a single melody note each measure while maintaining the alternating bass line. Each exercise will place that melody note on a different beat within the measure. This approach provides great training that slowly, steadily, and thoroughly develops your physical skills.
The tunes at the beginning of the book couldn’t be more approachable (as solo arrangements), even for beginner students. The first arrangements don’t feature any syncopation (the melody notes all land on the down beats), making them much easier. They don’t sound as complex as the later arrangements, but they sound pretty good for beginner students! This makes it fun and builds confidence. It is incredibly valuable to see the same tune arranged multiple times with increasing levels of complexity and difficulty. Aside from getting physically better at playing guitar in this style, you will gain insight into how to add variations to your own arrangements in the future.
No modern tunes in this book. However, if you work through this book then you’ll be in a much stronger position to approach popular tune arrangements from other sources.
This book is entirely focused on solo Travis-style playing. You will not learn Travis-style picking patterns that you might use to accompany yourself while singing. Your guitar will do the singing! Also, you will not learn other solo fingerstyle approaches like using block chords, arpeggiation, and other modern percussive techniques.
The book focuses on the keys of G major, C major, and A minor. Three pages at the end are dedicated to the keys of A major, E major, and D major (in drop D tuning). The book also keeps you playing down in first position (at the nut of the guitar) – no playing up the neck. This keeps things more approachable. No complaining here!
Audio recordings are available for all exercises and tunes! Just go to the author’s website and download.
All playing examples are provided in tablature (TAB) only!!! Chords are notated above the TAB. Rhythms are clearly notated. I enjoy reading standard notation and teach it to interested students, but I don’t personally think much (if anything) is lost by not providing standard notation for this subject matter.
I recommend using an acoustic steel string guitar rather than a standard classical guitar since there are multiple tunes that utilize the fretting hand thumb over the top.
Published in 2006.
My eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook. Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.
My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:
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.
