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Hal Leonard

Review #17: Hal Leonard Fingerpicking Guitar

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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.

Hal Leonard’s Fingerpicking Guitar, written by Doug Boduch, is a method book for learning to play solo fingerstyle (or “fingerpicking”) guitar or fingerstyle guitar accompaniment.  The book features lots of popular tunes (the Beatles, Adele, Sam Smith, Imagine Dragons, The Police, Toto, Ed Sheeran, etc.).  Overall, It is suitable for beginner through intermediate players with the tunes in the later sections of the book becoming progressively more difficult up to that intermediate skill level.  Advanced players may still find some fun repertoire tunes.  Guitar teachers may find this book to be a great teaching supplement.  The progression of topics is well laid out, the examples and arrangements are playable and sound good, and the text is concise. 

The book is very short at 38 pages.  This is partially due to a lack of detailed explanations, which is part of why this book may work better as a supplement to private lessons or to another more detailed method book.  The book is also short because it just doesn’t have that many examples.  The examples and arrangements are of high quality, but they don’t cover the many nuances that could pop up in the world of fingerstyle guitar.

If you are looking to play solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements of popular/modern tunes, then this book may be for you.  If you are looking for folk, blues, ragtime, Celtic, or classical music, then there are better options.

Fingerpicking Guitar starts with examples of playing easy single-line melodies (Happy Birthday, etc.) with your fingers or thumb.  The book then presents some arrangements that utilize a single, easy-to-grab bass note underneath the melody in each measure.  Later on it focuses on arrangements that feature alternating bass lines (Travis picking).  The book provides some basic arpeggiation examples for accompaniment as well as some arrangements that utilize arpeggiation, but it doesn’t really provide much detail about how to apply arpeggiation underneath a melody in a solo arrangement.  There is no discussion of more complex techniques (natural and artificial harmonics, harmonizing melodies with 3rds, 6ths, etc.), alternate tunings, or more modern percussive techniques.

Don’t confuse this book with Hal Leonard’s Fingerstyle Guitar by Chad Johnson.  There is a similar progression of information, but they are different books.  The older Fingerstyle Guitar also features popular tunes, but is overall lengthier and more detailed.  However, I prefer some of the arrangements in the newer Fingerpicking Guitar, especially for my guitar students.

There is virtually ZERO music theory in Fingerstyle Guitar.  This may appeal to some readers.  However, you won’t learn how to apply the concepts/techniques presented into other musical situations (other tunes, etc.).  With the help of a teacher or another book you could get a lot more out of Fingerpicking Guitar.

The book includes access to online audio or video for every example.  The audio can be slowed down which can be very helpful.  The guitar playing is clean and the recording quality is high.  Example numbers don’t line up between Example 30 and 33, but they are all there.

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 don’t have to fret any bass notes using your thumb over the top (although I like to here and there).

Published by Hal Leonard © 2023.

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: 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.

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 #7: Fingerpicking Beatles by Hal Leonard

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

Hal Leonard’s Fingerpicking Beatles is full of accessible arrangements of popular Beatles songs.  The tunes are suitable for late beginner/early intermediate through advanced players.  The arrangements often have simplified rhythms, they sometimes leave out either bass notes or inner harmony notes where they would be difficult to grab, they stay mostly below the 5th fret, and they are in guitar friendly keys.  I think this is a fun book that is well worth the money.

The simplicity of many of the arrangements is something that I prefer for a repertoire book like this.  Hal Leonard has done the work of putting the tunes into guitar-friendly keys and providing basic arrangements that are entirely recognizable and effective.  Aside from the melody, the arrangements often include important bass lines, horn lines, and harmonies.  For experienced players, the tunes present many opportunities for embellishment.

Some tunes are arranged in more of a melody and bass style, some feature more arpeggiation, and some feature alternating bass lines.  The style typically fits the essence of the tune.

1) Excellent repertoire from across the Beatles discography.  Variety of upbeat and slower tunes (and everything in-between).

2) Provides treble clef lead sheets (melody with harmonizing chords written above) as well as treble clef and TAB guitar arrangements.

3) Generally simplified arrangements as I detailed above.

4) Some fretting hand fingering is included, but there isn’t any picking hand fingering.

5) Longer tunes have lots of page turns at sometimes inconvenient places.

6) No audio access.

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.

For most of the tunes you could use an acoustic steel string or classical nylon string guitar since most arrangements don’t require using your fretting hand thumb over the top.

Published by Hal Leonard.  © 1996

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 #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.