Guitar Books the Podcast

Quick advice, tips, and tricks for improving at fingerstyle guitar, ukulele, etc. To progress as a musician and achieve your long-term and short-term goals, it is important to practice well.  Practicing efficiently and effectively will help you to improve faster with less practice time.  This is relevant not only to fingerstyle guitarists and fingerstyle ukulele players, but to all aspir...

Quick advice, tips, and tricks for improving at fingerstyle guitar, ukulele, etc. In order to progress as a musician it is important to have clear long-term and short-term goals.  This is relevant not only to fingerstyle guitarists and fingerstyle ukulele players, but to all aspiring musicians regardless of their chosen instrument or genre of music. Figure out what your long-term goals are.&#...

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 fe...

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...

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 w...

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 Phil...

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 difficul...

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 advance...

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 pro...

I’ll be back with more guitar book reviews, but I need to take a little break while I work my way through new books, prepare for performances, finish recording/mixing/mastering my third fingerstyle guitar album, and write my upcoming book. eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar : go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook. Riding the Wave : my second fingerstyle gu...

You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books. Hal Leonard’s 100 Most Popular Songs for Fingerpicking Guitar is a repertoire book filled with solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements of popular songs from mostly the 1960s through present day.  Genres covered include classic and modern rock, pop, folk, jazz, theme songs, Spanish classical,...

You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books. Stefan Grossman’s Complete Country Blues Guitar Book is a repertoire book of various substyles of fingerstyle blues (general old time country blues, Delta blues, ragtime blues, Texas blues, and bottleneck blues).  Most of the tunes are suitable for late-beginner and intermediate fingersty...

You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books. Joseph Alexander’s Fingerstyle Blues Guitar (published by Fundamental Changes) is an excellent book for learning the fundamentals of fingerstyle blues guitar with either a monotonic or alternating bass.  While this book does have some beginner friendly material, it will especially resonat...

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...

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 explanat...

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 sh...

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 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...

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 accompan...

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...