Thank you for taking the trouble to review so many books to help us find the right one. I have been playing electric guitar for some time but have been stuck for a while. I've recently fallen in love with fingerstyle and I'm looking forward to starting with a book to teach myself fingers, and it helps so much that you review the books for us and even demonstrate some of the songs for us.
You're welcome - I'm glad the reviews are helpful! It gives me a great excuse to continue buying and working through so many books! If you are just starting the transition to fingerstyle from electric, I wouldn't recommend starting with this book from Mark Hanson. He has some others that are more approachable at the beginning. There are a bunch of great beginner fingerstyle method books that I've reviewed (see Reviews #1, 2, 3, 6, 15, and 16).
Thank you for the detailed review, I really appreciate it. It's hard to choose, all books seem to have some pros and cons (as always) and not all of them are easily accessible here in Austria (Europe). I'm currently torn between Alfred (#1 video) and Hal Leonard (#2 video) because they are available and according to your reviews they should be very good...although Alfred is almost twice as expensive. Some say that according to Hal Leonard most of the songs are not complete, but are just small examples. What do you think about it? Is it a problem or is this okay for practice?
@@Georg89 I like the Alfred book better for most students. Hal Leonard has some snippets and some full arrangements of famous tunes, which is really nice. The Alfred book has some great original tunes that flow with the info being presented and better overall content.
@@JoeMcMurrayMusic Thank you for this further information. Based on this, I'm going to pick up the Alfred book (or maybe the Chet Atkins method; the examples you played from it were really nice) and maybe someday a songbook that just has full arrangements of famous songs, just for motivation.
@@Georg89 That's a great idea. For repertoire, maybe pick up one of Hal Leonard's "Fingerpicking" series ( 100 Most Popular Songs for Fingerpicking Guitar, Fingerpicking Beatles, Fingerpicking Campfire, etc.). Other options out there for fingerstyle blues, ragtime, or Celtic repertoire.
Thanks for the response Joe! Your book might work great because I understand zero theory even though I’m accomplished player (i’ve been in rock bands, praise & worship teams, and even have done some fingerstyle pieces at open mics). I really would like to take it to another level, as I can only imagine how much better of a player aI could be. As for harmonic relationships in solo fingerstyle guitar, I assume it is that is what captivates the ear and adds poetic interest to what would otherwise become kind of bland fingerstyle.... if you know what I mean? The Beatles music translates very well to fingerstyle because they were masters at this? Anyway, I love the repertoire songs in THIS book, just seems to really cover so many styles. Your playing is sublime, and that Lowden? Well, you make me want one❤
I would definitely recommend learning some music theory and using it to arrange or compose. You don't need to go and memorize the melodic minor scales or how to utilize augmented chords. Start with leaning the diatonic chords of the major scale and then figure out how to harmonize a melody using those diatonic chords. If you are playing rock, it will help you recognize what key/mode the chord progression is in, which allows you to play the "right" scales. If the band is jamming over l G l F l C l C l, then you'll know that you can use C major or G mixolydian, but you can also get really bluesy and use G minor pentatonic, G Dorian, the G blues scale, etc. When looking at Beatles tunes, they often utilize secondary dominants which sound really nice, so that's a good thing to learn about in your music theory studies. Highly recommend Lowden guitars! Or find a shop/festival to try out a few luthier-built guitars. For fingerstyle there are some incredible instruments out there!
Im just getting into fingerstyling . Your reviews are very helpful. I could tell you're a person working hard on your music. Keep up the good work and great reviews 👍🏽
Thanks so much for watching! Have you been playing (non-fingerstyle) guitar for a while? I played with a pick for at least a decade before I really got into fingerstyle, and now I rarely want to use the pick at all. Let me know if you have any questions or anything regarding music.
@@JoeMcMurrayMusic 😆yeah I have been playing for about 15 yrs. I play mostly at church . I'm getting into finger style because I think (and I'm seeing) that it's fundamental for my growth as a guitarist. I can relate to what you said. I rarely want to play anything but finger style theses days . 😆
Many thanks from the UK for taking time to do these videos. It is very difficult, without going into a music store, to judge how suitable a tuition book is. Your videos are so useful to decide which may be best. Have ordered 3 books as a result - Alfred, Hal Leonard and Chet Atkins fingerstyle books. Thanks!
It's great to hear that these video reviews have been useful to you! I'm continually searching for guitar books that are both inspiring and the right difficulty level for me or my students. Let me know if there are any other books out there that you'd like for me to review.
Thank You, I really enjoyed your review of this book which I've owned for some time. I must admit I have not really dived into this book fully. However I do have the other 2 Hanson books on Travis Picking & Fingerstyle. For the moment I'm concentrating on getting these songs down for Open mike .. Buckingham's " never going back again ", Dead Souths " In hell I'll be in good company " , Peter Gabriel's " Solisbury Hill " & of course the odd Neil Young & CSN ... Oh & not to forget the Kinks " Holloway Jail " & quite. few of Miranda Lambert's songs which translate really well to a Travis picking arrangement..... Cheers
Awesome to hear! It is worth spending time in this one if you're ready for some technical self-improvement. Enjoy working on your repertoire - you have a nice eclectic mix of tunes.
Wow Joe- cool channel!You are providing an amazing service here in reviewing these various books. I have a question; is your book pretty good with helping someone with a solid background in fingerstyle? I started on electric but found myself playing with my fingers on the clean channel on my amp- I’ve been captivated with the style for a long time. When I saw Andy Mckee and Antoine Dufour in like 2007 I put the electric guitar down and never looked back. So, I have a lot of experience and can play several Mckee tunes and have even nailed the boom-chick style down (almost have a Tommy Emmanuel song down too). My favorite style right now is Tommy, Chet, and have also fallen in love with Kelly Joe Phelps. I would love to incorporate the style of these artists into my own songs. What do you recommend my next steps should be?
Hey thanks for your comment! I was an electric rock, blues, and jazz player until Andy McKee, Tommy Emmanuel, and Don Ross really got me hooked into fingerstyle guitar, so it sounds like we have been down a similar path! In response to your question about whether my book will help someone with a solid background in fingerstyle - I would say that it depends... Do you understand how those Andy McKee and Tommy Emmanuel tunes were constructed? If you can physically play them, but don't really understand how the harmony was added underneath the melody, then you will get a lot out of my book. My book goes into a lot of detail on how to add in harmony and a groove underneath a melody, how to transpose to different keys to find the best fit for fingerstyle guitar, how to utilize alternate tunings to suit your melody (most books seem to teach this the other way around), and how to re-harmonize. The book is over 200 pages focused mostly around one very simple melody - some things will be easy for you, but I think there is something for everyone to learn. I learned a tremendous amount myself during the writing process! For the Tommy and Chet stuff - have you been through the Complete Chet Atkins Guitar Method? I really enjoyed this one - it's not hard, but contains lots of Chet arrangements. Helps to play and analyze these in order to write your own tunes in this style. Take one of them that you like and use it to write your own tune with a similar style, key, tempo, or vibe. Practice composing often! And use a notation software.
Thank you for taking the trouble to review so many books to help us find the right one. I have been playing electric guitar for some time but have been stuck for a while. I've recently fallen in love with fingerstyle and I'm looking forward to starting with a book to teach myself fingers, and it helps so much that you review the books for us and even demonstrate some of the songs for us.
You're welcome - I'm glad the reviews are helpful! It gives me a great excuse to continue buying and working through so many books!
If you are just starting the transition to fingerstyle from electric, I wouldn't recommend starting with this book from Mark Hanson. He has some others that are more approachable at the beginning. There are a bunch of great beginner fingerstyle method books that I've reviewed (see Reviews #1, 2, 3, 6, 15, and 16).
Thank you for the detailed review, I really appreciate it. It's hard to choose, all books seem to have some pros and cons (as always) and not all of them are easily accessible here in Austria (Europe). I'm currently torn between Alfred (#1 video) and Hal Leonard (#2 video) because they are available and according to your reviews they should be very good...although Alfred is almost twice as expensive. Some say that according to Hal Leonard most of the songs are not complete, but are just small examples. What do you think about it? Is it a problem or is this okay for practice?
@@Georg89 I like the Alfred book better for most students. Hal Leonard has some snippets and some full arrangements of famous tunes, which is really nice. The Alfred book has some great original tunes that flow with the info being presented and better overall content.
@@JoeMcMurrayMusic Thank you for this further information. Based on this, I'm going to pick up the Alfred book (or maybe the Chet Atkins method; the examples you played from it were really nice) and maybe someday a songbook that just has full arrangements of famous songs, just for motivation.
@@Georg89 That's a great idea. For repertoire, maybe pick up one of Hal Leonard's "Fingerpicking" series ( 100 Most Popular Songs for Fingerpicking Guitar, Fingerpicking Beatles, Fingerpicking Campfire, etc.). Other options out there for fingerstyle blues, ragtime, or Celtic repertoire.
Thanks for this review. You never know what you get with a book but your reviews are excellent! Really helps get an idea!
I'm glad it was useful to you. I enjoyed working my way through the book - it was a serious project! Let me know if you ever need anything else.
Thanks for the response Joe! Your book might work great because I understand zero theory even though I’m accomplished player (i’ve been in rock bands, praise & worship teams, and even have done some fingerstyle pieces at open mics). I really would like to take it to another level, as I can only imagine how much better of a player aI could be. As for harmonic relationships in solo fingerstyle guitar, I assume it is that is what captivates the ear and adds poetic interest to what would otherwise become kind of bland fingerstyle.... if you know what I mean? The Beatles music translates very well to fingerstyle because they were masters at this? Anyway, I love the repertoire songs in THIS book, just seems to really cover so many styles. Your playing is sublime, and that Lowden? Well, you make me want one❤
I would definitely recommend learning some music theory and using it to arrange or compose. You don't need to go and memorize the melodic minor scales or how to utilize augmented chords. Start with leaning the diatonic chords of the major scale and then figure out how to harmonize a melody using those diatonic chords. If you are playing rock, it will help you recognize what key/mode the chord progression is in, which allows you to play the "right" scales. If the band is jamming over l G l F l C l C l, then you'll know that you can use C major or G mixolydian, but you can also get really bluesy and use G minor pentatonic, G Dorian, the G blues scale, etc.
When looking at Beatles tunes, they often utilize secondary dominants which sound really nice, so that's a good thing to learn about in your music theory studies.
Highly recommend Lowden guitars! Or find a shop/festival to try out a few luthier-built guitars. For fingerstyle there are some incredible instruments out there!
Im just getting into fingerstyling . Your reviews are very helpful. I could tell you're a person working hard on your music. Keep up the good work and great reviews 👍🏽
Thanks so much for watching! Have you been playing (non-fingerstyle) guitar for a while? I played with a pick for at least a decade before I really got into fingerstyle, and now I rarely want to use the pick at all. Let me know if you have any questions or anything regarding music.
@@JoeMcMurrayMusic 😆yeah I have been playing for about 15 yrs. I play mostly at church . I'm getting into finger style because I think (and I'm seeing) that it's fundamental for my growth as a guitarist. I can relate to what you said. I rarely want to play anything but finger style theses days . 😆
Many thanks from the UK for taking time to do these videos. It is very difficult, without going into a music store, to judge how suitable a tuition book is. Your videos are so useful to decide which may be best. Have ordered 3 books as a result - Alfred, Hal Leonard and Chet Atkins fingerstyle books. Thanks!
It's great to hear that these video reviews have been useful to you! I'm continually searching for guitar books that are both inspiring and the right difficulty level for me or my students. Let me know if there are any other books out there that you'd like for me to review.
Thank You, I really enjoyed your review of this book which I've owned for some time. I must admit I have not really dived into this book fully. However I do have the other 2 Hanson books on Travis Picking & Fingerstyle. For the moment I'm concentrating on getting these songs down for Open mike .. Buckingham's " never going back again ", Dead Souths " In hell I'll be in good company " , Peter Gabriel's " Solisbury Hill " & of course the odd Neil Young & CSN ... Oh & not to forget the Kinks " Holloway Jail " & quite. few of Miranda Lambert's songs which translate really well to a Travis picking arrangement..... Cheers
Awesome to hear! It is worth spending time in this one if you're ready for some technical self-improvement. Enjoy working on your repertoire - you have a nice eclectic mix of tunes.
Wow Joe- cool channel!You are providing an amazing service here in reviewing these various books. I have a question; is your book pretty good with helping someone with a solid background in fingerstyle? I started on electric but found myself playing with my fingers on the clean channel on my amp- I’ve been captivated with the style for a long time. When I saw Andy Mckee and Antoine Dufour in like 2007 I put the electric guitar down and never looked back.
So, I have a lot of experience and can play several Mckee tunes and have even nailed the boom-chick style down (almost have a Tommy Emmanuel song down too). My favorite style right now is Tommy, Chet, and have also fallen in love with Kelly Joe Phelps. I would love to incorporate the style of these artists into my own songs. What do you recommend my next steps should be?
Hey thanks for your comment! I was an electric rock, blues, and jazz player until Andy McKee, Tommy Emmanuel, and Don Ross really got me hooked into fingerstyle guitar, so it sounds like we have been down a similar path!
In response to your question about whether my book will help someone with a solid background in fingerstyle - I would say that it depends... Do you understand how those Andy McKee and Tommy Emmanuel tunes were constructed? If you can physically play them, but don't really understand how the harmony was added underneath the melody, then you will get a lot out of my book. My book goes into a lot of detail on how to add in harmony and a groove underneath a melody, how to transpose to different keys to find the best fit for fingerstyle guitar, how to utilize alternate tunings to suit your melody (most books seem to teach this the other way around), and how to re-harmonize. The book is over 200 pages focused mostly around one very simple melody - some things will be easy for you, but I think there is something for everyone to learn. I learned a tremendous amount myself during the writing process!
For the Tommy and Chet stuff - have you been through the Complete Chet Atkins Guitar Method? I really enjoyed this one - it's not hard, but contains lots of Chet arrangements. Helps to play and analyze these in order to write your own tunes in this style. Take one of them that you like and use it to write your own tune with a similar style, key, tempo, or vibe. Practice composing often! And use a notation software.