Customer Reviews

Acoustic Guitar Styles

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I originally found this book at my local library. After checking it out and working with it and the CD, I just had to buy this book! It's a keeper. I had been learning the guitar 20 some odd years ago, and wanted to pick it up again. I knew most of the basic chords, but couldn't put them into anything that sounded "musical."
This book works through a variety of techniques: hammer-ons, pull-offs, bass runs, plucking, travis picking, and carter style strumming. I love Bluegrass music, but the styles learned here can be applied to any style of music on the acustic guitar.
The songs that can be learned are pretty good too: Railroad Bill, The Cuckoo, Wildwood Flower, and several others. One neat thing is that the author plays each song in a different musical style as you learn it! There is also a short Blues section too.
I wouldn't say this is the only book to have, but it's a great one to Begin with if you are just starting out.

Let's face it, beginning/intermediate level guitar can be a little unimpressive. You can play single note melodies, and they're kinda fun and easily recognizable, but after a while you're looking to press the envelope. You can play basic chords, and everyone who hears you play will say, "That's nice but what song was that?" In this book, Sandberg gives lots of ideas on how you can embellish a handfull of basic tunes and make them come alive. The accompanying CD is very good, and the whole package is extremely worthwile. It may not be virtuoso stuff, but it sure helped make me and my audience--the family--a lot happier!

Acoustic Guitar Styles For Beginning And Intermediate Guitarists by guitar authority and instructor Larry Sandberg is a very fine self-teaching guide featuring essential instructions as to basic chords, picking and plucking patterns, using alternating bass notes, and a variety of guitar styles such as melodic finger picking and country blues. Practice pieces (all of which are real songs) offer exercises galore to hone one's skill. A finely rendered audio CD enhanced with this staunch and useful tool for student musicians of the acoustic guitar.

Whereas most books teach by rote (meaning either copying the exact sound, the exact look, or the exact notes and timing of an example), this book teaches conceptually. It explains the ideas behind the music. It gets you started and encourages you to use your own creativity and attempt to learn through active and personal playing.

However, it is not an open-ended book describing all the possibilities of guitar. Rather, it teaches a very specific country-folk tradition exemplified by Merle Travis, the Carter Family, and typical traditional folk guitar approaches. It covers bass-strum patterns, alternate bass, chord-melody, syncopation, and related ideas. It covers both guitar accompaniment for singing and solo instrumental guitar.

The attitude and style of the teaching is superb. I really wish more books would use this approach to teach many other subjects, including other styles of guitar.