Customer Reviews

Mel Bay's Complete Chet Atkins Guitar Method

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book has many of the common faults of Mel Bay company's guitar books: It has very little in the way of verbal aid. It's page after page of staffs, notes, etudes, exercises, with no guidance on how to move through them and learn, no advice for example on how to properly do a palm mute (as most of the examples on the CD are played), nor how to coordinate the right hand fingers, etc.

Then there's a superficial fault (also characteristic of many Mel Bay books): It seems way too elementary when you glance through it. When I ordered, I did so guardedly, thinking, "After all the years you've been playing, another elementary method is not what you need. Would Chet Atkins put his name on an elementary method and call it the Chet Atkins Method?" I hoped not.

When I got it and looked through it the first time, I thought, "Hosed again. It's for kids and beginners." Most of the etude songs are traditional or Foster tunes--Streets of Laredo, Marine Hymn, American the Beautiful. But I listened to the disk anyway. And as I did I thought, "Well, I can't play that stuff myself now." So I looked deeper at it, and tried a couple tunes. And found that this is a book I can use.

It has to be something you can use. But if you've ever listened to Chet and thought, "Man, that's so sweet" as he does his thumb-bass pickin', and haven't been able to get it down, this may be for you. I can play typical rock lead and blues lead, but this is something different. The basic technique Chet uses in much of his work is called "Travis picking," after Merle Travis, and that's what this book is all about. ALL about. And that's really a good bit of what I'd want to learn from Chet. (Could anyone ever learn EVERYTHING Chet did?)

So if you're looking for a way to learn THAT--Travis picking, that thumb-bass fingerpicking, this really turns out to be a pretty good book, and worth the time and money. The CD is useful and a good reference, but oddly enough, Travis picking looks simple enough when you read it, and you won't have any trouble without the CD. Most of the tunes will be familiar, and if they're not they're straighforward quarter note stuff, dotted quarter note at the weirdest. (Of course, you have to be able to read music to read that way, and there's a quick primer in the book on it. But don't worry--it's also all in tablature.)

So put the ego away and don't worry too much about the lack of detailed instruction. If you want to Chet-pick, pick this up. If you want more detail, I strongly recommend also "The Art of Solo Fingerpicking," by Mark Hanson. His book is also about Travis picking, but much more detailed in instruction, and more emphasis too on exercises to liberate your digits. Good scores in it, more complex than Chet's book. Start with Chet, read the technique info in Hanson, and proceed to Hanson's music.... now that's a good fingerpicking course!

Edit: By the way, another review of the book says "It is not full of real 'Chet' music though, more a lesson to teach you how to get there." This isn't really true. The tutorial section of the book goes to page 82, and all the study songs and etudes are Chet Atkins style (Travis picking) etudes. Then, the next 23 pages ARE, in fact, transcriptions of songs from Chet's albums: Spanish Fandango (from Alone, 1975), Just As I Am (same album), John Henry (from Hum and Strum Along with Chet Atkins, 1959), Me and Merle (I can't find where this has been recorded--maybe it hasn't; it's not on the CD that comes with this book either; but it's quite a piece), Wimoweh (you'll recognize it as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"; it's on The RCA Years 2-disc collection, and on Chet Atkins Picks on the Pops, 1969, My Favorite Guitars, 1965, and Finger Pickin' Good, 1973), Liebestraum (from Me and Chet, 1972, with Jerry Reed), Czardas (from Chet Atkins at Home, 1958, and Relaxin' With Chet, 1969), and Yankee Doodle Dixie (from The Best of Chet Atkins, 1964 and four other albums). That's all real Chet music.

This book has done a lot for my playing. It is not full of real 'Chet' music though, more a lesson to teach you how to get there.

You'll need to buy some Chet Atkins song books, such as the one for the Album 'Almost Alone' to really start sounding like the man himself.

Never the less I love Chet and I love this book

This is an excellent introduction to the Chet Atkins style with palms muted alternating bass.

There are really a lot of songs arranged in this particular style. The first ones rather easy. The challenge thoug is to get the muffled alternating bass to sound right. I have experimented a lot with amp settings and muting to get it sound right. There is a lot to be said about it, but it is not said in this book. The entire discussion of the subject here is "Muffle the Bass strings with the heel of the right hand", and after that the subject is never again tuched upon. That is the really weak point of the book and the reason for 4 stars rather than 5.

[...]

On the value of the CD I disagree with one of the previous reviewers: the CD is essential. Since the book is poor on explaining how to do it, your ear is the only guide, and the CD demonstrates how this technique sounds when the muted bass i done correctly. It may be argued that you should know from listening to Chet how it is supposed to sound, but then not these particular arrangment and these particular songs. The CD makes it possible to experiment with the muffled bass on the easier songs to get it right. Moreover, there are really a lot of songs, and you can play trough the CD and figure out which one you like and learn them. You do not need to learn all the songs to proceed in the book.

The first 25 pages are elementary stuff, explaining TAB, note values, with some single note melodies. Alternating bass is introduced on page 28, and I guess most players with the ambitions to play like Chet will proceed quickly until that part of the book. Then quite soon there are pieces that - while simple - clearly resembles the style of Chet Atkins, at least when you get the muffled bass right. From then there are lots of nice pieces to choose from in increasing difficulty.

In short it is a good book but you should be prepared to spend some time experimenting to get the muffled bass right, as this is not at all discussed in the book.

The word "Complete" in the title is a little bit of a misnomer. Then again you would probably need an encyclopedia of information to accurately depict Chet Atkins style. In Mel Bay's introduction he says, "This is not a method but an elementary approach to the Chet Atkins Style of guitar playing. The basic fundamental rudiments are presented in order to elevate the player into this style with ease." This sums up the book quite accurately.

When I first opened up the book, it looked very basic and my first thought was here is another elementary beginner's guitar book. It takes you from tuning the guitar to learning where the notes (tab) are on the fretboard and identifying various chord shapes for learning the alternating bass technique.

Tab is great, but if you can't count it will be more difficult to grasp Chet's style. The book also takes you through learning the major and minor scales, the chords within the keys and various accompaniment styles. This is where the book excels. It's a progression from the basics to more advanced techniques. And best of all, you will learn along the way a number of Chet's songs that he has recorded.

I was wrong; it is not just a basic beginner's guitar book. I would highly recommend this book to a beginner or an advanced guitar player who wants to learn fingerpicking in the Chet Atkins style. If you are a beginner, it will teach you from the ground up and if you are a tab player, it will take your playing to the next level. If you are a straight picker and want to learn fingerstyle picking, this book is also for you. It will teach you solo playing in the Chet Atkins style in a natural progressive manner. Follow the step-by-step lessons in this book and you will sound like Chet Atkins in no time.

The nicest thing about this book is the picture of Chet's Signature Gibson on the cover. The first 70+ pages of this volume could have been - and probably were - lifted straight out of countless other Mel Bay Guitar Method books. The guy has made a fortune pasting new covers on the (mostly) same old books!

If you know how to flat pick some chords but always wanted to learn finger picking like me, check out Mark Hanson's books; read the reviews and choose the most appropriate one for you. The accompanying audio CDs are excellent and the music is enjoyable and fun to play. Instead of yawning through endless and mindless etudes Mark Hanson will have you sounding better than you ever thought you could in no time. Learning is almost painless when you enjoy the music.

Hanson's method will prepare you for learning to REALLY sound like Chet. Once you get the basics of fingerpicking under your belt, go to Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop and pick up some instructional DVDs, the late Marcel Dadi's Travis and Nashville Picking volumes are very good and there others. In addition to Chet you'll get some Jerry Reed, too. Chet and Jerry performed together many times over the years.

You could just dive into the DVDs but I recommend completing one or more of Mark Hanson's books first to prevent frustration later! Chet's playing was subtle but complex. He made it look and sound so easy - NOT!

Take a pass on Mel Bay and go straight to Mark Hanson.

I have never been a good finger picker but this book is really pushing me. The thing is, you've got to push yourself as well! What I do, is learn a piece in segments, and then keep playing it until I can get a good speed. Then, I listen to the CD. Review previous songs, and repeat. Its also important to see a lot of the stuff in this book as exercises.


While this guitar booklet will not leave you sounding exactly like Mr. Guitar, it will familiarise yourself with Atkins techniques amd style.

This is an excellent study guide for a basic understanding of the Atkins style which is a version of "travis picking". Highly reccomend.