Customer Reviews

The Dictionary of Strum & Picking Patterns

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

 

 

The Dictionary of Strum and Picking Patterns is an excellent reference for all the major styles of rythym and finger picking patterns in all the major styles of popular music.

This is an excellent book for the guitarist who wants to be able to backup the vast majority of, if not all, popular music they will ever encounter. This is also an excellent book for the song writer/guitarist who wants to be able to compose in any popular style of music. Just go to the table of contents, pick the musical style you want, go to that chapter, either pick the pattern you want to use out of the table of contents or try them one by one until one speaks to you, listen to the cd, get it down then start writing that song, practice backing up songs that use it, create your own pattern or...

The book itself, in addition to a section on equipment and an introduction that briefly covers some strumming and finger picking techniques, contains chapters on blues (sections on the shuffle, rag, Texas, hoochie coochie man, boogie, boogie/rock and urban styles), rock (basic, shuffle, rock boogie, rock boogie shuffle, bo diddley style, hi-heel sneakers, rock/funk, 6/8, 6/8 arpeggio, reggae, latin, swamp, rockabilly, ballad), R&B/Funk/Soul (sections on sparse soul, basic soul, uptight funk, sliding funk, funk ballad, disco/scratch, soul shuffle, soul 6/8), metal punk and grunge (sections on power chords, metal riff w/sustain, metal rock riff, fast muted metal lick, metal boogie, metal open string, funk/metal, punk), country (bluegrass, carter style, country, honky tonk, bluegrass waltz, country waltz, travis style, banjo roll, cajun) and folk (ballad arpeggio, waltz arpeggio, calypso, basic, march). Strum patterns are written using rythym slashes. Finger picking patterns are written using tablature and standard music notation. At the end of each chapter are references to similar patterns in other chapters.

The cd contains a brief example of every pattern in the book. Each pattern in the book has a numbered reference to its cd track.

I would have given this book five stars if each example on the cd were at least three times longer and the book was in a guitar case book format (4 1/2" x 12"). Other than that, excellent guitar resource. If I could only buy one book on strumming and finger picking, this one would be it.

There are least 2 million books discussing, mapping, and diagraming everything that the left (fret) hand does while playing. However, my biggest weakness was what to do with my right hand - something that would make the chord changes a little more interesting than V V V V

This book was a tremendous help as far as developing a struming toolkit that actually made all those vanilla chord changes sound a lot more like "music". My only nitpick is that the included CD had "background" insturments, in addition to the guitarist - which in some cases made it difficult to pick out the nuances of the strumming/picking patterns. But that it is a minor problem with this otherwise outstanding book - one that has made a enormously positive impact on my playing.

If you wondering why should buy Fred Sokolow's books versus other guitar instructional books, the reason is because Sokolow's approach is significantly better. Complex sounding techniques are explained in detail and the content builds in a manner which allows players to improve on several levels (technical/theoretical) at the same time. I recommend you use this book to gain exposure to techniques featured in a genre of interest like country for example, and then dive into the details of that sound with a "complete guide to" book- in this case The Complete Guide to Country (Sokolow). Great books.

It's a good book, but the descriptions are a bit misleading. You need to know that it uses different formats for showing the different kinds of rhythm patterns. It has slash marks for strums, and tab for finger picking. If you're not familiar with these types of notations, you might have difficulty reading the rhythms. Be sure and read the intro as it explains most of the symbols.
The CD has the rhythms, but it would have been far better if all the instruments except the guitar and a metronome had been left out. Its difficult to separate them from the rest of the music. And they could have been twice as long as they are to give a better feel for the rhythm.
Not a bad book, but not a great one either.

covers a wonderfully wide range of styles of music. Wish each demo track could be longer but, I realize, that then there couldn't be as many tracks on the CD as there are so it is a trade off. I found I needed to slow the tracks down in a music editing program to get some of them, as some were too fast to grasp initially... for an intermediate like myself. I also used the music program to loop the tracks to hear it more times in a row. I like it over all.

As a beginner this booklet is a little advanced for me. It's still a very good reference.

I purchased this book for my girlfriend who is learning to play guitar. I have been playing for quite some time, and it has taught me much as well. I definitely recommend this book for anyone who plays guitar, and is looking to learn some new styles of playing; you can add alot of character to your songs with the styles in this book. The CD has been extremely helpful as well, giving an example of the sound you are trying to learn.

Get it!

~RDE~