Flying Fingers [Paperback]

Dave Celentano (Composer)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1987

With the help of this book/CD pack, your fingers will be flying over the guitar neck! It offers clear demonstrations of techniques proven to increase speed, precision and dexterity. 32 examples cover arpeggios, speed picking techniques, alternate picking, sweep picking, circular picking, melodic sequences, and more. The CD demonstrates each technique at three speeds: slow, medium and fast.

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Centerstream Publications (December 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 093175920X
• ISBN-13: 978-0931759208
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,175,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars short, but gets a point across, April 7, 2003

By 

Ilia Asafiev (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flying Fingers (Paperback)

I remember when I was back in high school and first saw this book advertised in a musician's friend catalog. I thought, "Wow, flying fingers! That'd be sweet!"

Years have passed, and I finally acquired this title, for the dual purpose of satisfying my curiosity, and also to get free shipping on the rest of my order. After going through it and listening to the CD, there are several aspects of this work that I have to reflect on, most of which are positive.

The first thing that the author goes over are types of vibrato, and their application. This is probably the most detailed explanation of vibrato that I've encountered. This is a useful technique to master - most educators who claim to teach "metal" or "hard rock" guitar demonstrate it at one point or another. Mr. Celentano also goes on to show how combinations of these techniques work in application, and afterwards uses the technique throughout the examples he shows in other sections of the book.

Three styles of picking are demonstrated. These are, really, just combinations of what we know as either alternate picking and sweep picking - circular picking being a combination of the two. Unfortunately, the author neglects the areas of tapping and pick/tap combinations (which he goes over in his other publications) and hybred picking (using pick and one or two fingers on other strings). The latter is understandable, since the author's main focus is heavy metal soloing.

From there on, Mr. Celentano goes over various scale patterns and sequences. These are great for exercising, but by no means is this to be considered reference material for guitar exercises. Most of these are examples, that prompt the student to come up with his own licks and riffs for technical development.

A very neglected area of this book is chords. I think that it's important to learn how to use leads and chords in combination, if one is truly to acquire "flying fingers." The exclusive focus on leads makes this a rather one-sided perspective on guitar technique.

Mr. Celentano also includes several pieces that require use of combinations of techniques covered in this book. Most of these compositions are original, and they aren't bad, albeit a bit cliche. But, as I said, the author effectively demonstrates a method of approach to technical development. The drawback of this publication, is that most of the actual development is left up to the student.

If you're a beginning guitarist, this may not be for you. However, for someone who has gotten the basics, this may be a useful developmental tool. Use of discretion is advised, in deciding whether or not to purchase this - if you're willing to work on your own to assimilate the material in this book, then this is for you. If you want a more guided approach, a good recommendation would be Troy Stetina's book on Speed Mechanics, rather than this one.

One last note: the tablature and standard notation (which is the style of presentation used throughout) reflect a hand-written quality, and are sometimes difficult to read (9 looks like 7 on tablature, stuff like that). I found this to be another minor drawback.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flying Fingers by Dave Celantano, March 2, 2001

By 

Gerbil (PAYSON, ARIZONA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flying Fingers (Paperback)

This is a great book with great excercises. This has all the techniques for playing fast, (except tapping). Anyone wanting to play fast with great musical quality should get this. The licks in this book are classical sounding, and you will get good at sweep arpeggios with this book, I promise.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Dated -The Title is misleading, November 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Flying Fingers (Paperback)

I just got this book and let me tell you you are better off not buying this. This book primarly deals with arpeggios and nothing else. No legato, no real picking exercises or anything like that. All the exercises are dated, like late 80's Neo Classical dated. If you want to play like Yngwie, Vinnie Moore, or the rest of the bunch this book will put you in the right direction. 12 or 13 years ago this book would have helped me but today it surely won't. I think this book is for beginners. Any one who has played guitar for more than a couple years won't benefit from this junk. I'm suprised they still print this or at least didn't revise some of the material for more of todays players like Satriani, Vai or Eric Johnson. I'm very let down by this book.What a waste of 12 bucks! If I could return it I would.