Customer Reviews

Fast Forward Alternative Rock Guitar (Fast Forward (Music Sales))

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I found this book while browsing through the music section at my local bookstore. Since the CD pocket was open (no, I didn't open it!) I plugged it into my CD player to see if it was worth the money.
I had wanted to check out books in the Fast Forward series, but was not sure; the books seemed well-written but wasn't sure about the music -what did it sound like? What's more, finding that most guitar books in the series -ranging from Metal to Alternative to Jazz- had been written by the same person (Rikki Rooksby) didn't close the sale for me. So being able to listen to the CD made my purchasing decision easier... I was hooked, seriously hooked, and that is no small thing since I was not particularly fond of Alternative rock. In fact, I listened to the whole thing in that first sitting.
The book approaches Alternative Rock from a historical and chronological perspective; from the '60s through today focusing on the main bands and providing music tracks (solos and short music pieces) inspired by those bands, and the examples do sound like a typical something they'd play. If you are not familiar with the format in these books, here's how they work: The examples are played, then the following track has everything minus the guitar so you can play along. While I don't like every single track, most of them are beautifully composed and some I found very evocative. The book ends with an entire song (the only whole song in the book); 'Athens by Day' which is, I think, a great sounding song.
The chronological approach would not have been my first choice, but after some thought I had to agree with it; in order to be fair to this music genre (and to appeace the chronically un-satisfied purists) it had to cover its beginnings and evolutions. Interestingly, having grown up listening to The Police and U2, I'd not ever have considered them Alternative, after all they were "mainstream" staples of popular radio then and now. But as I went through the book gave me the right perspective.
I'd recomend this book to both fans and foes of Alternative rock. Think of it as a crash course in something you are perhaps not very familiar with. You may get something useful out of it, I know I did, even if I have yet to forgive Nirvana for wiping Metal off TV in the early 90s! Not only has this book given me a few new chops, but it has opened my eyes to bands like Television, Velvet Underground and others which I'd not have considered listening to otherwise.
One last shout-out to Mr. Rooksby, who has made a fan and customer out of this reviewer. There are a lot of able yet frustrated musicians who put books in the market not worth even a glance, mostly with a you-figure-it-out philosophy. Not so in this case; along with Troy Stetina, Rikky Rooksby can write, keep things interesting and just challenging enough. One can tell this author cares about his work and I will definitely purchase other books by him, no matter how diverse his writings.
So, for the price of two lattes you can add a few interesting colors to your creative pallet... minus the caffeine rush.

Overall I think this book offers a good introduction to "non-traditional" styles of guitar playing. It offers a nice, but perhaps too brief, historical background of alternative guitar playing along with some nice black and white photos. The book is nicely arranged in chronological order, giving a nice perspective on the evolution of approaches to guitar playing. However, the book does not follow a progression in difficulty of playing, and I have had to scramble around the book to find exercises that math my skill level. My only complaints is that the CD examples are too short and the examples have too much of a "key-board sound" for my taste.