Hotlicks For Bluegrass Guitar [Paperback]

Orrin Star (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1992

Over 350 authentic bluegrass licks and how to apply them to create your own solos while expanding your knowledge of the fingerboard. Includes a demonstration soundsheet of the licks played by Orrin.

Product Details

• Paperback: 174 pages
• Publisher: Music Sales America (January 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0825602912
• ISBN-13: 978-0825602917
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #533,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hot Licks for Bluegrass Guitar, February 24, 2003

By 

Stevan Rogers (Portland, OR.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hotlicks For Bluegrass Guitar (Paperback)

Orrin presents the best of the best here. If you were to incorporate a mere 10% of these licks into your own playing, you'll soon be sounding like a contest champ. Orrin presents not just the "flashy" sounding licks, but he also presents phrases that can be modified slightly to use in many songs. I especially like his "desert island" choices. A real winner, from cover to cover!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good stuff, March 10, 2006

By 

coverto (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Hotlicks For Bluegrass Guitar (Paperback)

This is by far the "meatiest" of the numerous guitar instruction books I've come across. Tons of licks and material here, and tons of good discussion about putting together bluegrass solos that's quite helpful. The only real downside is that some of the licks in here really aren't all that hot. In fact, i decided to buy the companion CD from the author, to see if I was somehow playing them wrong, and it turned out i wasn't. He even goes so far on the CD to admit that some of the licks aren't that hot - pretty funny. Anyway, I had a bit of a revelation while going through the book - it made me think, "hey, this is all absurd. I can come up with some better licks than this on my own." Since then, I realize that the licks that don't sound so hot still have their value, and it's worthwhile to get a bunch of different licks under your belt if you want to really fluently play bluegrass solos. The point is, this book got me to finally recognize and act on these crucial insights, which no other book did.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely good...if you're somewhat musically literate, January 3, 2007

By 

S. Lutes - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hotlicks For Bluegrass Guitar (Paperback)

It's an old publication (1985), no CD, just standard notation and tab examples (that keeps it from being 5 stars or useful to many guitarists who just can't learn to read.... But it's very good as far as it goes, has oodles of 'licks' and standard bluegrass phrases, and the narrative is clear and easy to follow when it's time to discuss technique. I've played guitar since 1958, never bluegrass, but I think it could work well for all levels of players who can comfortably work through standard notation and/or tabs with or without a teacher. If not, you're limited to publications that give you recorded examples--I have several tutorials of that kind (bluegrass and other genres, too, I'm a die-hard collector) and have yet to find one that is better than pedestrian or is very useful to people who are much beyond beginners. This is a good, massive tome for those who can wade through it.