Joe Satriani - Surfing with the Alien (Play It Like It Is) [Paperback]

Joe Satriani (Author)

Book Description

Series: Play It Like It Is | Publication Date: November 1, 1988

This matching folio showcases Satriani's chilling guitar technique. Ten songs in all, including: Always With Me, Always With You * Satch Boogie * and more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Cherry Lane Music (November 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895244144
• ISBN-13: 978-0895244147
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #535,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Play like the Master!!!, January 1, 2003

By 

Juan Ortuno (Hialeah, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Joe Satriani - Surfing with the Alien (Play It Like It Is) (Paperback)

This book is very awesome. It has all the tabs for the "Surfing with the Alien" Joe Satriani album. While some of the notes may be a little off in a song or two, it's very well transcribed and tabbed. A lot of the stuff here is a little difficult, so I'd recommend it to a serious player who wants to do some serious shredding & rhytmn guitar. It's even better once you learn a whole song, pop the cd in the player, and play along with Joe.
The feeling it's great, but you'll need to spend some time practicing. Remember, practice makes perfect.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars happy surfing, July 4, 2007

By 

D. Tucker "crushing dave" (Nampa, ID) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Joe Satriani - Surfing with the Alien (Play It Like It Is) (Paperback)

Just like the book is titled, Joe Satriani: Surfing With The Alien is a note for note transcription for guitarists looking to add to their repertoire, or just wanting to practice some challenging material.

The book itself has some amazing insight into the complexities behind Joe Satriani's guitar technique and musicianship. There's a 4-page intro that reveals secrets such as which modes, scales and chord progressions each song is built upon. As if that wasn't enough, the reader is again brought "up close and personal" with all 10 tracks having their inner workings revealed through thorough explanations.

The rest of the book is like any other tablature: a note-for-note transcription with easy-to-read tabs underneath. If you're like me, you don't have time (or patience) to guess which notes you're playing. After purchasing this book, you're well on your way to practicing some of the best (and most challenging) rock guitar music of our day.

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good Transcriptions Of The Classic Satch Album!, November 11, 2009

By 

Frederick Baptist (Singapore) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Joe Satriani - Surfing with the Alien (Play It Like It Is) (Paperback)

Few guitar tab books are as accurately transcribed as this one is which is a testament to the skills of transcriber Jesse Gress. We also get an intro essay by the godfather of transcription Wolf Marshall who describes some of the musical theory involved in the material as well as performance notes on each track by the transcriber Gress himself which is infinitely helpful for learners like me. To play most of the material here though you'd need a wah pedal and an axe with a tremelo bar and since I use a Gibson Nighthawk Standard from 1995 I don't have that luxury but I remember I bought this book years back because I wanted to learn "Always ... With Me" and fortunately that track requires minimal use of the whammy bar or at least you can get away a little with left hand technique on those parts and although it took me a while, I finally managed to play along with the cd. Another plus of the book is the binding which doesn't come apart easily when you press down on the pages to make them stay while you play. The big negative however is the font size which is small and so makes it a little harder to read and play along. It they could have increased the font size, this book would have gotten 5 stars from me.

Still, this is an accurate and extremely useful guitar tab book and I know I have certainly gained a great deal from just learning how to play that one song. Maybe someday I'll attempt the rest once I invest in a wah pedal and save enough to get that 24-fret PRS SE Paul Allender Purple Burst that I have my eye on ....