Customer Reviews

Learn Folk Guitar with the Music of John Denver (Book & CD)

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This Book was very helpful for anyone trying to develope that folk style especially the one Denver uses. This book goes over extensively folk patterns for strumming and finger picking that are useful for putting your own twist on a denver song. You can also employ that knowledge and play exactly like denver. on select songs they even tell you where to capo so you can sound exactly like the man himself. The author of the book has extensive credentials in guitar training and knows what he is doing. Overall for basic knowledge of denver's style of play this book is excellent and couldnt get any better.

translated from the German:
"Constructing a book of guitar lessons based on songs by one artist is admittedly a risky business, even if he is as popular as John Denver. You really have to like him. Having said that, Pat Biancull's guitar lessons are a didactically well-prepared introduction for all guitarists who want to learn how to play simple folk songs. After a short introduction into handling (and basic playing techniques for the right and left hand, it introduces chords and simple strumming techniques. The harmony scheme of "Country Road" isn't really different from classical changes of other folk songs. Only the accompanying guitar can be heard on the CD, so the Denver background is, in my opinion, not really essential. In the following pages, the Carter and Merle-Travis picking styles are discussed. An array of valuable technical tips round out the manual. The technical representation of the notes is a model of its kind, and whoever prefers tabs can look one level deeper. After that come two arrangements for solo guitar -- "Poems, Prayers and Promises" and "Goodbye Again." These require a bit of playing experience and are only partly suitable for beginners. This is definitely a must-have for John Denver fans.

I had bought this book in the summer or fall of 2008. At the time it was too difficult for me. As I improved with practice and other lesson books and DVD's I could play this kind of music. I think the Mel Bay ANYONE CAN LEARN FINGERSTYLE put me onto the same techniques in this book like fingerstyle and hammer-on. And later in my investigation of lesson books I found a simple John Denver music book with just the chords and lyrics that suited me just fine. I had wanted a fingerstyle pattern to go with MY SWEET LADY and THIS OLD GUITAR. And I got a bit from the Mel Bay DVD and the more complete lyrics to those songs and more in the John Denver song book that jsut had the lyrics and the chords. The lesson here described does not have the complete lyrics to the songs he is usding to teach us folk guitar using the music of John Denver. But you gotta starty somewhere! And private lessons are expensive. But I used to play the guitar in high school so I had some foundation to build on.

I bought this book to be able to play John Denver's solo guitar pieces because it comes with tab. I was dissappointed!

The tabs are just finger picking accompaniments and not solo pieces of the songs. Might as well just strum the guitar. The melody lines are one octave lower and not suitable for guitar leads either.

I'll probably use this book to arrange John Denver's pieces for guitar.