Mel Bay's Master Anthology of Fingerstyle Guitar Solos: Featuring Solos by the World's Finest Fingerstyle Guitarists! Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Mel Bay (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2000

This anthology includes both new pieces and outstanding previously published fingerstyle tunes. Veteran performers and talented young upstarts are given a forum for their best work. Includes 3 CD's! Intermediate to advanced in difficulty with nearly all pieces appearing in standard notation with tablature.

The contributors are: Jonathan Adams, Muriel Anderson, Seth Austen, D.R. Auten, Douglas Back, Duck Baker, Steve Baughman, William Bay, Pierre Bensusan, Larry Bolles, Ben Bolt, Bill Brennan, Thom Bresh, Rolly Brown, Robin Bullock, Jonathan Burchfield, Michael Chapdelaine, Mike Christiansen, William Coulter, Marcel Dadi, Peppino D'Agostino, Craig Dobbins, Pat Donohue, Doyle Dykes, Steven Eckels, Tim Farrell, Peter Finger, Tommy Flint, Rick Foster, Stefan Grossman, Ole Halen, Todd Hallawell, Roger Hudson, Jack Jezzro, Buster B. Jones, Laurence Juber, Phil Keaggy, Pat Kirtley, Jean-Felix Lalanne, Jay Leach, Paul Lolax, Woody Mann, Dennis McCorkle, El McMeen, Dale Miller, Franco Morone, Stevan Pasero, Ken Perlman, Al Petteway, Bill Piburn, Chris Proctor, Harvey Reid, John Renbourn, Don Ross, Vincent Sadovksy, Dylan Schorer, John Sherman, Martin Simpson, Johnny Smith, Fred Sokolow, Tim Sparks, John Standefer, David Surette, Guy Van Duser, Al Viola, Paul Yandell, Andrew York, and John Zaradin.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Self-taught as a guitarist from the age of 12, Stephen Rekas was introduced to the classic guitar as a sophomore by Jerry Tertocha, a fellow student at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. Within a month of that meeting, Stephen traded his steel-string acoustic guitar for a nylon-string instrument. While active in Millikin's Jazz Lab Band as a trumpeter, Stephen majored in English and Biology. It wasn't until after graduation that the guitar became a full-time avocation. He took his first formal guitar lessons from Bernard Windt, a cellist and amateur luthier in Ashland, Oregon. While living in Oregon, Stephen met classic guitarist and lutenist, Karl Herreshoff and was inspired to study the guitar seriously.

In January of 1972, on a lead from Herreshoff and new age composer Ray Lynch, Stephen traveled to Barcelona, Spain to study the guitar with composer/guitarist Eduardo Sainz de la Maza. "I immediately learned how ignorant I was about the guitar," he said of his first lessons with the maestro. What began as a one-year student-teacher commitment ended up becoming a decade-long sojourn including additional studies with Maria Luisa Anido and masterclasses with Emilio Pujol and José Tomás. "Just as Paris was Hemmingway's Moveable Feast, Spain was for me a New World of music, language, relationships, and visual and culinary delights."

Stephen returned to academia at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. There he earned additional bachelor's degrees in music theory/comp, guitar performance, and Spanish literature followed by a master's degree in guitar performance. Stephen's formal music education culminated with the completion of the post-graduate program in "Composition for the Film and Television Industry" at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.

Since February of 1996, Stephen has been employed by Mel Bay Publications where he enjoys a multi-faceted position; he compiles and edits Mel Bay's monthly webzine Guitar Sessions, and also reviews new book submissions, cultivates artist/author relations, and edits guitar and mandolin publications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (May 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078665290X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786652907
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,029,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is very good if you have the technique, March 20, 2007

By 

Michael Callaghan (Jersey City, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Mel Bay's Master Anthology of Fingerstyle Guitar Solos: Featuring Solos by the World's Finest Fingerstyle Guitarists! Vol. 1 (Paperback)

This book is perfect for people who earn a full or part-time living playing instrumental guitar music. While not all the material here is useable (is any book thoroughly useful?), you will get finished and fingered arrangements by Muriel Anderson, Michael Chapledaine, Duck Baker, Marcel Dadi, Chris Proctor and Don Ross to name a few. Buster B. Jones is in there, so is Stephan Grossman. It's well worth it, because even with the many songs you won't want to practice or play, you wil be getting at the very least a handful of professional level solos that can be put into use. There is an arrangement of "Claire de Lune" that is absoultely stunning. Peter Finger makes a submission that is well worth the practice required, and Don Ross - well, even if you never learn to play like this you can study the arrangement and see how he does it.

That's the nice thing about the collection. In "Buster B. Boogie", for example, you'd have to be a very dedicated player to learn to play it - but even without the high level of technique required, there are miles of major-blues country and swing groove riffs in that one tune alone that can be fished out and used in jams or improvisations.

There are just so very many fingerstyle books aimed squarely at beginners and intermediates, it really is nice to see a more 'mainstream' publication with some upper-level material, and almost all of it fingered.

It's funny to see someone complain that 'alternate tunings should be used' when a little less than half of these are in alternate tunings! If being difficult to play is the sole criterion, then this book isn't very good. However, if new showpieces by modern performers is what you're after, without being scaled down, simplified, or made "E-Z", then this book is well worth it.

Come on already, isn't there enough 'made simple' out there in the world already? Do we really need MORE simplified music? Hey, if this was too hard to play, why would it come with three CD's of the composers playing their compositions fluently? If they can do it, why not make it an aspiration, or a practice goal, rather than a frustrated write off?

It's a regular paper binding, though, which can be a real hassle, since the book is so big. A book like this really needs spiral binding (see Mel Bay Fingerstyle Guitar Gig Book by Bill Piburn). Get ready to photocopy some pages for your music stand.

Recommended, if you're serious.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great music. Tremendous value, March 20, 2007

By 

An Avid Reader - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mel Bay's Master Anthology of Fingerstyle Guitar Solos: Featuring Solos by the World's Finest Fingerstyle Guitarists! Vol. 1 (Paperback)

This is a 3 disk set, with a lot of great music to listen to (which I often do, even after owning it for about 5 years). These are not silly little drills, but production quality from world class artists. Most of their names were new to me, and after being so impressed I have ordered CD's from some of the individual artists: Al Petteway, Pierre BenSusan, to name a few. It is not easy stuff, and it takes a lot of work to master it. Highly worth the effort.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great collection of original works, September 20, 2009

By 

B. Chor_l (Canada) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mel Bay's Master Anthology of Fingerstyle Guitar Solos: Featuring Solos by the World's Finest Fingerstyle Guitarists! Vol. 1 (Paperback)

NOT FOR BEGINNERS. This is truly an intermediate-advanced collection. Songs are mostly original compositions and a bio is provided of every artist that has songs included in the collection. Songs are mostly 3 - 5 minutes in length, at the tempo originally recorded. There are various styles of music, and many different techniques are used.

There is no instruction (other than tabs), just the sheet music. If you are not at a solid intermediate level, if you have difficulty reading music, or if you are not interested in a very broad range of techniques, this book is probably not for you (yet).

The CDs (three) appear to not be recorded just for the book, but rather they seem to be a collection of previously released songs from the artists' own CDs. Some have accompanyment, other not. Very helpful. Also very nice to listen to.

If you can play all the songs in this book clearly and at tempo, you are ready to play professionally.
I hope this helps.