Mel Bay Complete Celtic Fingerstyle Guitar [Paperback]

Duck Baker; Stefan Grossman; El McMeen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2000

The ancient Celtic repertoire offers the fingerstyle guitarist a tantalizingly wide range of moods and emotions from sad laments to lyrical ballads to vibrant dance rhythms. This collection presents a vast array of fingerpicking guitar solos settings on timeless airs, hornpipes, reels, planxties, set dances, jigs, slip jigs, marches, songs and compositions by the renowned 17th century blind Irish bard, Turlough O'Carolan. The solos are in varied guitar tunings and are presented in notation and tablature. Performance notes and suggested listening guides are also included. ***27 songs from this book are on the CD.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stefan Grossman has been recording, performing, and writing about acoustic fingerstyle techniques and styles for more than 30 years. At age 15 he started taking lessons from the legendary bluesman the late Rev. Gary Davis. He also learned music from records by Brownie McGhee and Lightnin' Hopkins. When Grossman was 18, he formed the Even Dozen Jug Band with guitarist Steve Katz, harmonicist/singer John Sebastian and pianist Josh Rifkin. The group recorded the LP Even Dozen Jug Band [out of print] for Elektra in 1964. At the same time, Stefan became more interested in his work as a blues researcher. During the period from 1965-1975 he studied and traveled with some of the legendary figures in the world of blues guitar-- Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and other great black American bluesmen and songsters. From this experience Stefan authored his landmark five-volume series for Oak Publications that presented these styles to pickers worldwide. In 1973 Stefan co-founded Kicking Mule Records to counter the shortage of good instructional guitar records and music. With a lineup of artists including guitarists Dave Evans, Ton Van Bergeyk, Happy Traum, Duck Baker, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Davy Graham, Kicking Mule has been instrumental in promoting and preserving the best in blues, ragtime, and contemporary picking. Stefan has played with bands all over the world and has recorded numerous CDs. He has also written many books that have been published or distributed by Mel Bay Publications. Duck Baker was born Richard R. Baker IV in Washington, DC in 1949 and grew up in Richmond, Virginia. His teenage years were devoted to playing the rock and blues bands before becoming interested in fingerpicking in local coffeehouses. Ragtime pianist Buck Evans was a major influence on Baker's developing interests, which by the time he moved to San Francisco in 1973 included rags, blues, old-time country, Cajun, bluegrass and New Orleans jazz. This variety inspired the title of his first solo record, "There's Something for Everyone in America," in 1976. During the next four years, Baker recorded four more solo records, including one devoted to swing, one to modern jazz and one to Irish and Scottish tunes, and appeared on nine others. He also wrote a book of fiddle tune arrangements and toured incessantly throughout America, Canada, Europe and Australia. He changed address almost as constantly, finally winding up in Europe for most of the '80s. He returned to San Francisco in 1987 and finally to Virginia in 1991. Most of his more recent solo recordings have featured his own compositions, an aspect of his work that has drawn particular praise from other guitarists. If Baker's insistence on studying and performing so many facets of folk and related music, from medieval European carols to avant-garde jazz, have made him somewhat difficult for the press to categorize, he certainly has earned the respect of his peers. A check list of musicians with whom he has been associated professionally (in performance or on records) would include blues man Charlie Musselwhite and Jerry Ricks, bluegrassers Tim O'Brien and Dan Crary, traditionalists Ali Anderson and Brian MacNeil, new music icon John Zron, rock legend J. J. Cale, and jug band king Jim Kweskin. Duck Baker has been a seminal figure and influence in the bringing of Irish traditional music to the guitar. Baker is one of those rare musicians who doesn't draw upon the repertoire of his chosen instrument for musical raw material, but rather finds ideas in the broader musical stream, and shapes them to the sensibilities of the guitar. From the application of that talent comes his acknowledged success at translating Irish fiddle, pipe, and harp music for the guitar. His memorable but not widely distributed 1980 album Kid on the Mountain outlined a stylistic approach that eschews any cosmetic prettiness of tone, and focuses rather upon the possibili

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: MelBay Publications, Inc.; Book & CD edition (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786634332
• ISBN-13: 978-0786634330
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #865,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Celtic material, August 21, 2003

By 

"ohiowhit" (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mel Bay Complete Celtic Fingerstyle Guitar (Paperback)

The accompanying CD is not as much of a stand-alone pleasure as some other books, but few Celtic acoustic books have so much to offer. The tablature is written a bit different from other books and is hard to read at first, but not a big problem. Even though not all tunes are on the CD, once you learn a few of the songs you quickly get a feel for how to play the others. A basic ability to read music helps alot for getting the timing down.

Each tune has a short description preceding that is very interesting and insightful. In some cases the book offers up to three different versions of a tune. I've found better versions of several of the songs here in other books, but there are also some superior arrangements here, and songs I've not seen elsewhere (yet).

I would highly recommend this book as part of a Celtic acoustic guitarists library. If you're not sure you want to delve into this area of guitar, you might try The Blarney Pilgrim first so you don't get overwhelmed. There's a ton of stuff in this one. Six months into it I've only memorized about four of the pieces.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PICK - IN., March 25, 2002

By 

Spinillo Patrizio "patspinillo" (Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mel Bay Complete Celtic Fingerstyle Guitar (Paperback)

It's a book you can spend a lot of time on... It contains a lot of songs, each one with a different mood: beautiful melodic pieces, quick jigs to be danced, dramatik marches, and so on...

The CD is very helpful and pleasant to listen to, even if it does not contain all of the songs of the book.
The difficulty of the songs ranges from very easy to very difficult. And you'll also find out some beautiful tunings for the guitar: DADGAD, CGDGAD,...

If you like to play fingerpicking, it's a very good book, like all of the Grossman's publications.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a very useful study, June 21, 2005

By 

a superintelligent shade of the color blue (minneapolis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mel Bay Complete Celtic Fingerstyle Guitar (Paperback)

This is a very nicely done book. For one thing, it covers the gamut of Celtic styles - airs, jigs, hornpipes, reels, planxties, and songs. For another, it uses arrangements from multiple players, which give a much wider sense of the potential and flexibility of Celtic fingerstyle guitar. In some cases, there are multiple arrangements of the same tune, in different tunings, by different arrangers. Which brings up that it is also a useful introduction to the power of alternate tunings AND the power of standard tuning to address this music. And finally, there are excellent essays on various relevant subjects throughout the book - some on guitar technique, some on music history, etc. And the skill range is helpful too, from nice beginner tunes to very advanced arrangements.

All in all, a useful addition to the library of any guitarist interested in Celtic music.