Customer Reviews

Mel Bay Shady Grove Acoustic Guitar Solos

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If you don't own the CD, buy it. If you play guitar, buy this book and work with it while you listen to the CD. This is Americana at its best, as envisioned by the best, but it can be played by guitarists who are merely competent and enthusiastic. It's not a "simple" book, and it's not a beginner's book, but it IS eminently learnable by any avid guitarist with more than about a year's experience. Without the CD (or at least an alternate version of most of the songs (such as _The Pizza Tapes_, _Grateful Dawg_, or "trade-friendly" amateur recordings) as a road map, however, it's probably not easy to figure out just what the songs are SUPPOSED to sound like. As acoustic guitar fingerstyle songbooks go, however, this one is a real keeper.

This is THE best acoustic Garcia/Grisman sheet music/tab I've ever used...I play the selections from the recording Shady Grove while I practice, and have made solid progress in playing the Garcia parts on several tunes. Now I need to buy a mandolin.....

Mr. Bruce took a logical approach to the transcriptions: note-for-note solos and simple chord names for choruses. Moreover, underneath the chords he provides melody notes that can be picked out of the chord names. This approach makes for a clean page for the choruses, and attention to detail for the solos.

The publisher should be credited for making Garcia's playing accessible to the amateur. Garcia's rhythmic sensibility and melodic apprehension are second to none, and the book not only provides wonderful pieces to play for your friends or yourself, but also makes an excellent study for a style too seldom heard these days.

Though not a perfect work, most of the pieces, including the title piece, are superbly rendered. Those others should motivate the student to greater precision. For guitarists just starting out, I might recommend "Country Backup Guitar" by Sokolow, and "Travis Picking" by Hanson as useful introductions to prepare one for the more nimble requirements of Shady Grove, though the Hanson book is itself a classic.

An excellant tool to aid one to learning accurately the way the solos are played. Great summaries of each piece by the author.