The heart of this guitar course is the true love of the instrument that Chet Atkin's good-natured presence projects. His enthusiasm is infectious and his legendary mastery is evident in the beautiful simplicity with which an enormous amount of information is conveyed," says New Video Review. If you're serious about learning to play the guitar, now you can learn all of the basics and a lot more from the master himself. The video was originally released in 1986 and we are very happy to offer it now in book form. You'll have hours of fun playing along with Chet on songs like Yesterday; Jambalaya; Country Roads; and New Guitar Blues. For each song you'll learn the chords, the melody, plus some of Chet's hottest licks. Tips on tuning, changing chords, fingerpicking, and much more are carefully explained. The book's companion CD presents phrase- by-phrase instruction (identical to the video of the same title).
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Chet (Chester) Burton Atkins is perhaps the best-known, most influential guitarist of recent times. Volumes have been written about him, and his accolades are numerous. The following summary is by no means complete. You may check the sources listed below for more information.
Born in Tennessee in 1924, Chet grew up on a farm surrounded by musical relatives. He picked up uke, mandolin, fiddle, and guitar early in life. At the age of 18, Chet landed a job as staff guitarist at Knoxville powerhouse KNOX radio. In 1946, after marrying Leona Johnson, Chet worked briefly in Nashville with Red Foley at the Grand Ole Opry.
After several other short-lived jobs in various cities, Atkins returned in 1948 to Knoxville to work with Homer and Jethro. This was followed by associations with the Carter Sisters and Fred Rose. Chet quickly became one of Nashville’s most respected session musicians. By 1953, Atkins was doing a lot of session work for RCA. In 1954, Chet’s first LP, Gallopin’ Guitar, was released, and that same year he was given his own radio show on WSM. The following year, Gretsch invited Atkins to design his own signature guitar.
In 1957, RCA opened its own stand-alone recording studio in Nashville and put Atkins in charge of finding talent as well as producing and playing on records. He stayed in this position through the ‘60s while also recording many of his own albums. After helping create many hits for others, Atkins finally had his own Top-Five single in 1965 with "Yakety Axe."
In the 1970’s, Chet relaxed his duties with RCA and focused on developing musical relationships. Through the rest of his life, Chet collaborated with a number of well-known players, including Jerry Reed and Lenny Breau, and others. Chet left RCA and signed with Columbia in 1982. In 1997, diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor, Atkins underwent surgery. Thereafter, he would only play with friends on occasion, or make brief, non-playing appearances at local events. Chet Atkins passed away on June 30, 2001.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better to borrow or as present.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Get Started on Guitar (Book/CD Set) (Mel Bay Presents Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop Audio Series) (Paperback)
Before I bought this book I could play the guitar using a pick. I bought it solely to learn the Atkins palm mute "bom chick" alternating base. Probably because this audio came from a video, Chet describes and plays it, but we dont actually have any picture of where his palm, base of thumb is, except "To get this sound I put my hand lightly on the strings of the bridge." That said, there are some good exercises to develop finger thumb independance. They appear to be carefully graduated so that they are not too tediuos to practice, and the presence of two other students on the C.D. plus some studio recording tricks makes you the student feel part of the action as you practice.As well as the above the book and C.D have some other good points. Chet's natural sense of humour, and natural musicallity make him a joy to have as a teacher. So different from the boring old blokes I had years ago. I am enjoying the exercises set out, and practice isn't too much of a chore. But how to get that muted base? The book and C.D give exercises on how to develop the skills necessary to do this and it can be done if you just let the base strings ring - undampened. The way I did it was to let the strings ring, then find a friend, and for the price of a couple of beers, get him to show me how to do it. So in essence, if you are buying the book, just to master the Atkins sound, you might be disappointed, and three stars might be a bit too generous. however if you want to get inti basic finger picking and develop the right hand skills to get to that sound, but then be happy to "finish it" by getting someone show you the very last step, then you can make it three stars or more.
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