Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Folk Guitar Song Collection: A Complete Guide to the Techniques and Songs of Folk Repertoire

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This is an intermediate book for learning lots of folk songs and accompaniment styles. If you are a beginner you will be lost unless you get a teacher or more experienced player to help you. To get the most out of the book, you should be aware of its unspoken assumptions:

1. That you know how to read music well enough to figure out how the melodies of the songs go and to understand what the accompaniment rhythms and fills are supposed to sound like.

2. That you understand terms such as bass runs, arpeggios, and hammering.

3. That you don't need to have everything spelled out for you. When he says on page 11 that "not all the bass-chord notes and slashes have been written out in each measure of the accompaniment" but then says you should play them all, what's going on there is that the bass-chord notes and slashes will be written out for a particular chord the first time and then it's assumed you'll play the same thing the next time that chord comes up. It was lazy on the author's part not to write it all out, but it's pretty easy for an intermediate player to figure out.

It's helpful to know your chord forms, but if you need a refresher there's a chart with all the basic chords in the back of the book.

If you fit the above description and want to learn lots of folk songs and several folk accompaniment styles, this book is for you.

This book is intended for players who know how to sing and strum. The reviewer who suggests it is for intermediate players is correct. The other reviewers will find this book useful after they have become bored with the same simple strumming accompaniment, for there are not many books that not only provide a variety of picking accompaniments but also illustrate them with specific songs as does this book. Of course, if you do not already know the song, then you will need to be able to read music.
"The Ultimate Folk Guitar Selection" is actually a reprint of "Folk Guitar--Folk Song", which is available used from several vendors at about $7. At that price, you can't really go wrong.

Here's a qoute from the foreword:
Its a song book that teaches, an instruction book that "sings."
....here...in one volume, a treasure chest of folks and and thoughtfully worked out lessons.

End qoute, I like this guy's older books, they definetely are a good way to learn folk guitar techniques.

But there's a huge honking flaw I found in his book.
The first chapter is all about Bass Runs. What are bass runs? He explains that on the first page in a paragraph and then gives a couple examples hoping you will learn the concept. On the third page he says:
not all the bass-chord notes and slashes have been written out in each measure...however, you must carefully play them all.

So, you teach me the concept on the first page and then let me fend for myself in the following chapters? That's asinine.

Makes me nervous about the whole book and mislearning the music, so I bought it 5 months ago and its just sat on the shelf. I'm thinking about selling it used....

It is chaulk full of folk songs though. It doesn't have freight train, anybody have a copy of that? Look me up.

Way too hard for this beginner. Does not show the chord figures.