Solo Guitar Style (Paperback)

~ Tommy Emmanuel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Spiral bound. Contains full transcriptions of: Amy
* Blue Moon
* Countrywide
* Day Tripper
* Dixie McGuire
* Freight Train
* Lady Madonna
* Limehouse Blues
* Since We Met
* A Taste of Honey
* Tom's Thumb
* Trambone
* Up from Down Under
* Windy and Warm. Includes intensive, up-close lessons in solo guitar: ""boom-chic"" style, cascading harmonics, moving bass lines, Travis picking, and much more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Alfred Publishing (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0769299342
• ISBN-13: 978-0769299341
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,656,868 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A model for guitar instruction., November 23, 2001

By	"mjcastellani" (Knoxville, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This book is absolutely phenomenal. I hesitated buying it for so long because there were no reviews on it and I did not know what to expect, but Tommy is such a fantastic guitarist that I bit the bullet and ordered. That was a great decision, because this book is a model for how instruction books should be written and presented. Starting with a brief biography on Tommy, it also includes brief bios on guitarists that influenced him and why they did (e.g. Atkins, Travis, Reinhardt). The book starts off with easy thumbstyle exercises for the absolute beginner, but includes difficult sections on cascading harmonics, moving bass lines, and the like. Each section includes not only music (which can be heard on the accompanying CD, complete with verbal explanations from Tommy himself)but also narrative explanations and performance notes. The book closes with suggested listening (for the aforementioned artists that influenced Tommy)and watching (e.g. other instructional videos).

The music is excellent in its variance, i.e. from the very simple to the very complex. It includes some of Tommy's own compositions, but also several arrangements of other songs guitarists would love to add to their repetoire ("Day Tripper/Lady Madonna," "Blue Moon" and "A Taste of Honey," all of which include moving basslines that sound fantastic). Even the spiral binding is great, making it very easy to set up on your music stand, without the need for page-holders. The sole complaint about this book is the fact that the transcriptions come from one of Tommy's instructional videos, while the CD is recorded specially for the book, meaning they don't always match. This is such a minor issue that it's hardly worth mentioning.

Guitarists need this book! If only other teachers would follow this format.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing - TE's the man!, May 19, 2003

By	"andyhamil" (Hamilton, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This books blows me away, nothing too hard to get started, nothing too easy to get bored with. Great artist and song background. Highly recommended. Handy spiral bound. Good quality CD. Also, if you haven't checked him out live, DO SO! Travel night and day if you must!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A complete book about playing guitar by a masterful performer, November 14, 2005

By	D. Williamson (Gainesville, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you're reading this review, you have probably already heard Tommy's music or seen him perform. In this book, which is somewhat of a companion to his DVD "Up Close" but also functions as an outstanding stand-alone book, you not only learn a lot about his songs and how to play them but also a lot about how Tommy became the consumate guitar player and performer that he is. There is excellent background information about the people who created and helped develop this style of guitar playing (Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, Lenny Breau)and the author provides excellent references to the best recorded songs and other learning material available from these other artists as well. For example, the author refers to specific past issues of Frets and Guitar Player magazines in which Chet Atkins describes certain playing techniques.

Outstanding and dead-on advice is also provided about playing and performing in general. For example, Tommy always stresses emphasizing the melody as you play and focusing your passion and expression of the music through the melody rather than just pounding out a lot of notes on the instrument. He describes his practice routine and how he approaches learning a new song.

I will enjoy this book and struggle to master it's content for many years to come. If you're a serious or aspiring finger-style guitar player, you will love this book.