Guitar Books Review #17: Hal Leonard Fingerpicking Guitar
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- Is this one of the best or worst method books for acoustic fingerstyle guitar?
You can learn to play music by simultaneously using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.
Hal Leonard’s Fingerpicking Guitar, written by Doug Boduch, is a method book for learning to play solo fingerstyle (or “fingerpicking”) guitar or fingerstyle guitar accompaniment. The book features lots of popular tunes (the Beatles, Adele, Sam Smith, Imagine Dragons, The Police, Toto, Ed Sheeran, etc.). Overall, It is suitable for beginner through intermediate players with the tunes in the later sections of the book becoming progressively more difficult up to that intermediate skill level. Advanced players may still find some fun repertoire tunes. Guitar teachers may find this book to be a great teaching supplement. The progression of topics is well laid out, the examples and arrangements are playable and sound good, and the text is concise.
The book is very short at 38 pages. This is partially due to a lack of detailed explanations, which is part of why this book may work better as a supplement to private lessons or to another more detailed method book. The book is also short because it just doesn’t have that many examples. The examples and arrangements are of high quality, but they don’t cover the many nuances that could pop up in the world of fingerstyle guitar.
If you are looking to play solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements of popular/modern tunes, then this book may be for you. If you are looking for folk, blues, ragtime, Celtic, or classical music, then there are better options.
Fingerpicking Guitar starts with examples of playing easy single-line melodies (Happy Birthday, etc.) with your fingers or thumb. The book then presents some arrangements that utilize a single, easy-to-grab bass note underneath the melody in each measure. Later on it focuses on arrangements that feature alternating bass lines (Travis picking). The book provides some basic arpeggiation examples for accompaniment as well as some arrangements that utilize arpeggiation, but it doesn’t really provide much detail about how to apply arpeggiation underneath a melody in a solo arrangement. There is no discussion of more complex techniques (natural and artificial harmonics, harmonizing melodies with 3rds, 6ths, etc.), alternate tunings, or more modern percussive techniques.
Don’t confuse this book with Hal Leonard’s Fingerstyle Guitar by Chad Johnson. There is a similar progression of information, but they are different books. The older Fingerstyle Guitar also features popular tunes, but is overall lengthier and more detailed. However, I prefer some of the arrangements in the newer Fingerpicking Guitar, especially for my guitar students.
There is virtually ZERO music theory in Fingerstyle Guitar. This may appeal to some readers. However, you won’t learn how to apply the concepts/techniques presented into other musical situations (other tunes, etc.). With the help of a teacher or another book you could get a lot more out of Fingerpicking Guitar.
The book includes access to online audio or video for every example. The audio can be slowed down which can be very helpful. The guitar playing is clean and the recording quality is high. Example numbers don’t line up between Example 30 and 33, but they are all there.
All playing examples are provided in standard notation (treble clef) and tablature.
You could use either a steel string acoustic or nylon string classical guitar to work through this book. You don’t have to fret any bass notes using your thumb over the top (although I like to here and there).
Published by Hal Leonard © 2023.
My eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to joemcmurray.com... to purchase a pdf of my eBook. Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.
My music is available on all streaming platforms at open.spotify.c...
Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, "Open Road," on UA-cam here: • Joe McMurray - Open Ro... .
Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.
Thanks for the great review! Glad you liked the book. You sounded great on the examples!
Doug! Great to hear from you! Thanks for watching and commenting! I'd love to hear some about the process of working with Hal Leonard if you ever have a few minutes for an email - joemcmurrayguitar@gmail.com
Hey great review as per usual. I'm definitely gonna check this book. I'd like one of these days for you to review learn and master fingerstyle guitar by Steve krenz . I know it comes along with DVD or the other way around 😂. Anyways it'll be great to hear your thoughts on it.
Hey thanks so much for your comment and suggestion! I just looked into the Steve Krenz book/DVDs - I need to hold off on it until I see a less expensive used set ($120 is the cheapest I can currently find). Or if the author/publisher wanted to send me one then I'd be happy to review it! For what it's worth, it looks like the Steve Krenz book/DVDs are about learning guitar in general and not specifically fingerstyle guitar.
Hi. Do you have a favorite Beginning Fingerstyle blues book?
Hey - I have reviewed a few fingerstyle blues books on my channel, and I'm a fan of each of them for different reasons. Can you play any fingerstyle guitar yet?
@@JoeMcMurrayMusic Hi. Thank you for the reply. No I can't play any finger style yet. But I love listening to Robert Johnson and someday I would like to be able to play finger style blues. I'd be happy for a recommendation.
@@watchingyoutube7330 A few thoughts on this. 1) You should probably start with a general fingerstyle method book (see some of my other reviews, like Alfred's "Beginning Fingerstyle Guitar" [see Review #1]) or take some lessons (in person or video). 2) You could simultaneously work through Joseph Alexander's "Fingerstyle Blues Guitar" (see Review #8). 3) For repertoire you'll need to look up tunes (listen and transcribe, buy a book, search for chords/tabs online, or get lessons). 4) Learn that 12-bar form!!! Keep a steady monotonic bass line going and keep the melody simple at first so that your brain can focus on keeping the form straight.
What’s the best fingerstyle book for a 12 year old girl who is highly motivated to learn fingerstyle?
Thanks for your comment! Does your 12 year old already have musical experience or training? That would make a big difference. My knee jerk reaction is that your 12 year old should take private lessons (in person, video lessons, etc.) and the teacher could help her work through one of these books. I've taught many children in that age range and they generally aren't as motivated to actually read the text and fingerings, etc. so they don't stay on course, they develop bad habits, and they lose motivation. Nobody needs lessons forever, but a period of guidance can get you moving in the right direction and make an incredible difference in the long run.
However, if your 12 y/o is exceptional and wants to actually spend the time working through a book, then let me know what kind of music she wants to learn (within the umbrella of fingerstyle guitar) - does she want to play fingerstyle arrangements of modern popular music? Does she want to play fingerstyle blues, ragtime, folk, or Celtic tunes? Is she into modern percussive players like Andy McKee or Mike Dawes? Or is she drawn to classical guitar? There are different books that focus on these different sub-styles.
@@JoeMcMurrayMusic thanks for the response! I’m actually an elementary music teacher and a fingerstyle guitarist. I have taught her the ukulele and she’s pretty competent with rhythmic strumming and some basic uke fingerstyle. I’m looking for a great method book for her that I can do with her. This will be her first introduction to guitar. Everything we’ve done so far has been by ear. No written music learning.
@@churchhymnsandpsalms This book has great arrangements of popular repertoire and has some approachable examples, but it just doesn't have that many examples overall. The Alfred Beginning Fingerstyle Method has more practice examples and detailed content and is probably my favorite to teach with in general, but it may not be as appealing to a young student.
@churchhymnsandpsalms I continued thinking about this through the afternoon... Another book to consider is "Fingerstyle Guitar From Scratch" by Bruce Emery (Episode 6) - this book has a very gradual progression that might be really good for a 12 y/o. Lots and lots of practice examples that explore lots of arpeggiation/picking patterns! It's mostly focused on accompaniment, but the author also published a book called "Travis Style Guitar from Scratch" that I'm looking at purchasing as a teaching aid.
Also, as a supplement, I love the solo arrangements in Michael Wood's "The Gigging Guitarist (Episode 5). The arrangements sound great and most are very playable for ~late beginners and onwards. These are all Celtic and Appalachian tunes. I haven't been through it, but the author also has a book of hymns and spirituals (from your UA-cam name, this might interest you!).
@@JoeMcMurrayMusic thank you so much! I have Wood’s hymns! They’re fantastic!
I was wondering if you were reading standard notation or tabs while you were playing.
Although I practice reading standard notation every day in my classical studies, for these book review video performances I honestly read from the TAB. HOWEVER, in books like this that provide both treble clef and TAB, they rarely have the rhythms notated in the TAB, so I read those rhythms from the treble clef while I'm initially learning a piece. I wish they would notate the rhythms in the TAB because it is easy to do with notation software...
@@JoeMcMurrayMusic
Thanks.Good info.