Flatpicking Guitar Essentials (Acoustic Guitar Magazine's Private Lessons)

I've really enjoyed this book. My background is classical guitar and rock (electric)guitar. The books starts off with some semi-simple backup ideas, but quickly builds and has some really great/more advanced stuff. There are several authors in the book who have written great instructional books. I've bought a couple. The nice thing about this book is a lot of the key ideas from their books are covered here.I wouldn't buy this book if you're someone who wants to just learn songs. This book's emphasis is on style. So, if you'd rather have a few chord changes and work on your own arrangements this book should help.Some other people have commented about this book being easy or quick to go through. That's true to some extent (you know guitar players' egos), but there are a lot of things that can me used again and again, improved upon and perfected. Again, if you're semi-new to bluegrass, folk, country and Irish/celtic playing there's a lot of good stuff. The book is loaded with ideas you can apply other places. There are several songs that will let you practice the ideas without being so technical they overshadow the key points.

I still use this book for pieces that can be used for fiddle accompaniment such as Soldiers and Bury me beneath the Willow. It definitely helped me get better as a guitarist, although I'm more into fingerstyle now, my flatpicking skills are absolutely essential. This book has a great CD with it in both fast and slow speeds and alot of nice pieces that can be used to sing to as in the 2 above, or there are some others you can use in parties that are easy to play, like Mother don't allow. Its also nice if you want to learn Irish jigs and reels, some bluegrass as well.

This book does exactly what its title says. I like the way it uses nine different instructors to teach different techniques. It does not waste space with guitar playing basics and starts right off with a full explanation of strum and bass note patterns. This is much more than the usual boom-chucka stuff I find in many books. It gives three pages of varied, and increasingly challenging, examples. After several weeks, I still go back to these pages to practice.The accompanying CD is fun to listen to these experts playing. Fortunately, they were smart enough to play each example at a slower pace so you can actually hear and learn how to do it yourself. I find tremendous value by accompanying them in addition to doing it myself.I have learned more and enjoyed my guitar more than any other book.

Good product

The first few chapters of this book are very much at the beginner level. The Lester Flatt G run chapter felt like it was trying to pad a simple riff into a chapter. And the "boom-chick" rhythm chapters were a little bit repetative.But then we get into the real meat of the book with fiddle contest accompaniment and all the chapters past that. This is where we seem some real insigt. There are some very nice chord substitution lessons. If you ever got sick and tired of playing thesame G and D chords over Salley Goodin (Or A and E7 since the version in the book is in the key of A) then you'll be happy to learn some very nice new chord sequences from that chapter. There's also some very nice Irish backup ideas.Then we move into the flatpicking melody section. The fiddle tunes and cross-picking chapters in particular are quite good. At this point you're moving into intermediate to slightly advanced level techniques so be prepared to spend some practice time.Normally, I can run through one of these String Letter "Essentials" books in a weekend. But this one has a bit more deapth than some of their other offerings. If you play acoustic guitar of any style, even if you're not a bluegras fan, I think you'll find something worth while in here.

This book is put out in association with the people at Acoustic Guitar magazine. It was this fact that led me to look at this book. The lessons are clear and easy to follow which makes it good for beginning guitar players and intermediate players also. The CD that is included with the book is very helpful. Without it the book would not be nearly as helpful. There are several styles covered in the books 89 pages. Some styles easier to pickup than others. Overall this is a good book that will help you learn flatpicking technique.

This is a very nice book, full of real meaty stuff. Should be really useful to any begining or intermediate player.

This large A4-size softcover songbook with accompanying CD is an instructional guide for the part-experienced intermediate level guitar player to mastering the flatpicking style originating in early American folk and bluegrass.The book consists of 12 lessons taught by Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s master teachers. Each lesson introduces a new technique like strum & bass note patterns, the Lester Flatt G-run, or crosspicking. The text is helpful and often colourfully descriptive, for example the teacher Paul Kotapish advises the student to “…climb inside and visualise the structure and shape of each melody…discern how the ornaments are integral to the tune” in his chapter titled ‘Simple Irish Back-up’.The melodies are in standard notation, so the student who can read music will likely gain more from this book. However, the chord shapes for rhythm/strumming accompaniment are represented in standard tablature so even the novice will be able to follow the basics.Each section contains at least one new song for the student to practice the technique, but this is not necessarily the best book if you just want to learn songs, as it’s fundamentally about developing a playing style. The chapter by Dix Bruce on transcribing solos is notably good, and the CD is helpful as an accompaniment to the lessons in the text, making the learning experience more like a face-to-face guitar master class.