Ed Gerhard: The Guitar Songbook (Book & CD) (Acoustic Masterclass) Review

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(More customer reviews)I learned Gerhard's version of "The Water is Wide" from an old Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine article, and was thrilled to discover this book.But here's what I found out when it arrived:(a) The CD that accompanies the book has almost no music on it.It is mostly a tutorial to help you with certain snarky technical issues in the individual pieces.Nothing wrong with that, but not helpful if you haven't heard the pieces and would like to know what you're working on in advance.(b) A couple of the pieces are written for use with a slide.(c) Most of the pieces require an unusual tuning.Dropped D tuning is not a big deal, but most of the others are more complicated than that. I wanted this music for performance purposes, and having to stop and tune extensively between pieces makes their use extremely inconvenient, unless you have two equivalent guitars and somebody to tune for you in between. If you know all this and still want the book, it's easy to read and contains both tablature and music notation.Gerhard's work is terrific.But if I had it to do over, I would have passed, based on the above limitations.

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Product Description:
Arranged for guitar with CD. Ten of Ed Gerhard's most beautiful solo guitar pieces transcribed in full notation and tablature.On the accompanying masterclass-style CD, Ed carefully describes and demonstrates all the key passages for each song. Titles are: Blue Highway * Crow * Duet * Farther Along * Homage * Promised Land * Shallow Brown * Si Bhig, Si Mhor * The Water Is Wide * Wild Mountain Thyme.

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Kenny Sultan: Guitar Blues (includes cd) Review

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(More customer reviews)Kenny has done it again.Acoustic fingerstyle blues students have once again received some truly golden learning opportunities.

I don't know just how much credit I can claim, but I emailed Kenny a few years back and practically begged him to release a book that contained not just the framework of songs, but whole songs, including different chord voicings, fills and runs and turnarounds and essentially everything a student would need to know to play a song, instead of playing a basic 12-bar several times.

That's exactly what Kenny has delivered in this book.It's his top-drawer, grade-A material that he's sharing here.Not many performing artists would be willing to do that, I think.So I feel like we students owe him a debt of gratitude.

The material ranges from Lightnin' Hopkins-style blues to very tappy-toe ragtime, and it's all just a ton of fun to listen to, and to play.It's all in standard tuning, no slide involved.There are certain points where Kenny does something really difficult--a quick turnaround with 9th chords, for instance--where he provides reasonable alternatives (using 7th chords instead).Nice touch.He moves at a faster pace in this book than his previous books, but he's covering a lot more material, too.

I must say that I was a tad disappointed--irritated, even--when I discovered that the CD that comes with the book does not by any means contain all of the music in the book.Mostly, the CD covers the main themes in the songs.To hear everything, you have to order not one, but two of Kenny's other CD's, i.e., not instructional CD's, but his commercial releases.

But then I realized that it would take a lot to cover all of the material in the songs.Not to mention that there are probably copyright issues on reproducing entire songs, even if they are from Kenny's own CD's.And beyond that, if you add up the price of this book, and the two other CD's, and then you consider what a goldmine of terrific material you're getting, this is the bargain of the millennium.Excuse my hyperbole, but I've already picked up so many new things from this book, as I have from his other books, that I find it hard to speak calmly about Kenny's work.

Beginner students should be advised that this material is probably beyond them.There are always exceptions, of course.Some beginners are fiercely determined (not to mention more talented than I), and can tackle more challenging material.When I was starting to learn fingerstyle, this stuff would have simply killed me, and made me feel helpless.So in general, I think beginners are better off with Kenny's first two books.(The first is no longer in print, I think, but "Acoustic Blues Guitar" is, and it's excellent for beginners.)

In a way, working through this book has made me a little sad.I've come to realize that my own playing, and my own musical knowledge, have reached a point where soon I won't need books or ideas any more.Even as I started working on the first song, I immediately had alternate ideas that I started throwing in (many of which I learned from Kenny's earlier books).I've reached the point where I hear a run in my head that's different from Kenny's, and I can figure it out and work it into the song in place of something Kenny offers.So although I've never met Kenny, I feel nevertheless like this is almost the end of a personal relationship, because I've (nearly) outgrown the need for help with my playing.

I've bought maybe 200 guitar books over the years, a sizeable number of which are devoted to acoustic fingerstyle blues.Kenny's are not the only books that have helped me.But his outweigh all the others by a large margin.I can honestly say that, if it weren't for his book, "Acoustic Blues Guitar," I might have--probably would have--given up for good on fingerstyle.Now, five years later, I've reached the point where I'm ready to play open mics, and I can improvise at will on ragtime themes.(You just can't imagine what that means to your own soul until you actually do it for the first time.)I don't discount the importance of my own hard work and dedication in making that happen, but Kenny's help was also of fundamental importance.

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Arranged for Intermediate-Advanced Guitar.Kenny Sultan's solo blues pieces are a virtual encyclopedia of vital blues licks and patterns. The licks and patterns covered in these pieces form the backbone of all solo blues guitar work.Titles are: Cascade Rag * Funky Butt * Honky Tonk * If the Shoe Fits * Lightenin' Strikes * Read 'Em and Weep * Sick Boogie * Slippin' and Drippin' * Suspicious Strut.

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The Blues Styles of Kenny Sultan (Guitar) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have two of Kenny's previous books, and I owe much of my fingerstyle playing ability to him.I've found other excellent books in the past few years, but his are still my favorites.And this one has plenty of new material, even if there is also some overlap with his previous books.
The material ranges from beginner to advanced intermediate, mostly the latter.If you're just starting to learn guitar, I'd go with Kenny's first book.This book has some stuff in it that would have been very difficult (probably too difficult) for me three years ago.
But if you have at least some fingerstyle experience, the material you will find here is challenging but playable, and tons of fun.If you have Kenny's previous books, and you've already learned all of the material in them, you will probably be able to sit down and start playing these songs almost immediately.Maybe that means they're not challenging enough for an experienced player.But I picked up a bunch of new chops from this book, so it was well worth the price.
Any book Kenny releases in the future, I will snag at the very first opportunity.

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In this Centerstream book/CD pack, axe-master Kenny Sultan teaches guitarists: blues in five different keys; monotone and alternating right-hand thumb technique; rhythm playing; dropped D tuning; fills; leads and more. The accompanying CD includes demos of the exercises, as well as bonus tracks from Kenny's and Tom Ball's popular CDs.

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The Guitar of Jorma Kaukonen: Detailed Analysis of 8 Classic Songs and Instrumentals (Guitar Listen & Learn : Homespun Music Instruction) Review

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(More customer reviews)For those of you who aren't familiar with the vast body of work of Jorma Kaukonen and his contributions to Rock, Blues and Folk styles, this book can act both as an instructional aid and an introduction to his work. Published by homespun tapes, as with all of their instructional materialsthis is first rate from and instructional standpoint.Jorma's ability toteach guitarists of varied levels of accomplishemnt shines through.Don'tmiss adding this one to your collection.

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The renowned guitarist for Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna teaches eight of his classic songs and instrumentals. He performs each piece, then breaks them down in detail for the benefit of learning guitarists. Jorma has an avid following, and this product will create great excitement among his many fans! Songs: Embryonic Journey ¥ Trial by Fire ¥ Watch the North Wind Rise ¥ I See the Light ¥ Been So Long ¥ MannÕs Fate ¥ Genesis ¥ Water Song. INCLUDES 64-PAGE MUSIC TAB BOOK ¥ LEVEL 4

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