My First Blues Guitar Picking Songs

This book and accompanying audio are the perfect primer for anyone interested inlearning blues guitar played with a pick. An addition to Steve Kaufman's My First series, the book starts the student from the very beginning. Basic chords and notation are presented, progressing to blues strumming patterns and lines. Lessons also cover blues scales, tablature, I-IV-V chords and more. The book is perfect for anyone interested in learning blues guitar, and experienced tab readers who wish to learn standard notation

Graded exercises take you from the fundamentals of fingerpicking to five authentic blues tunes. All exercises and pieces printed in the book are played in addition to some extra explanation of the concepts and techniques presented.

This fun and easy book and CD takes you from the very beginning. Learning right and left-hand techniques, learning your first chords, 18 great songs AND you painlessly learn them by reading notes. Anyone can do it. Steve's method and approach to learning to read notes is so simple that 4 year olds have done it. You will start with 4 simple notes. Steve then teaches songs using just those four notes. He systematically adds a few more notes at a time bundled with easy to understand instructions and songs so that in a short time you will know all the notes, chords, strumming patterns to play hundreds of songs. This is a perfect primer for many of Steve's best sellers and other author's books. Audio CD included.

My First Country Guitar Picking Songs is an ideal book for beginners interested in learning country-style guitar and basic reading skills. Author Steve Kaufman uses his award-winning method to teach principles of flatpicking, basic chord fingerings and notation, within the context of classic country songs. This book emphasizes the versatility of the country guitarist as a lead instrumentalist and rhythm accompanist, from lyrical melodies to swinging strumming techniques.

Adam Granger self-published the first edition of Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar in 1979. A second edition was published in 1994. Now Mel Bay Publications presents the third edition of the book. This 236-page book is the most extensive and best-documented collection of fiddle tunes for the flatpicking guitar player in existence, and includes reels, hoedowns, hornpipes, rags, breakdowns, jigs and slip-jigs, presented in Southern, Northern, Irish, Canadian, Texas and Old-time styles. There are 508 fiddle tunes referenced under 2500 titles and alternate titles. The titles are fully indexed, making the book doubly valuable as a reference book and a source book. In this new edition, all tunes are typeset, instead of being handwritten as they were in the previous editions, making the tabs easier to read. The tunes in Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar are presented in Easytab, a streamlined tablature notation system designed by Adam specifically for fiddle tunes. The book comes with a link which gives access to mp3 recordings by Adam of all 508 tunes, each played once at a moderate tempo, with rhythm on one channel and lead on the other. Also included in Granger’s Fiddle Tunes for Guitar are instructions for reading Easytab, descriptions of tune types presented in the book, and primers on traditional flatpicking and rhythm guitar. Additionally, there are sections on timing, ornamentation, technique, and fingering, as well as information on tune sources and a history of the collection. Mel Bay also offers, The Granger Collection, by Bill Nicholson, the same 508 tunes in standard music notation.

Presents 24 carols skillfully arranged by flatpicking guitar champion Steve Kaufman that range in treatment from beautiful, lyrical guitar settings to rousing, joyous flatpicking solos. In notation and tablature. the CD is designed as a listening recording first and instructional tool second. All 24 songs are played through three times at least. the first time is as it appears in the book and the two versions that follow are improvised versions. Making this a listening tool and an ear training tool. Recorded Digital to Analog in true stereo sound.

Builds fingerstyle blues technique and independence through musical phrases and licks

In this book, journalist, composer, songwriter, teacher, and 2003 Winfield Flatpicking Guitar Champion, Jeff Troxel, delivers a masterclass in arranging fiddle tunes for flatpicking guitar. These 20 themes and variations on favorite bluegrass melodies are designed to improve overall musicianship and augment your own arranging skills. Ideal for the intermediate to advanced flatpicking guitarist, the author reveals techniques for enabling readers to create their own theme and variations settings. Suggested rhythm guitar chords and light left-hand fingerings are also provided. Troxel points out that one of the unexpected benefits of learning and memorizing themes with variations is that the process will ultimately facilitate linear and harmonic improvisation. It would be a painstaking process to learn this skill from a teacher or a harmony textbook, but once memorized, the scale and arpeggio patterns within these tunes and variations will set you on a viable path towards original improvised lines. As a bonus, the author includes a generous appendix containing several of his Flatpicking Guitar Magazine articles that deal with aspects of musicianship that every guitarist should know. While written in standard notation and tab, if you have relied solely on tablature and recordings in the past, this book can provide the key to understanding essential music theory and reading standard notation. If you’re not quite ready to learn to read standard notation, you can still use the tab and the author’s excellent online recordings to learn these delightful arrangements. In any case, it will be fun to get these settings of standard bluegrass tunes “in-hand” and use them in future jam sessions.