GT103 - The Guitar Grimoire - The Fingerpicking Book

IF you're familiar with this book series and don't have a good working knowledge of finger picking studies, this is a good reference.

Fantastic

A good exercise book for beginning fingerstyle guitar players or those switching from plectrum use to fingerpicking for the first time. There are no songs in here, just exercises.I wish I had found this two years ago. I was wishing back then for just a book of increasingly difficult exercises and had to make do with various bits from on-line videos and exercises that I invented for myself. At this point, the book is a little basic for me, but there is still some that I can use in it, and it'll provide a nice change now and again from my other daily exercises. I particularly like at the end how slowly he brings in each possible string and beat in a "travis"-style pattern. Many find this sort of picking a challenge and this step-by-step approach should help anyone who hasn't been able to jump right in and play "Freight Train" and similar songs within minutes of being shown it.He takes you through basic patterns in several keys, moving you pretty quickly up the neck and out of that fret 1-5 box that too many beginner guitarists get stuck in. The music is in chord diagram + standard + tab, so no matter what you prefer, you'll be satisfied.My main complaint is that, for some inexplicable reason, he uses T(humb) I(ndex) M(iddle) R(ing) to designate the right hand fingers, when everywhere else in the guitar world, PIMA (for the Spanish words for the fingers)is used. Either you'll get used to this and be confused as you move into all other musical notation, or, like me, having been trained with PIMA, this will seem odd and may slow you down at first.Also, there are no definitions, discussions of better finger positions or illustrations of these, mention of the difference between attacks, free/rest strokes, and other matters that are probably best (at least) introduced sooner than later. He refers to sustaining but doesn't describe it; he later writes music that seems to want no sustain, but he doesn't mention left or right hand muting techniques. I realize there are only so many pages in the book, but dedicating one page every 10 to the very basics on these matters would have made me like the book more.

A great book with some great exercises.Easy to follow and definitely helps to improve my playing. I fully recommend.

I own most of the Guitar Grimoire books, and while they are good exhaustive references, they are mostly redundant ideas that are just moved up and down the guitar to fill up a lot of pages. This book has the same flaw, only it's essentially the same exercises as the exercise book except with a fingerpicking fingering instead of a down/up stroke under each note — it's almost entirely information present in his other book.Was looking for something a bit more around fingerpicking patterns — the exercise book is worth owning, but would say this one is worth skipping.

This is just what I wanted at the comprehension level I needed.

Husband loved the book!

If you're looking for a series of guitar training books the Guitar Grimoire wins the prize. Fingerpicking is one of several outstanding books. It provides all the elements necessary to get you going.