Book Reviews

Fingerstyle Workshop

Acoustic Guitar

Guitar-clinic veteran Richard Gilewitz has organized the 24 chapters and multiple appendices of his new book/CD/DVD package around the questions he’s most commonly asked from players of all ages and skill levels. The CD includes audio examples of the exercises, picking patterns, and original songs written out in standard notation and tablature in the book and DVD. Gilewitz’ advice extends to practice routines, amplification, live performance, studio tips, and more.

AcousticFingerstyle.com

By Paul Kucharski
Oct. 2006

As author of the Acoustic Fingerstyle Web site, I am often asked for a referral to material that teaches fingerstyle guitar. Until the Mark Hanson's books came out, there really wasn't much out there that I could recommend. Now there is a brand new source of instruction that gives budding fingerstyle players a new choice. Mel Bay has released a new Book/CD/DVD by Richard Gilewitz that offers a plethora of information on guitar playing in general along with plenty of fingerstyle material to learn from.

Richard holds guitar workshops across the country and in these workshops, he imparts his wisdom to those who attend. The first half of this book attempts to capture this wisdom in a series of short chapters based on many of the topics he might typically cover in his workshops. Take a look at the chapter headings to get sense of what kind to topics he discusses.

Workshop Section Title Headings Why Write a Guitar Workshop Book Questions Selecting a Guitar The 12-String Guitar String Gauges/Options Capos Slide and Techniques for Playing Slide Practice Routine Burnout, Inspiration, and Rekindling Influences Composing Education and Background Amplification of an Acoustic Guitar What Is It Like to Perform Live Studio Tips Touring Tips and Road Stories Alternate Tunings Fingernails and Fingerpicks Speed Playing Don't Run Out of Breath and Get Tense Right-Hand Attack and Position Words of Encouragement Picking Pattern Study Notes Historical Notes Performance Notes for Tunes in the book Arpeggio Exercise Tremolo Exercise Picking Patterns Extra Patterns

The thing I like about this new book is that Richard's music is more contemporary fingerstyle playing and offers both easier and challenging pieces in a variety of tunings. Every tune in this book is a performance worthy piece, so while you learn, you build repertoire. Plus he provides numerous useful exercises to give new players something to use to develop their right hand skills.

Of course a book alone has never really been enough to convey the information needed to learn new skills. Many books today provide CDs that allow the student to hear what the music or exercise should sound like, but Richard and Mel Bay takes this a step further and provides a DVD with detailed video instruction on many of the topics covered in the workshop and exercises. The CD contains verbal discussion of the exercises and "at speed" recordings of Richard performing the pieces. The DVD supplements the book and CD by providing videos of the same exercises discussed on the CD but also provide detailed information that only "seeing it" can convey. He also provides detailed video performance notes on two of the performance pieces as well. All together, the book, CD, and DVD make a very powerful combination to learn from. The complete list of tunes on the DVD are shown in the pull-down below.

Songs in this book with tunings Echoing Gilewitz ** - DADF#AD The Maison Blanche Exit Song ** - DADGBE Mrs. Firecrackers Place * - Standard Pre-Dawn Mourning * - DADGAD Jamaicalina * - CGCGCE Bilingual Fantasy * - DADGBE Gypsy Minor * (intro to Dirt to Dust) - DGDGBbD Dirt to Dust * - DGDGBbD

Songs marked with ** = DVD Instruction, *=DVD Performance only

The book, CD, and DVD give you everything you could possibly need to be able to master these works (short of taking a class from Richard himself). In the introduction to the book, Richard states "It is my intention to provide a useful book that kindles a desire to learn fingerstyle guitar."

All-in-all, I must say the package of Book/CD/DVD is one that every Richard Gilewitz fan will want. The music is first-class and the presentation is exceptional.

Both the Book/CD/DVD are available from Mel Bay where you can also pick up Richard's other books as well.

Fingerstyle Selections

AcousticFingerstyle.com

Many folio books available today don't have much in the way of instructional material to help the player figure out how to play the tunes in the folio. They are basically targeted to players who are already intermediate to advanced. Richard states that this book was designed for the "beginner and advanced player". From the Table of Contents you can see it is part instructional book and part folio of tunes from which you can learn by doing. It offers instructional information to develop the needed picking pattern skills and to learn about the tunings used in the pieces.

Many of the compositions are more approachable for the beginner because they take significant advantage of open strings and allow you to build off the pattern studies. Most of the work is getting proficient enough with fingerstyle arpeggios to play them up to tempo; this makes them ideal for working on fingerstyle technique. The 7 tunes presented cover a range of tunings but 2 are in standard and 3 are in Open G. This book is really ideal if those who are looking for material to build fingerstyle playing ability and want to explore what open tunings can offer. The book doesn't include a CD, but most of the tunes can be found on Richard's CD "Synapse Collapse".