For the Novice Through Advanced Player, an Easy-to-Understand Guide to Fingerpicking Technique for Folk, Blues, Fiddle Tunes, and Ragtime Guitar

Based on years of teaching experience, this is truly the fingerstyle guitar bible. Starting with simple alternating-bass “Travis-picking,” this volume progress step by step and integrates melody; hammer-ons,  pull-offs and slides, open tunings, choking the strings, syncopation, playing up the neck and much, much more.

Included are pieces by (or once played by) Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, John Fahey, Blind Willie Johnson, and Uncle Dave Macon plus many of Ken’s patented arrangements of Appalachian and Celtic fiddle-tunes and ragtime pieces.

Fingerstyle Guitar Centerstream/Hal Leonard The complete fingerpicking tutor. 240 pages, 45 tunes plus numerous exercises in tab and standard notation. Companion video available below. Companion Video Over 1-Hr., Now available only in DVD format. Illustrates all tunes and exercises

24.95 BOOK  24.95 COMPANION DVD

Historical Note

Fingerstyle Guitar was originally published by Prentice-Hall, a major book company at the time. Although they had no idea how to get this book to conventional music stores, they did have an in with Library Journal. A nice review in that publication resulted in this book being distributed to libraries all over North America (it might still be in your local library; check and let me know). After Prentice-Hall went out of business the book was picked up by Centerstream/Hal Leonard, who released the video companion. One interesting sidebar: at one point a German language edition was released.

Here’s the cover, right.