What book do you recommend to learn fingerpicking?
 

I know a lot of you guys are really experienced and accomplished fingerpickers. What books do you think are good ones to learn from? Is there a progression of books or pieces you recommend?

I'd like to get good at the folk-style fingerpicking self-accompaniment you hear from musicians like John Prine, Paul Simon, James Taylor, and Roy Bookbinder (though he strikes me as probably more difficult than the others just mentioned). I want to get to the point of doing fingerpicky self-accompaniment without thinking about it much. I'd also like to learn some nice fingerpicked instrumentals--it would be great to get to a level where I could play Chet Atkins, Rev Gary Davis, Doc Watson etc instrumentals.

I've been pretty much exclusively flatpicking for a couple of decades. I've dipped a toe in and learned a few fingerpicking tunes (Windy and Warm, Deep River Blues, Freight Train, Little Martha), but never felt like I knew how to fingerpick. I just bludgeoned my brain to memorize specific musical pieces, and didn't learn enough to really apply the technique freely to other songs.

Thanks, everyone.

That is a really good start on tunes! I'm old school myself and learned from Kicking Mule books and LP's back in the day. Now I strongly prefer a DVD or video over a book. There are lots of choices: Homespun Tapes, Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshops, The Guitar Workshop (the gtw.com) and many others. I especially like how Guitar Workshop shoots their videos, from above the player to see the fretting hand well.

"Easy Steps" is a particular Homespun favorite. https://www.homespun.com/shop/produc...three-dvd-set/

Thanks, Earl. Some of my fingerpicking friends have mentioned learning from the Kicking Mule liner notes. It's too bad I missed out on that--they should re-issue those vinyls! That was Stefan Grossman's label, right?

Thanks for the recommendations, I appreciate it.

I learned by dropping a needle over and over again on an LP and asking a lot of questions whenever the opportunity arose. So by the time Homespun and Kicking Mule instructional material became available what were once vices had become habits. That said, while not a "book", I have become a fan of Toby Walker's lessons. For me it is less about learnings songs and techniques and more about finding them a great place to "borrow" fresh ideas and approaches to songs even those I have been playing for decades. He is a really good teacher and as of late he has branched off from his typical menu of blues offering lesson packages on tunes by the Stones, Hot Tuna and the Dead as well as individual song lessons by the Beatles and such. It might be worth your while to wander over and check out his lessons.

Caveat: I’m just starting to learn fingerstyle. Based on recommendations here, I’m using Mark Hanson’s Art of Contemporary Travis Picking and Beyond Basics Fingerstyle Guitar.

They seem good - maybe next year I’ll tell you how it worked out :).

I'd say you can fingerpick pretty good if you know those tunes :)

I'm kind of in the same boat, being a "tab dependent" fingerpicker.

I've been forcing myself to memorize as much as possible, and then do some very basic improvising on simple tunes. Spicing up the bass lines with runs, a little more variation in the melody. Nothing fancy yet, but it gets a little better all the time. So far just on simple things like My Creole Belle, Make me a Pallet, etc.....


I too like the Mark Hanson and Toby Walker materials already mentioned.

Have you ever heard of David Hamburger? He has an online class where he teaches a tune a month all the way from a dead slow easy version, to a more complicated version, and finally improvising and arranging. Lots of little exercises to smooth out the hard parts. I just started it last month, and if you are looking to learn a method rather than more rote tab this may be worth checking out. It is video with tab, not a book like you asked for. I usually prefer books/CD's myself, but he goes slow enough and repeats things often enough that even I can learn from watching. There is also a live on line component with Q and A, and a forum, too. I'm pretty impressed so far.

https://www.fretboardconfidential.co...ngerstyle-five

I find that videos are the best. Books require a lot of attention if you are looking at tab or anything on paper. For me, actually seeing what someone is doing on a guitar is very helpful. This kind of instruction works for me and there are many more on youtube...

https://yourguitarworkshop.com/guita...ommy-emmanuel/

Take a look at Stefan Grossman, he has a website that features quite a range of fingerstyle. Start off with some basic stuff and work on your technique. Easy stuff played well sounds better than complicated stuff done haphazardly. Practice sloooooow and loud and master the easy stuff first before moving on.

I learned from Mark Hanson's two Travis picking books, trying to play tabs of his Authors Notes cd and a couple of other books by him.

The only problem I have with Mark's stuff is the guy plays so cleanly and has such a precise style that I could never emulate his playing. :D

Once you get into the mindset that your picking thumb is just another finger, you can learn just about any finger style piece ( eventually).

Well, there are graduate classical music books to help develop your hands and any of Stefan Grossman's workshop booklet series would help.
He covers Country Blues and Celtic/Irish repertoires.

Anything by Happy Traum, either books or Homespun videos on Youtube.
Jon Z.

I’m another fan of Mark Hanson’s two fingerstyle courses which if you are starting out should be worked through as Contemporary Travis Picking first followed by Art of Solo Fingerstyle. The songs and the written instruction in both are top notch. Both books are celebrating their 30th anniversary which says a lot and Mark has tweaked the material over time. I worked through both over the course of 3 years and I took on Mark as my teacher via Skype. He encouraged me to take on other arrangements also while we worked through the material in his books which helped me figure what kind of music and styles I like to play. I never imagined 3-4 years ago I would have the confidence to take on solo fingerstyle arrangements from players like Tony McManus, Clive Carrol, William Coulter, Ed Gerhard, and others but Mark’s material and process has made that possible.

Barry is right in that Mark’s playing chops are amazing and the arrangements in Art of Solo Fingerstyle are quite challenging but you will be the better player for taking them on.

Good luck in whatever path you take.

Yes, and he has reissued or updated most of those Kicking Mules LP's on CD or DVD over the past 2-4 years. Look for "originally released as...." in the description. I actually still have those LP's (now also dubbed to CD) and all of the tab books. His CD's usually have the tab books as a PDF. SGGW is at https://www.guitarvideos.com/

And ditto on the Mark Hanson books too.

Thanks for all the recommendations. I appreciate your help.