The Art of Solo Fingerpicking
Mark Hanson
The Art of Solo Fingerpicking is a followup to (The Art of) Contemporary Travis Picking in every way. Having taught you how to fingerpick in standard patterns, and then to vary these patterns, Mark Hanson takes as his next task to free your fingers from patterns to get on to more musically-satisfying playing.
The books overlap nicely. At the end of Contemporary Travis Picking the student learns Hanson's own Over and Out Rag, a simple but musical fingerpicked solo that demonstrates how far you have come in the course of just one book. Solo Fingerpicking begins with a review of the basic Travis Picking patterns before heading off into learning to solo at a higher level.
The same excellent teaching style is in evidence here: learn a manageable bit and build on it. As before, this book is packed with terrific tips and begins with a fine section on "How To Practice". This page should be photocopied and kept on your music stand to be read every day. Then it's on to another Hanson composition: Red. White and Blue Rag. This builds on the techniques used in the Over and Out Rag, and extends them. Detailed performance notes point out potential trouble spots and suggestions for performance.
From here the tasks are to emancipate the thumb, free up the fingers, and play, play, play lots of tunes! And what tunes they are. The success of this book is largely due to the fantastic songs that will lure you into learning the techniques so that you can play them well. There are some exercises in this book, for topics like different rolls and damping with either hand, but the majority of the work is done playing songs. Some are traditional, many are written by Hanson, and still others (such as the very effective Dedicated To Mississippi John Hurt) are by David Blakeley. There is even a middle section to the version of Freight Train from the previous book that fills out a nice solo performance piece.
Once again there is a high-quality CD with the tunes played slowly and at performance speed, as well as most exercises. All music is presented in music notation as well as tablature, and rhythmic notation is added to the tablature (and explained in the glossary at the back) for those who do not read music.
I consider both books to be two parts of a larger volume. I would suggest buying both volumes even if you think that you can Travis Pick just fine already. The foundation laid down in the first book is a solid basis for moving into the intermediate and somewhat advanced material at the end of Solo Fingerpicking.
In summary, a great book for learning Solo Fingerpicking from the ground up, especially in conjunction with Contemporary Travis picking. Interesting material, well taught, with lots of great tips on playing, practising, and learning. And you need not take just my word for it. The book is recommended by Leo Kottke and John Renbourn, among others! For good reason.
To hear an mp3 of one of the songs, view the entire Table of Contents, and order this extraordinary book, visit Accent on Music at http://www.accentonmusic.com/book_detail.asp?qID=7