Acoustic Masters Series: Peppino D'Agostino's New Acoustic Guitar: Guitar Book & Online Audio

This book cuts through the abstraction that often clouds fingerstyle instruction by grounding everything in D'Agostino's own compositions. You get insight into how a working composer thinks about arranging for solo guitar, voicing chords, and exploiting alternate tunings, not just exercises divorced from musical context.

The collection spans cinematic scope: Grand Canyon evokes vast landscape; Bella Donna carries romantic warmth; Acoustic Spirit settles into meditative beauty. Each piece showcases how thoughtful arranging and harmonic color can transform the acoustic guitar from background accompaniment into a complete ensemble unto itself.

Intermediate to advanced acoustic guitarists with a solid foundation in fingerstyle technique who are ready to apply that skill to full arrangements and original compositions. This book serves players interested in understanding how melody, harmony, and texture interact across the instrument rather than following rote tab.

• Study the online audio alongside each piece; D'Agostino's interpretive choices (touch, dynamics, subtle tempo rubato) reveal as much about the music as the notation.
• Approach alternate tunings as compositional tools, not gimmicks. Notice how each tuning in these pieces unlocks specific chord shapes and resonances that would be awkward or impossible in standard tuning.
• Build each arrangement methodically by isolating the melody line first, then adding accompaniment layers one at a time. These pieces reward transparency of voicing.
• Record yourself at slower tempos early on. Fingerstyle independence demands that you hear exactly what each hand is doing before the tempo obscures it.

Feature one or two pieces as recital vehicles for your most committed private students. The technical demands and musical substance of these arrangements make them compelling concert material, and students gain exposure to both compositional craft and performance artistry in a single package.

• Solo guitar arranging for melody and accompaniment voices
• Alternate tuning systems and their compositional applications
• Advanced chord voicings beyond standard positions
• Fingerstyle independence and control across multiple lines
• Translating compositional ideas into performance-ready arrangements
• Interpretive nuance: dynamics, phrasing, and touch differentiation