The Complete Fingerstyle Guitar Method: Mastering Fingerstyle Guitar: Guitar Book & CD

This book cuts through the mystique surrounding contemporary fingerstyle techniques and treats them with the same rigor as classical approaches. Eckels structures advanced concepts logically, so players can isolate and master each technique individually before combining them into fluid, expressive passages. The inclusion of alternate tunings and tuning design gives students genuine compositional tools rather than just playing techniques.

Opening this book feels like getting direct access to the workshop of working fingerstyle masters. The techniques revealed here transform the guitar from an instrument following predetermined patterns into one capable of textural variety, percussive storytelling, and sonic innovation.

Experienced fingerstyle players ready to expand beyond traditional classical and folk techniques into the contemporary methods used by professional fingerstyle artists. This is essential for anyone arranging music for solo guitar or developing a personal fingerstyle voice that draws from multiple traditions and experimental approaches.

• Record yourself demonstrating the free-stroke and rest-stroke techniques in sequence so you can hear the tonal difference clearly; this trains your ear to recognize which technique best serves the musical phrase you're working with.
• Practice the tremolo patterns slowly with the CD, paying attention to the evenness and control demonstrated in the recording before attempting the tempo variations shown in the notation.
• Approach left-hand and right-hand tapping as separate skills initially, drilling each independently before you layer them into the inventive passages at the end of the chapter.
• Use the alternate tuning examples to experiment with retuning a practice guitar and leaving it in one of the suggested tunings for a week; this builds familiarity and prevents the tuning from feeling like an obstacle during technical work.

Assign this to advanced guitar students pursuing independent study or recital preparation; the arranging and tuning design sections provide the conceptual foundation for students ready to move beyond transcription into original interpretations. Private instructors can use specific chapters as semester-long focus areas, with students applying new techniques to repertoire they're already learning.

• Free-stroke and rest-stroke production with refined tone control
• Tremolo technique and rhythmic accuracy at varying tempos
• Left-hand tapping, right-hand tapping, and hybrid techniques
• Percussive effects including drumming and scraping techniques
• Alternate tuning systems and custom tuning design
• Arranging for solo fingerstyle guitar
• Shifting and left-hand dexterity in extended positions
• Dynamic control and expressive phrasing across multiple techniques