Customer Rating:  
Summary: Fun times
Comment: I've enjoyed this text, but the cd does not have stops for each step, so you must keep your control handy..
Customer Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive and Easy to Follow
Comment: This book has easy-to-follow instructions and enjoyable songs to play. I am only 1/3 of the way through this book, and thoroughly enjoying it. It has some familiar and not-so-familiar folk standards, leading the player through basic patterns first, then adding variations, melodies, ornaments and finally culminating in a full fingerstyle selection that will challenge almost any player at any level. However Mark Hanson gives you all the tools you need to get there, in step-by-step detail. The book would be great without the CD, but the added audio instruction is also extremely helpful. I recommend this to anyone interested in fingerpicking and fingerstyle guitar.
Customer Rating:
Summary: good start
Comment: This is an excellent book to start finger picking. The techniques you learn will go a long way in a short time. My only complaint is that the songs that are used are very cheesy. Maybe some Johnny Cash or Beatles would have been much better. However, the techniques learned are very good and makes the purchase of this book well worth it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What a Great Book
Comment: With most guitar books I have the problem that they start real easy and then start spinning out of control. Not so with this book. I never had the feeling that I was lost or that there was to big of a level increase from one exercise to the other. What a great book! Other authors should use this book as an example. This book will teach you the basics of Travis Picking step by step. It is suitable for beginners and advanced players that like to learn the basics of Travis Picking.
-D
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good instruction - Lame tunes
Comment: Many have already described how good the instruction in this book is. And rightfully so. So I will bring up the one negative which made me regret getting this book.
Apart from 2 or 3 songs such as John Barley, Sloop John B, etc., the songs used for demo are mostly lame ballads and fail to generate much excitement about playing them in me. The best tune is probably the opener, written by Mark Hanson himself. Also, most of these are sing-along types in which the vocal does most of the work instead of letting the guitar stay front and center. It would have been much better to feature mostly instrumentals where the lessons learned can be displayed in full glory.
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