The Country Fingerstyle Guitar Method: A Complete Guide to Travis Picking, Fingerstyle Guitar, & Country Guitar Soloing (Learn How to Play Country Guitar)

A lot of other technique books I have bought, I have gotten bored with after a while....but not this one. I bought this book about 6 months ago and I have been diligently working through the exercises. The exercises so far have been 4-16 bars and are the kind that you practice over and over again. I think the strength of this book is that it starts you off slow and builds your skills one step at a time. Fans of country and folk music will recognize the examples and as the lessons build, you can hear yourself getting closer to that authentic country picking sound. My technique has improved greatly and some of the lessons I learned here I have been able to use to improve both my guitar and uke finger-picking. A nice side effect of these lessons is that it forces you to keep good fretting techniques, because the notes on the treble strings need to ring out. I've made a ton of progress over the last 6 months, and this is still the first book I reach for during my practice sessions.

There's no secret here. .if you practice these techniques until your brain stops hurting and your fingers take over, you will become a smooth player. These simple exercises train your fingers and it gets easier with each page. One of my favorites.

First off this is a great book. I have all in total 4 books written by Levi Clay. I'll start first with my praise for these books and actually all 4 books I have of his from fundamental changes. This author gives the best explanations for things I have ever seen when it comes to guitar books. Outside of taking lessons I have not seen better. Now my gripe! If you have an exercise that spans more than one-page print them so you can see them both when you have the book on a music stand. I cannot afford to hire a person to be a page turner.,

The book starts at a great place in assuming you know chords and can play, so it doesn't waste your time with absolute basics. It quickly moves you through popular pick patters, helping you get that bass thumb rhythm thing going on that's so essential to finger picking in general, and good old country and ragtime style guitar. The accompanying free audio samples are also very helpful, without needing a disk or anything. They loop over and over on your laptop, letting the sound of each progressively detailed lick sink into your brain. I'm very happy with this book, a Christmas gift.

If you are a guitarist with some experience who wants to learn country picking, this is a great book. There are good exercises and explanations, and the book is not too easy or too hard. (If you're a beginner it will probably be too hard for you.) I am really enjoying working with this book. Well written, tablature and musical notation.

this is another great book of guitar material from fundamental change book series. i have only had this book for a short while and already i have made some great progresss. the book is laid out in a manner that gets in depth quite fast, however with patience and practice, it doesn't take long to move forward. really this specific method is about creating independent lines on the guitar at the same time. once it starts to happen it is amazing. i look forward to keeping with this and a few other books i've picked up from the fundamental change website.

This book provides a distinctive and highly effective approach to mastering a variety of styles for country fingerstyle guitar mastery. The book is inexpensive, a great value, and a valuable addition to any fingerstyle guitarist's library.

I've ordered other books from this company, all have been well written and laid out logically. This book was no exception. And the price is great considering the amount of info you get in it.

Well Levi has done it again! Here is a book that takes you from some simple basic principles of finger picking through to more complex ideas.There are loads of practical examples and backing tracks are provided. What's nice is that the examples are only a few bars long but progress through an idea. Start off simple and introduce more complexity. Ideal for my brain to get my fingers to work.Levi has also gone in depth to study the style of 3 legends - Merle Travis, Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed.All in all this is a well laid out book. It's easy to dip into ideas as you don't have to start from the beginning. No hesitation in giving this 5 stars

Found this book very practical. It has tons of exercises to practice and is not theory overload like some books can be. So more playing and listening than reading really. Make sure to download the audio files from the website listed in the book and also use the lessons on the website if anything in the book is not too clear. Author uses squares and triangles on chord diagrams..which was not explained properly but the squares are root notes. Also does not label the fingers like most books p,i,m...so that is why I give three stars. Don't think Johnny Cash was mentioned but I feel a very Johnny Cash sound there in the early examples - the palm muted alternating 'thump' rhythm which is nice. The examples cover many different styles which is where this book excels in my opinion.

A straight to the point, no waffle writing style with lots of exercises. The book assumes you have never played Travis Picking/ Fingerstyle before and each exercise builds upon the last in a comprehensive manor. A must buy for any guitarist or singer - songwriter.

I've only had this book a few days and I'm only a couple of chapters in but already I'm finding plenty of examples to stretch my existing technique and my ear. I like the structure of the book with its later focus on the styles of Jerry Reed, Chet Atkins and Merle Travis - so challenging and no doubt enjoyable practice ahead.I've been learning bits of Travis picking for the last few years but always seem to gravitate towards the same patterns in my own songwriting. I believe this book will offer me many more options and add to my technical repertoire.I've also now watched some of Levi Clay' s videos on YouTube and the guy definitely knows his stuff.Well worth spending time with this book, in my opinion, if you're interested and serious about developing your fingerstyle technique and repertoire.

Very well written and laid out book that explains the theory behind what you are learning but doesn't get bogged (and boring!) down like so many other guitar tutorials. Starts off with straightforward examples and then builds on them as you work through the book. Wish there had been books like this around when I started playing!