Music of Bob Dylan: Arranged for Fingerstyle Guitar

Rating:
Summary: Super Folk Fingerstyle Arrangments
Review: This book has excellent arrangments for some of the most influential Dylan songs! It is a must for intermediate players. For once, you may actually need the cd (or tape) it can get challenging!

Rating:
Summary: The Right Way to Learn Dylan.
Review: This is a great little package with a couple of minor faults that don't detract from the overall quality.

The two CD and booklet set come in a DVD type case, which looks nice upon the shelf. On cracking the whole thing open, I discovered that the book was small (the size of a DVD booklet, with 56 pages), and I thought that this might be a problem for me, as the type is fairly small. After getting into the lessons, this wasn't an issue, but for those with poor eyesight, you might need a magnifing glass.

The audio lessons can't be beat, Fred Sokolow is really great, he reminds me a lot of the the tapes that my old guitar teacher used to give me to take home and practice. Why is it that these guitar teachers all have this even keeled baritone voice. Fred isn't most evocative singer, but he does sing through each song to give you the pacing of the music, and you can add your own vocal inflections as you see fit.

He also gives good insight into the methods that are used in the arrangements, which seem to be very close mimics of the originals. The selection is good, and contains a series of songs that are very easily recognizable to both Dylan fans and anyone that lived during the early 60s, which should make them perfect songs to play at the local coffee shop or just for the family and friends.

The Mel Bay website lists this as a Beginner-Intermediate book, and that is about right. If you aren't familiar with Dylan's fingerpicking style, but have general aptitude at fingerstyle or can Travis pick, then this should catch somewhere between your spinal cord and right hand in a few minutes of practice. Luckily, Fred spells out the general method used in the songs before even getting started, and even though it isn't in the book, it really makes the songs that much easier to learn.

The bottom line on this review is: For the price, you absolutely cannot beat this set. If you play guitar and don't know these songs and want to do more than strum the chords, buy this set now.

Rating:
Summary: The Right Way to Learn Dylan.
Review: This is a great little package with a couple of minor faults that don't detract from the overall quality.

The two CD and booklet set come in a DVD type case, which looks nice upon the shelf. On cracking the whole thing open, I discovered that the book was small (the size of a DVD booklet, with 56 pages), and I thought that this might be a problem for me, as the type is fairly small. After getting into the lessons, this wasn't an issue, but for those with poor eyesight, you might need a magnifing glass.

The audio lessons can't be beat, Fred Sokolow is really great, he reminds me a lot of the the tapes that my old guitar teacher used to give me to take home and practice. Why is it that these guitar teachers all have this even keeled baritone voice. Fred isn't most evocative singer, but he does sing through each song to give you the pacing of the music, and you can add your own vocal inflections as you see fit.

He also gives good insight into the methods that are used in the arrangements, which seem to be very close mimics of the originals. The selection is good, and contains a series of songs that are very easily recognizable to both Dylan fans and anyone that lived during the early 60s, which should make them perfect songs to play at the local coffee shop or just for the family and friends.

The Mel Bay website lists this as a Beginner-Intermediate book, and that is about right. If you aren't familiar with Dylan's fingerpicking style, but have general aptitude at fingerstyle or can Travis pick, then this should catch somewhere between your spinal cord and right hand in a few minutes of practice. Luckily, Fred spells out the general method used in the songs before even getting started, and even though it isn't in the book, it really makes the songs that much easier to learn.

The bottom line on this review is: For the price, you absolutely cannot beat this set. If you play guitar and don't know these songs and want to do more than strum the chords, buy this set now.