Paul Simon: Transcribed

Rating:
Summary: The Real Deal
Review: If you want authentic transcriptions, this is the book for you. I have every Paul Simon guitar book of note, and this is the only one with real recorded-version tabs; lamentably, it lacks some of Simon's wonderful flourishes, but it is by far the best Paul Simon guitar book available. Each song includes a page of Mark Hanson's performance instructions/notes that are genuinely helpful and informative. The music ranges from early intermediate ("Bookends") to intermediate advanced--the more difficult arrangements (like "Hearts and Bones") are much too demanding for a real beginner. But if you have decent fingerpicking abilities and want a book to grow with, this would be a great choice. A true 5-star selection. If it had included "The Boxer" and "April Come She Will," I would be a happy man.

Rating:
Summary: Simply A Great Book!
Review: The author Mark Hanson gets much well-deserved praise for his books, cds, dvds, and teaching style from folks on the guitar web forums I visit. This word of mouth led me to try his Beyond Basics Fingerstyle Guitar book/cd combination. Which led me to buy his The Art of Contemporary Travis Picking book/cd combo and his Fingerstyle Solo Guitar dvd. I found all of these to be excellent learning tools. In his Paul Simon Transcribed, it's much of the same again: great instruction! This isn't a beginner's book. You have to know something going in. He prefaces each song with a page telling you about the tune itself and the technique for how it should be played. Both the standard music notation and the tablature for each song are presented clearly and in detail. And fortunately for me, as I am unable to read music, the tablature shows the timing/beat/rhythm of the song: without that I'd be lost. One final gushing comment: this is an excellent book which could only have been better if it had included an audio cd to hear how the songs should be properly played. Enough said!

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a good Paul Simon tab book--You'll learn *so* much!
Review: There are so many guitar books for Simon and Garfunkel, and until I saw this book, I was convinced that they were all useless.

This book has really accurate transcriptions, obviously done by someone who has a personal interest in Paul Simon's guitar playing; it shows in the song selection.

If you don't know how to play Kathy's Song, Overs, Peace Like a River, 59th St Bridge Song, Scarborough Fair, American Tune (and some others), this is a great, great book. You will learn so much from this book. The two part vocal harmonies are transcribed too, for the relevant songs.

I just wish the book could've been longer (keep an eye out for Brad Priddy's web page), but there was enough material in this book to keep me going for at least 9 months.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, Buy this now
Review: This is a great book, it includes the music in both notation and tab. The transcriptions are perfect, they are exactly what is on the recording. The best part about the book is that for each song, there is a page or two describing how to finger each chord (some of the songs are really hard to play if you use "normal" fingering, if you use the alternate fingering he suggests, you can do the chord switches MUCH easier!)

Using this book, I had Bookends and Scarborough Fair down in two days!

The only thing preventing me from giving this book a 5 : It had some songs I didn't know, and was missing two songs I really wanted : The Boxer, and Sounds of Silence.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, Buy this now
Review: This is a great book, it includes the music in both notation and tab. The transcriptions are perfect, they are exactly what is on the recording. The best part about the book is that for each song, there is a page or two describing how to finger each chord (some of the songs are really hard to play if you use "normal" fingering, if you use the alternate fingering he suggests, you can do the chord switches MUCH easier!)

Using this book, I had Bookends and Scarborough Fair down in two days!

The only thing preventing me from giving this book a 5 : It had some songs I didn't know, and was missing two songs I really wanted : The Boxer, and Sounds of Silence.