Teaching Books
“I bought the book and it is really great! There are thousands of instructional books for guitars, but this is a special one. Outstanding, and even for me playing 45 years guitar it is super interesting!”
Master the Art of Expressive Acoustic Guitar
Do you want to become a more expressive guitarist?
Struggling to find the techniques and tools to make your playing truly musical?
Look no further…
Will McNicol, UK Acoustic Guitarist of the Year has been called “one of the best acoustic players on the planet right now” and has spent a lifetime perfecting the art of expressive fingerstyle guitar.
In Expressive Fingerstyle Guitar Techniques, he breaks down the art of musical expression into simple subject areas, and puts you on a path to mastery through 100 uncomplicated exercises, musical examples and beautiful etudes.
Expressive Guitar Playing – Step-By-Step
It may surprise you, but expressive performance on acoustic guitar is mainly dictated by your picking hand, and by getting deep into just four topics you can become a more musical player almost overnight.
In Expressive Fingerstyle Guitar Techniques, Will tackles the four essential elements that combine to create your own jaw-dropping performance. You’ll master:
Dynamics
Articulation
Tone
And Timing
You’ll also discover how to combine these elements to create what many consider to be the “holy grail” of performance on guitar: incredible phrasing.
Perfect Phrasing – One Finger at a Time
You’ll begin with a paradigm shifting concept: Treat every finger on your picking hand as an individual tone and volume control.From there, you’ll study the art of micro and macro dynamics. It’s like turning your hand into a finely tuned mixing desk.
You’ll quickly learn delicate volume control with every digit, so you can make any note of a melody or inside voice shine though in your playing.
From there, you’ll discover how to create varied and beautiful tones using any finger in any musical piece, to add texture, depth and emotion to your playing.
A Journey Through Space and Time
Expressive guitar playing doesn’t end with precise control of your volume and tone. The next stage is to master your control ofspeedandtiming. You’ll learn the art of subtly and intentionally speeding up and slowing down throughout phrases and discover how to push and pull against the beat.
The secret is that expressive music is rarely played “on the grid” of metronomic beat divisions, and the subtle push and pull of each note against the beat, along with acceleration and deceleration throughout a phrase is what separates the heroes from the zeros.
The Elements Combine
Once every skill has been mastered individually it’s time to learn how to combine the elements of expressive fingerstyle guitar, so you can make your own musical choices. Will teaches you to combine volume and articulation, accelerando and tone, or any other combination of elements. Once again Expressive Fingerstyle Guitar Techniques teaches you how to combine these skills in simple exercises and etudes, then sets you on the path to your own expressive guitar discovery.
Audio and Video
Along with the 100 audio files you can download for free, Expressive Fingerstyle Guitar Techniques also comes with detailed videos that teach every nuanced technique in the book. Sometimes the quickest way to learn a skill is to simply copy a master, so Will has taken the time to record these videos that get deep into the skills you need to become a truly expressive guitarist.
It’s fair to say that nothing like this has ever been written on expressive fingerstyle guitar techniques before, and this ambitious project distils the approach of one of the world’s greatest living acoustic guitarists into a tangible, fun, meaningful resource for every modern acoustic guitarist.
Check it out, it’ll make you a better guitarist.