100 of the Most Popular Songs for Fingerpicking Guitar - Hal Leonard Edition

EmmaEmma: Got the book today, the content is pretty good. There are quite some song I like and the arrangements are decent.

However, the build quality of the book is concerning. The cover ridge came detached from the book ridge already. Considering I’ll need to press the book down when using, I really don’t know how long it will hold.

United States on Sep 03, 2023

Joseph McMurray: Check out my in-depth YouTube video review ("Guitar Books Review #10: 100 Most Popular Songs for Fingerpicking Guitar by Hal Leonard" by Joe McMurray) in which I objectively go through the book and play through many examples. You can also hear the full review on "Guitar Books the Podcast" - Review #10. For context, I’m a professional player and teacher with a background in jazz, I’ve released two fingerstyle guitar albums, and I’ve written my own book on arranging for fingerstyle guitar.

Hal Leonard’s 100 Most Popular Songs for Fingerpicking Guitar is a repertoire book filled with solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements of popular songs from mostly the 1960s through present day. Genres covered include classic and modern rock, pop, folk, jazz, theme songs, Spanish classical, and more. There are songs from the Beatles, Ed Sheeran, Duke Ellington, Metallica, Aerosmith, Imagine Dragons, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, etc. Most of the tunes are suitable for intermediate fingerstyle players, although there are some easier tunes for late beginners as well as some tunes that are significantly more difficult. If you are looking to build out your repertoire for local gigs, this book...

United States on Aug 04, 2023

Amazon Customer: It was too expensive for my husband to justify buying. But I thought it would make a nice gift. He loves it! Its a great book, but one of the most expensive ones he owns. Glad I had the opportunity to get it for him.

Canada on Jun 30, 2023

jomor: Un buen libro, bien editado.

Spain on May 04, 2023

Jeff Bass: When I first started learning guitar I was barely able to play anything out of this book, but by slowly working my way through the songs that were just in my reach I have improved dramatically. The arrangements are generally very well done and fun to play, and there is a wide enough range of difficulties that you could probably go from absolute beginner to fairly proficient with this book alone.

United States on Mar 20, 2023

abhishek mishraabhishek mishra: This is a great book for trying out your hands on solo fingerstyle arrangements. It'll help you not only play these songs, but also get a good insight on how harmony works for whatever song you wish to try out. So many Indian people wish to learn how to play fingerstyle guitar techniques, and yet, nobody wants to go the right way. YouTube can only take you so far. Real knowledge lies in books like these. Go ahead, buy it! You will not regret.

India on Nov 14, 2022

Sandra H: I’m an intermediate guitar student more interested in playing guitar solos for my own enjoyment than accompaniment for vocals. This book is a goldmine of appealing selections and arrangements that are faithful to the originals ( not simplified, but not outrageously challenging ) and are really helping me grow in my technical development as a competent guitarist. My guitar teacher, a very talented professional guitarist, loves this book. I like that it includes tablature as well as chord identification and some fingering suggestions. My only idea for improvement would be that it would be easier to handle the book if it were spiral bound. I’ve already broken the binding from propping it open to play the pieces.

United States on Nov 05, 2022

Raven Lynn: Ich habe das Buch für meinen Freund gekauft, welcher seit einigen Jahren akustische Gitarre spielt. Da er seine eigenen Gitarrenbücher mittlerweile in und auswendig kennt, wollte ich ihm gerne ein neues Buch mit ein paar neuen Liedern schenken. Meine Wahl fiel relativ schnell auf dieses Exemplar. 100 Songs sind schon eine Menge und für das Geld ist das eine vernünftige Sammlung. Der Zusammensteller der Songs muss allerdings ein Beatles und Simon & Garfunkel Fan gewesen sein, denn von den Beatles sind 8 Songs und von Simon & Garfunkel 5 Songs vertreten. Zusammen mit anderen Interpreten, wie Elton John, Phil Collins, Bill Withers, Ed Sheeran, Jim Croce, Eagles, ... etc. die ebenfalls doppelt vorkommen, ist die Abwechslung dann leider nicht mehr so gegeben. Es heißt zwar, dass es die meist populärsten Songs sind, aber beim besten Willen, ich kannte nicht alle 5 Songs von Simon & Garfunkel. Ob hierbei nach verkauften Tonträgern gegangen wurde, wage ich zu bezweifeln, da von Queen nur "We are the champions" drin steht, obwohl diese ebenfalls etliche andere berühmte Songs haben.

Ein weiterer Minuspunkt des Buches ist das Inhaltsverzeichnis. Die Auflistung ist...

Germany on Jun 02, 2021

Butch Jeffrey: This book was a leap in the right direction on my guitar playing journey. Prior to buying this book, I had gotten a few of the more advanced barre chords under my fingers and would just strum my way through popular songs and hymns. I was was struggling to find ways to practice and improve with discipline and rigor. Moreover, just printing and playing random lyrics and chords off the internet would sometimes lead to getting confused about rhythms and timing.

At my level of experience there is very little here that I would call basic or humdrum. Most of the picking will follow the chord shape but there is plenty of variety between repeated verses and there are some very challenging and delicate passages.

I also disagree with several individuals who have mentioned not having proper cues about left hand finger placement. There are clues on the staff above the tab with small numbers next to the notes to give suggestions for left hand finger placement with notes that stray from the chord shape. A small 4 would indicate the fret to be pushed down with the pinkie finger.

Most of the songs span across four or even six pages and this can be cumbersome especially when...

United States on May 31, 2021

Westsand: J'ai commandé ce livre pour avoir de nouvelles chansons dans mon répertoire à la guitare. Il y a beaucoup beaucoup de bonnes chansons et ça, c'est vraiment sympa. Je ne suis pas déçu à ce niveau là, et le prix de cet ouvrage est vraiment raisonnable. Après, j'avais un peu peur de certains commentaires sur l'écriture simplifiée des morceaux qui sont dans le bouquin. Force est de constater qu'ils n'ont pas tout à fait tort. Mais je pense qu'il faut être précis et bien expliquer les choses. Ici, je dirais qu'on a affaire à une écriture plus traditionnelle du picking. Ce n'est absolument pas une mauvaise chose car le peu que j'en ai écouté en recopiant les tablatures dans guitarpro m'ont confirmé que ça sonne vraiment bien. On a là des morceaux simples à apprendre et à réaliser avec des basses et une mélodie qui sont simples, bien en place et régulières avec des croches qui se succèdent sans trop de variation, une vraie autoroute de la musique. On pourrait croire que c'est trop simple, mais pas tant que ça et ça fait partie de la culture picking puisque c'est du picking traditionnel. On est étonné que ça sonne, mais ça sonne. La musique originale est...

France on Sep 15, 2020