Nick Ford

If you’re looking for a guitar book that will help you improve your picking speed and accuracy, then look no further than “Building Right Hand Technique” by Bill Bay. This book is chock full of great right hand exercises. When I’m working out of this, my Steve Morse/Jon Finn/John Petrucci cross string picking playing feels a lot easier.

I found this book while poking around the guitar book section of a used book store. For $7.49, this book was a steal!

“Picking Studies” in the beginning of the book prepare your right hand for the basic technique of alternate picking as well as learning to string skip with both outside and inside picking. While the emphasis is on alternate picking, there are many examples of economy picking and even a few jazzy sweep picking arpeggios.

There’s a fantastic little section on tremelo with studies that are mandolin-like rather than typical Eddie Van Halen-type exercises. Nothing wrong with EVH tremelo licks, but it’s nice to have a little melody to play with the tremelo technique.

…I was also inspired and not bored by the beautiful examples and music within.

The book wastes no time in getting to Petrucci-like difficulty levels with the “Further Picking Studies” section, especially when played at a fast tempo. You’ll definitely get a picking workout!

Here are a few examples of what you’ll find in the book.

“Andante in Bm”

“Bill’s Etude”

There are a number of excellent etudes and little fiddle tunes, but the majority of the book is real world examples in the form of classical studies and pieces converted to pick style guitar by composers such as J.S. Bach, Fernando Sor, Maruo Guilliani, and many others. After working my way through the book, my pick hand technique improved of course, but I was also inspired and not bored by the beautiful examples and music within.

Who is this book for?

• Anyone looking to greatly improve their picking technique with targeted exercises, etudes, and fun real world examples.
• Players interested in playing classical music with a pick-style approach.

Who is this book not for?

• Strummers
• People who prefer deficiencies in their picking technique

Format

• Tablature and Standard Notation

Publisher

• Mel Bay

Ready to take your picking hand technique to the next level with a book that will inspire? Click the link to check this book out! Building Right Hand Technique

“Challenge the Masters” by Jon Tapella is a book of classical music examples written in a neo-classical style aimed at rock and metal guitar players. Everything is arranged so that it can be played with a pick, so think Jason Becker or Paul Gilbert playing through classical pieces rather than classical guitarists John Williams or Sharon Isbin.

This book first came on my radar when my friend Ryan showed it to me in college. Despite not going to music school like I did, his sweep picking technique was impressive, and frankly better than mine, so I decided to give this book a look.

The great thing about this book is that it provides real world examples of pieces that use techniques like sweep picking and tapping. All of the pieces are well arranged and thoroughly enjoyable to play. I ended up learning Paganini’s “Caprice No. 16” to perform for a post-Berklee senior recital for friends and family who could not attend my actual senior recital in Boston. It was a fun challenge to pull off! You can hear me play it in the link below more recently. I only play through the first section, but it will at least give you an idea of what this piece sounds like and what you can expect to learn from this book, and I threw some blues shredding at the end just for fun.

“Challenge the Masters” was also ahead of it’s time in arranging Pachabel’s Canon for rock guitar, predating Jerry C’s canon rock by over a decade. I remember in the years preceding “Canon Rock” that many players would jam on Canon in D with heavy guitars, but “Canon Rock” was the first one to pull it all together and make it a metal instrumental standard. I don’t know for sure, but it’s certainly possible that “Challenge the Masters” may have helped to inspire this rendition.

Who is this book for?

• Rock and Metal guitar players looking to improve their overall technique and to bolster techniques like sweep picking and tapping through actual pieces of music.
• Players looking for a challenge.
• Players interested in playing classical music with a pick-style approach.

Who is this book not for?

• Strummers
• Players not interested in playing classical music on any level.

I highly recommend this book as an awesome resource since it’s format encourages learning advanced techniques via time-honored amazing music.

Ready to get shredding? Got your classical wig and cape? Pick up a copy of “Challenge the Masters” here…

Challenge the Masters by John Tapella

Happy shredding!