INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this book is to open people's minds about the guitar by introducing some very basic but not often utilized techniques. I got the idea for this book from all the people who asked me about my technique. As I have very limited time to give lessons, I always wished that I could at least recommend an instructional book that could be used for self-study. But among all the wonderful score available in Japan (far more than in America), I have yet to see a book that discusses these not-so-hard but wonderfully eye opening ways of playing the guitar. There are some books that discuss tapping a little, and a few that get into alternate tunings, but usually they just contain the score, and no real explanation or suggestions on how to incorporate these techniques into your playing. Those books almost never come with a CD or tape, so if you're as miserable at sight-reading as I am, trying to learn without a recording can take far longer than it should. In this book, all exercises are accompanied by a tape, so that if you don't like how an exercise sounds, you don't have to waste time learning to play it before you decide it's not something you care to learn.
Although all the exercises in this book have been done on an acoustic guitar, I also encourage all electric guitar players to explore these techniques with their instruments. Because the acoustic guitar and electric guitar are different, I have written in some extra comments for electric players.
The techniques described in this book will make your playing very FULL. Many guitar players are often backed by a bass, drums, etc., and making a "full-sound" isn't as much a concern as it is for the solo-guitarist. But quite a few guitarists still use these techniques with excellent results when jamming along with their bands: Stanley Jordan (tapping, one alternate tuning), Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones (alternate tunings), Bill Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins (doubling strings), just to name a few.
This book is written for anyone who is interested in these techniques, beginner to advanced. Some of the explanations may seem too easy, basic, or detailed because I don't want to lose anybody in an explanation that expects you to have years of playing under your belt. There's plenty of meaty stuff for the advanced player, but you may have to skim over the material that you already know.
Well, I hope this will explain some of the magic of these techniques, and I hope to see more people out there exploring different ways to play their instruments. Good Luck, and see you on the streets! NEXT
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