Shady Grove Acoustic Guitar Solos Paperback – March 20, 2015

Mr. Bruce took a logical approach to the transcriptions: note-for-note solos and simple chord names for choruses. Moreover, underneath the chords he provides melody notes that can be picked out of the chord names. This approach makes for a clean page for the choruses, and attention to detail for the solos.The publisher should be credited for making Garcia's playing accessible to the amateur. Garcia's rhythmic sensibility and melodic apprehension are second to none, and the book not only provides wonderful pieces to play for your friends or yourself, but also makes an excellent study for a style too seldom heard these days.Though not a perfect work, most of the pieces, including the title piece, are superbly rendered. Those others should motivate the student to greater precision. For guitarists just starting out, I might recommend "Country Backup Guitar" by Sokolow, and "Travis Picking" by Hanson as useful introductions to prepare one for the more nimble requirements of Shady Grove, though the Hanson book is itself a classic.

I was hesitant to purchase this since I couldn’t see what the tabs were in certain songs. I was looking for a more in depth versions & I couldn’t determine what was included. I took a chance & ordered this. I am very happy with this. It has tabs up the neck as well as basic.It has guitar tabs as well as chords & lyrics. I wish I could print pages out so it would be easier to read while playing, but I understand why they restrict that.This was a great purchase.

If you don't own the CD, buy it. If you play guitar, buy this book and work with it while you listen to the CD. This is Americana at its best, as envisioned by the best, but it can be played by guitarists who are merely competent and enthusiastic. It's not a "simple" book, and it's not a beginner's book, but it IS eminently learnable by any avid guitarist with more than about a year's experience. Without the CD (or at least an alternate version of most of the songs (such as _The Pizza Tapes_, _Grateful Dawg_, or "trade-friendly" amateur recordings) as a road map, however, it's probably not easy to figure out just what the songs are SUPPOSED to sound like. As acoustic guitar fingerstyle songbooks go, however, this one is a real keeper.

I am an intermediate guitarist looking for something better than just free chords and incomplete tabs online. Mr. Bruce gives a nice summary introduction and insight to each song, then tabs out the intro, verses, chorus, and solos exactly to the Shady Grove album.My one suggestion would have been to add tempo in beats per minute because I use a metronome to build to the proper speed. That can be done easily enough by listening to the CD Shady Grove too.Anyway, I highly recommend this book if you would like to learn more about the 'Jerry' style or fingerstyle in general.

Accurate tab for Jerry’s solos, not every solo on every song, but enough to get you going and through some licks I got stuck on trying to learn these songs by ear.

Compared to other Mel Bay products I own, this printing is sub-par.The print edition of the Mel Bay Shady Grove songbook that was sent to me is nowhere close to the quality of my other Mel Bay books. This specimen is more like a cheap financial prospectus handed out at a shareholders meeting.When compared to my other Mel Bay books this version sucks. The binding is not saddle stitched, the cover is poorly printed, the paper inside is thin, the print quality is poor.I called MelBay and to my astonishment their customer service is awesome.

Well put together and easy to follow!

DECEPTIVESays Audio Disc on the picture of the product. There is no audio disc with this just a book with a transcription.