Play Guitar With... Hank Marvin

Who is this obscure group: "The Shadows"?The Shadows were a British pop group consisting of four members:- Hank Brian Marvin (lead guitar)- Bruce Welch (rhythm guitar)- Jet Harris (who gave the band its name), John Rostill (1942 - 1973), and Brian 'Liquorice' Locking (bass guitar)- Brian Bennet who replaced drummer Tony Meehan (drummer). They had a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s.According to British Hit Singles & Albums (19th edition), the Shadows are the third most successful UK charted hit-singles act, behind Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard. I wonder what happened to the Beatles...?The Shadows are still the leading group with 587 weeks inside the Top 40 (including hits with Cliff Richard).The Shadows (often paired with Cliff Richard) are still the leading group with 56 (62 when their 6 hits as The Drifters are included.) hits.The record for longest span of hits by a group, is for The Shadows from "Travellin' Light" (9th Oct 1959) to "Singin The Blues" (26th Sep 2009); a period of 49 years, 11 months and 17 days [2607 weeks]. This is all the more impressive if the date of their first hit together ("Move It", 12 Sep 1958) is used, although they were, at the time, known as The Drifters. This gives the aforementioned stretch of 51 years, 0 months and 14 days [2663 weeks] (as Cliff's backing group).Who would have known that? All I can think of is that their obscurity must have been limited to the USA. I wonder why?The Shadows' unique guitar sound was originally produced by a combination of American Fender guitars (Hank played the 1959 Fender Stratocaster), British amplifiers made by Vox (AC 15, later the AC 30), and echo units Meazzi Echomatic tape and Binson magnetic disc.If you like this unique sound, get a "Yamaha Magicstomp". Then buy Charlie Halls excellent echo program at [...]Hank used it in 2009, so you can't go wrongBook review:* The good:The book discusses the equipment used to create the sound.It addresses definitions for special guitar notations. So, beginners can do this.It has TAB and standard notation.It comes with a CD with eight songs and 'soundalike' instrumental tracks:f.b.ifoot tapperthe frightened citygenie with the brown lamogeronimathe rise and fall of flingel buntshindigapache* The bad:It's expensive: $24.78!The only songs that I enjoy are: f.b.i. and Apache.It's missing one of their most important mega hits: Kon-Tiki. It loses a star for this.I don't care for the 'soundalike' backing tracks on the CD, as it's too polished. I suggest that you buy two CDs: "Complete Singles A's and B's", and "50 Golden Greats", in order to enjoy this unique tape-echo modulated twangy guitar sound.My kids tell me: "Dad, this is music for old people!" Huh....? :-(* Verdict:My kids are right. I'm old. Given the many world records that the Shadows still enjoy, it's hard to argue with their "old" daddy. Therefore, I recommend it. ;-)

Hank Marvin may be best known for 'Apache', one of the most recorded guitar solos ever.This book has the background for Apache but not the tabs, that's my only complaint.The other songs are great though.

This is the one to get. The transcriptions are accurate and the tracks are faithful.

Great guitar book

nice

These "Play Guitar With..." series learning books are the best when it comes to learning how to play your favourite songs by your favourite artists. They are written in tab, so you don't need to worry if you can't read sheet music. This series makes it easy, with explanations from the author regarding string bending, hammer-ons, pull-offs etc.The accompanying CD contains excellent quality cover tracks, so you can hear how each song should sound with all instruments playing together, as well as backing tracks for each song, so you can play along with them. This really does give the learning experience the final touch, as you will hear all your hard work paying off as you jam along.I found these books very addictive, and they provide a great way to learn new playing techniques as you strive to recreate the sounds of your idols. Can't recommend these enough.

For my own personal use ( For the moment) As I am a beginer at lead guitar I am also re-learning to read music for the guitar ( I did Classical guitar for 2 years some 50 years ago but lost interest and the ability to read music) The combination of tabs plus musical notation makes learning to play more accurate namely the tabs tell you where you play the the note (which fret) and the music notation the timing of the note. A real pleasure learning this way. I have even ordered a Boss TE-2 Terar Echo Pedal to get a sound like Hank B Marvin

Book and CD met expectations, was familiar with a couple of the tunes, looking forward to practicing and getting up to speed with the others.

Excelent product, but I was disappointed that Apache is backing only and no music sheet for same. shame about this.

A handy CD to bring your playing skills up a notch or two. I have still to get to grips with the tablature info. Recommended.