The Acoustic Guitar Bible

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View books by Eric Roche.

Excellent Reference/Tutorial - Rated
I am loving this book; it has reinvigorated my practice of guitar.

As previous reviews have suggested, this is not quite a tutorial but nevertheless it does have a tutorial style to it; eg, the practical exercises, of which there are many, can be worked through in a progressive manner. The book also includes a selection of party-pieces and studies to work on. I particularly like the not-treating-the-reader-like-an-idiot/child approach. The chapter on music theory and its application to guitar is fascinating and very well produced; the author makes it all sound so obvious and straighforward, makes you keep reading.

Note that the book is almost exclusively for fingerstyle players; you won't find much reference to flatpicking, bottlenecks or similar. It's a fairly pure acoustic reference publication.

This is without doubt the best guitar book I have bought ever. It absolutely oozes practical advice that is so clearly the product of the hard-earned personal experience of the author. I have made more progress in the last week than I have for years; I cant remember when my fingers felt as sore! At the price of 3 monthly magazines; bargain.

The 2 x audio CDs are also of a good quality and provide useful reproductions of the all the parts (which are written in TAB and notation, with fingering in the book).

Not a book for an absolute beginner - Rated
The bible is not a book for beginners unless they are very talented as Eric assumes you are capable of some difficult stretches and chord work from very early.
However if you have some knowledge of the guitar and wish to move on to a new level this is the bible for you. Having said that everything is explained clearly and demonstrated along with a load of associated information.
All of the pieces are for finger style guitar and will be demanding on your abilities, fingers and technique. A book that will take time to master...

Accomplished but challenging (Advanced) - Rated
The 'Bible', as its known, is a fantastic book for learning guitar. As the author insists, we are all students and constantly learning. This is true but this book certainly is not for a beginner. It says on the book itself that it is designed for advanced players.

I've played for three years and it is very useful in that it is challenging and very well written. The author, Eric Roche, is head of guitar at the UK School of Music so he has some credentials in his knowledge of the guitar and the ability to teach.

Roche is trained to such a high standard that he uses his finger nails to pick and strum, and plays a huge variety of style which he shares with the reader. The thing I have thus far found most helpful is his approach to music theory as it applies to the guitar specifically. Many times I have tried to undrstand the thoery but could not apply it to the guitar directly, but all of my questions were answered in the book.

This book will take a few years to 'complete', if thats the right word but as a test it is one that must be attempted if you are to accomplish the standard you want on the acoustic guitar.

Mind blowing! - Rated
I have been playing guitar for just under a year, am a quick learner and thaught this book covered more than the crash course books that I have gone through in the past and in much more detail.

I have found that the exercises are fantastic all be it a little chalanging, though in my mind you progress better when you push the boundries of your ability a little and this book certainly does that!

If you can acomplish all of the exercises in this book, then you can consider yourself, amazing! I will be a very happy man if I can play everything in here!

Awe Inspiring - Rated
I will start by saying that I agree with everything already written in the preceding reviews. Perhaps doubly agreeing with alanstrgss, in that the 'Bible' may be more of an information source than a tutoring tool.

At 45, having just bought my first guitar 7 weeks ago I am a complete newbie and not particularly knowledgable of other guitarists. So this review may be of interest to other newbies.

The performance pieces at the end of CD2 left me in no doubt that Eric Roche must be one of the most skilled guitarists in the world. His jaw dropping prowess on the CD examples had me intimidated and disheartened at first. Some of the chord shapes in some of the excercises seem almost unachievable at speed (then again I still struggle with the Fm barre chord) and the speed with which he finger-picks must be a blurr to watch - if only a DVD were included.

Having said that, the excercises sound so colourful and interesting that I have stuck with this book in preference to the other two that I bought at the same time (Guitar Method - Hal Leonard and Play Acoustic - Dave Hunter). None of your strum-along-to-a-song stuff here. In fact hardly anything that I recognise and not what I was originally looking for at all. But I found it very fresh, enticing, alluring.

The first time the subject of strumming is broached is on p38 track 16. In neuvo flamenco style a chord is strummed 33 times in just 4 seconds! To a newbie like me it sounds near impossible to mimic but Mr Roche gives an excellent explanation of how it's done. Maybe one's wrist doesn't need to fully rotate at 10 revs/s.

Just 7 weeks after buying a guitar and working with this book my guitar-playing friends are genuinely astonished at how well I can play. I am, of course, an exceptional individual with near super-human powers (barre chords are kryptonite) but it probably helps that the 'Bible's' first few excercises plunge you straight into finger-picking melodies that may be easier to play than they sound.

There is need for an addendum - there are some typos on some of the tabs and a couple of the excercises I've attempted have incomplete tabs i.e. the last few bars of the piece played on the CD are missing from the written tab.

To summarise then: Not what I was looking for as a newbie and not what I wanted. Complex, intimidating, unachievable...

Inspiring - I feel that if I can absorb just a fraction of Eric Roche's magic it will be like fairy-dust to my guitar playing.