Guitars Have Feelings Too - A Method for Rural Guitarists

In this method book, guitarist and educator Cameron Knowler develops and shares a new perspective on the topic of flatpicking guitar. Analyzing the stylings of historically progressive backup guitar players (Jim Baxter, Norman Blake, Maybelle Carter, and Riley Puckett), you’ll be led through the bedrock tenets of American rhythm guitar. This conversation touches on technique, theory, and how to better listen to the information provided by the fiddle. Applying these interrelated points to the subject of melodic guitar, the last quarter of the book introduces a largely unknown guitarist (Kelly Lundy, son of fiddler Emmett Lundy) who conveniently exists as a crossover between old-time and bluegrass music, while setting in motion various points made throughout the narrative. It is with this information that you’re encouraged to reevaluate flatpicking guitar as a continuation of the dance traditions which later developed into bluegrass – as opposed to a genre of purely virtuosic instrumental music.

The format of this method book includes longer examples in the back, neatly labeled in an appendix, with shorter examples woven into the manuscript to provide a focused learning experience. The book is 230 pages, with black and white illustrations done by the author, plus video for each musical example.

"Heavy-duty."—Norman Blake

Check out Cameron Knowler's lessons for Acoustic Guitar magazine here.