--- product_id: 3830377 title: "The Art of Solo Fingerpicking: How to Play Alternating-Bass Fingerstyle Guitar Solos" brand: "mark hanson" price: "VT12600" currency: VUV in_stock: true reviews_count: 10 url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/3830377-the-art-of-solo-fingerpicking-how-to-play-alternating-bass store_origin: VU region: Vanuatu --- # The Art of Solo Fingerpicking: How to Play Alternating-Bass Fingerstyle Guitar Solos **Brand:** mark hanson **Price:** VT12600 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Art of Solo Fingerpicking: How to Play Alternating-Bass Fingerstyle Guitar Solos by mark hanson - **How much does it cost?** VT12600 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vu](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/3830377-the-art-of-solo-fingerpicking-how-to-play-alternating-bass) ## Best For - mark hanson enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted mark hanson brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Full description not available ## Images ![The Art of Solo Fingerpicking: How to Play Alternating-Bass Fingerstyle Guitar Solos - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lNqu9giAL.jpg) ![The Art of Solo Fingerpicking: How to Play Alternating-Bass Fingerstyle Guitar Solos - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fKZalzFOL.jpg) ![The Art of Solo Fingerpicking: How to Play Alternating-Bass Fingerstyle Guitar Solos - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41J4or07EML.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT QUALITY, PROMPT DELIVERY. THANK YOU SO MUCH. *by F***Z on Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2023* EXCELLENT QUALITY, PROMPT DELIVERY.THANK YOU SO MUCH. ### ⭐⭐⭐ 3.0 out of 5 stars Not entirely worthless, but I recommend that you learn from transcriptions instead. *by T***A on Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2014* I don't know of any better book covering this approximate subject, but, unfortunately, that's not the praise you might suppose. It IS why I docked this thing only two stars despite my fairly deep reservations. If this book interests you and you decide to buy it, I recommend you resolve to settle for what you can get from it and take with several large pillars of salt the author's repeated assertions that slavishly adhering to its program will, in and of itself, make you an advanced guitarist. In other words, feel free to skip around.In general, I find the project ill-defined, and it doesn't help that you will want to add very few, if any, of the pieces found within the book to your repertoire. If instead of the author's fairly vapid imitations of who-knows-what, we had accurate transcriptions of music performed by important historical exemplars of the style, we'd be on much firmer ground. (To be fair, the book includes three pieces not written or arranged by the author, including one which is actually a guitar accompaniment for a rather curious song--yes, you have to sing--arranged by a former Pentangle guitarist.)The pieces and exercises are given in a form of standard notation and in tablature, and chord diagrams and a CD are provided. The book claims you can get by with either notation, but in fact you will need (at various points, at least) to consult both the standard notation and tablature--as well the chord diagrams and the CD. This is because the author has unaccountably left off vital information from the "standard" notation. He never indicates, for example, on what string to play a note (properly edited standard guitar notation accomplishes this by placing circled numerals next to notes--where appropriate), nor do we ever find any tempo indications (to say nothing of expression marks). Tablature, of course, is always incomplete. You can get only the merest vestige of rhythm from it. If the author had left off the tablature altogether and instead given us actually complete standard notation, he could have saved a lot of space, and saved his readers a lot of head-jerking and page-turning.We are continually told here to finger notes with our left-hand thumb. Not only is this practice virtually universally proscribed in most styles, it's also pretty much physically impossible on a nylon-string guitar and very difficult for most hands even on a thin-necked electric. Fortunately, you can usually find another way, but it's nevertheless annoying to be given bad advice.About half of the pieces, and even some of the exercises, require scordatura--alternate tuning, that is--and not merely drop-D. I realize alternate-tuning fans abound, but I'm not one. I rarely consider it worth the bother, and a refusal to work within the confines of standard tuning indicates to me (usually, not always) a failure of imagination. (Actually, I'm not so tough on drop-D, but I'm not exactly in love with that either.) Otherwise, it's often overlooked that a string always tends toward a stability of tension. If you drop the pitch from which it's accustomed, it will immediately begin to drift upward, and when you finally tune it up again, it will drift back downward. It actually takes several days for a string really to stabilize. In any case, be aware that in this book you will be continually asked to re-tune (and starting from the second piece!). ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging and satisfying *by D***A on Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2008* This is a great method book for learning to play solo fingerstyle arrangements. I bought this at the same time that I bought Mark Hanson's "Contemporary Travis Picking" but it took me a long time to cross the gap between the two books. "Contemporary Travis Picking" may be the best book for the very basics of fingerstyle guitar. Even at the end of that book, there are songs which are much more challenging than the rest of that book, and those songs ("The Water is Wide", "Hesitation Blues") are a good lead-in to this book.In this book, Hanson breaks the reader out of the patterns that are taught in the earlier book. But to me it really necessary to take extra time and learn as much material as I could to master the patterns. Even the stuff at the very beginning of this book was too hard for me for a while. So I put this book down and came back to it several months later.When I did get back to this book I found that it continued the excellence of the Travis picking book. There are plenty of exercises to develop the techniques. The songs are really really well arranged and very satisfying to play.The thing in this book that is pretty telling to me is that Hanson congratulates you at quite a few points. Eg at the end of one excercise he says "Congratulations, you are well on your way to becoming a top Travis picker" or something like that. And he's not kidding, this book gets you far beyond routine things. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.vu/products/3830377-the-art-of-solo-fingerpicking-how-to-play-alternating-bass](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/3830377-the-art-of-solo-fingerpicking-how-to-play-alternating-bass) --- *Product available on Desertcart Vanuatu* *Store origin: VU* *Last updated: 2026-05-09*