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The Inner Game of Fingerstyle Guitar: How to Blend Your Intuition, Intellect, and Emotions to Achieve Guitar Mastery
Want to learn proven strategies that will help you sharpen your fingerstyle-guitar skills, practice more effectively, and silence the inner critic that can sabotage your performances? Playing the guitar requires a blend of intuition, intellect, and emotion, and the path to excellence can be a confusing one. In The Inner Game of Fingerstyle Guitar, master guitarist and worldwide performer Adam Rafferty delivers the information you need Get rid of stage fright and perform well in any situation Develop your own “voice” and touch on the instrument Find new performance opportunities Get out of a “guitar rut” Develop an effective practice routine Visualize and achieve your musical goals The strategies, real-life stories, and advice in this friendly, encouraging book will help you achieve true excellence in your guitar playing, as well as in life. Adam Rafferty plays onstage for thousands of people annually, performing at guitar festivals and concerts in over two-dozen countries. His YouTube guitar videos have gathered over twenty-million views. Jazziz Magazine hailed his solo-guitar CD “I Remember Michael” as one of its top-ten picks for 2011. Adam’s twenty-year apprenticeship with jazz pianist, composer, and arranger Mike Longo (of Dizzy Gillespie fame) brought him priceless musical knowledge, which Adam passes onto the reader in this, his first published book.
- GenresMusic
224 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 4, 2020
216 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 3, 2022
The book has inspired me to create a game plan.
I love how the Inner Game of Fingerstyle Guitar gathers up many of the crucial ingredients of learning, creating, and performing on acoustic guitar into one book, with clarity and focus.
Adam shares many great insights he’s learned from decades of experience, from many mentors, and delivers nuggets of wisdom with easy to understand methods and step by step processes. Ultimately, I felt inspired throughout reading his book, and am invigorated to go practice the advice he’s shared in these pages.
I love how the Inner Game of Fingerstyle Guitar gathers up many of the crucial ingredients of learning, creating, and performing on acoustic guitar into one book, with clarity and focus.
Adam shares many great insights he’s learned from decades of experience, from many mentors, and delivers nuggets of wisdom with easy to understand methods and step by step processes. Ultimately, I felt inspired throughout reading his book, and am invigorated to go practice the advice he’s shared in these pages.
March 8, 2021
The title of this could be "The Inner Game of Guitar" Or even something like "How to Decide What Sort of Guitar Player You Want to Be and Whether or Not You Want to Try and Make Living Doing It". This is more of a self-help book that just happens to be based around the area of playing the guitar, and that is not a bad thing. There aren't any real fingerstyle guitar elements addressed (and really, there aren't any specific guitar playing techniques addressed) but, because Adam Rafferty is known as a fingerstyle guitarist, he titled the book this. I believe I got this because I am on Adam's mailing list and he offered it for free several months back.
This is not a bad book and it's a pretty quick read. I read it in a day or two. Adam addresses lots of good topics that has to do with the physical act of playing music, both the left-brain, analytical stuff as well as the right-brained creative side, as well other things that go on in your mind away from your guitar (or whatever instrument you play).
He talks about the craft of playing the guitar, ways to practice, the various stages we have to go through in order to memorize a piece of music and most importantly, why it's so easy for us to make mistakes when we think we have something memorized but, as soon as someone is watching us or, listening to us, we screw up. His personal story about this is pretty entertaining. This is something that I have subjected myself to time and again because I like to to put myself on the spot I guess but, I am not really sure. Recently I have learned to not try and play something on a gig until I have spent several months playing a tune on a daily basis and have it down cold. There is a term for this which I was not aware of and it's called "unconscious competence"; it totally makes sense! It is what all performing musicians strive for:the ability to play a tune, no matter what the circumstances.
Other topics addressed are goals: making, and sticking to them (this is something I desperately need help with); using a vision board (!); getting gigs, etc. If you are new to the guitar, or even somewhat of a veteran like me, who was already aware of a lot of the topic addressed in this book, you can still learn something new. It may also help motivate you to get back into a regular practice routine and, or help break you out of a rut that you may currently find yourself in, kind of like myself.
This is not a bad book and it's a pretty quick read. I read it in a day or two. Adam addresses lots of good topics that has to do with the physical act of playing music, both the left-brain, analytical stuff as well as the right-brained creative side, as well other things that go on in your mind away from your guitar (or whatever instrument you play).
He talks about the craft of playing the guitar, ways to practice, the various stages we have to go through in order to memorize a piece of music and most importantly, why it's so easy for us to make mistakes when we think we have something memorized but, as soon as someone is watching us or, listening to us, we screw up. His personal story about this is pretty entertaining. This is something that I have subjected myself to time and again because I like to to put myself on the spot I guess but, I am not really sure. Recently I have learned to not try and play something on a gig until I have spent several months playing a tune on a daily basis and have it down cold. There is a term for this which I was not aware of and it's called "unconscious competence"; it totally makes sense! It is what all performing musicians strive for:the ability to play a tune, no matter what the circumstances.
Other topics addressed are goals: making, and sticking to them (this is something I desperately need help with); using a vision board (!); getting gigs, etc. If you are new to the guitar, or even somewhat of a veteran like me, who was already aware of a lot of the topic addressed in this book, you can still learn something new. It may also help motivate you to get back into a regular practice routine and, or help break you out of a rut that you may currently find yourself in, kind of like myself.
September 13, 2020
The author is an outstanding guitarist and wonderful educator, so I didn’t hesitate to get this book. However, truth be told, I didn’t expect to like it – I was afraid it would be like the “motivational speaker” snake oil salesman that I greatly dislike. I was very pleasantly surprised to find this book filled with excellent advice for any musician, not just fingerstyle guitarists (of which I’m one). Adam provides great advice and lessons learned from his journey to becoming a touring performer. He provides helpful examples that he learned from master musicians or, sometimes, from humbling experiences. I just finished it and plan to re-read it very soon, something I very rarely do. I highly recommend this book.
December 10, 2020
Very helpful and insightful
This is a very helpful and insightful read although, as others have noted, the title doesn’t quite describe the content. Not that it matters to the value of the book. The author, a touring pro, passes on many meaningful bits of advice and inspiration that are helpful to any musician. I felt that he thoroughly enjoys guiding other players through the trials and tribulations often encountered by performing musicians. I also sensed that he sees himself as part of the legacy of his mentor and teacher Mike Longo who started the author down the path he now follows. I found this book to be a valuable and helpful source - like getting a lesson from someone who has “been there and done that”.
This is a very helpful and insightful read although, as others have noted, the title doesn’t quite describe the content. Not that it matters to the value of the book. The author, a touring pro, passes on many meaningful bits of advice and inspiration that are helpful to any musician. I felt that he thoroughly enjoys guiding other players through the trials and tribulations often encountered by performing musicians. I also sensed that he sees himself as part of the legacy of his mentor and teacher Mike Longo who started the author down the path he now follows. I found this book to be a valuable and helpful source - like getting a lesson from someone who has “been there and done that”.
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December 30, 2020Not what I Expected
Based on the title of the book I expected insight into actual fingerstyle guitar. I expected the author's perspective on picking patterns, song integration of patterns, perhaps arpegginating , etc...
I appreciate the passion and obvious value the author holds for the beliefs he shared, however those same passions and values could be applied to any endeavour.
The words "guitar" and "fingerstyle" could have been left out of the title and nothingness of substance would have changed for me when reading this book.
Based on the title of the book I expected insight into actual fingerstyle guitar. I expected the author's perspective on picking patterns, song integration of patterns, perhaps arpegginating , etc...
I appreciate the passion and obvious value the author holds for the beliefs he shared, however those same passions and values could be applied to any endeavour.
The words "guitar" and "fingerstyle" could have been left out of the title and nothingness of substance would have changed for me when reading this book.
October 15, 2022
Disclosure: I made it about 80 pages in and gave up. The insights in this book are pretty shallow, including such gems as how to create a vision board. The breaking point for me was when I realized that, 80 pages in, the author hadn’t really mentioned finger style guitar… at all. When he used the sentence “if you play fingerstyle guitar….” Dude. “if”?!!? This is literally a book *about* fingerstyle guitar. Closed it and never went back.
March 2, 2021
Adam talks about being a 'giver' rather than a 'taker' as a performer and in life and he has done just that for musicians in this book. He has repaid the musical gifts he has received by paying forward a ton of great musical and life wisdom selflessly and I immensely appreciate this book and Adam as an artist for it. Great read! I will read it many more times I know for certain.
December 16, 2023
I am so glad I found this book. Really helpful to make you aware of all the different "things" that can affect your learning guitar. Pitfalls of playing and how to practice so you can confidently play well. It's alot to take in, but we'll worth the time to read.
August 15, 2020
Awesome book.
Really loved this. The wisdom of my big bro distilled and shared. A terrific read and way to help musicians get to that next level.
Really loved this. The wisdom of my big bro distilled and shared. A terrific read and way to help musicians get to that next level.
May 19, 2024
Mykje gode tips, ein del er i overkant filosofisk for mitt vedkommande
November 24, 2024
Meaningful and concise advice for aspiring and established guitarists. Rafferty's writing is clear and conversational. Rafferty provides general advice about understanding melody and harmony, practice and performance tips, and occasionally "woo" tips about understanding how musicianship develops and evolves longitudinally. Importantly, he stresses the importance of structured practice, repetition, learning from mistakes (and gig-sized mishaps), criticism, and goal-setting. He also outlines the importance of practicing without expecting immediate gain: dedication to an instrument requires difficult, boring, and long-term work.
If you're stuck in a rut, Rafferty can likely help you break free, but don't expect revolutionary secrets: "The Inner Game" is distilled common sense.
If you're stuck in a rut, Rafferty can likely help you break free, but don't expect revolutionary secrets: "The Inner Game" is distilled common sense.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews