This book & video set is an introduction to jazz guitarist Jimmy Bruno’s picking technique.
I’ve found that the best way to study this material is with the video. The video shows the finer details of Jimmy’s pick movements which might not correspond exactly with the simplified explanation in the book.
Jimmy changes some of his picking motion depending on the tempo of the picking especially when it comes to upstrokes that appear to be sweep but actually are individually picked at medium tempos and sweep picked at faster tempos.
It is (not essential) but good to have his six fingerings book (previously reviewed here) together with this to make sense of Jimmy’s system better.
The book consists of 70 exercises that are designed to help you learn good picking habits. Everything in the book is clearly notated in both standard notation and tablature, along with picking directions and slurs.
Jimmy explains how he solves different picking problems depending on what sequence of notes you need to play and whether they occur on the same string, adjacent strings or whether string skipping is involved.
All in all, this is a great book and along with the video, this is an invaluable resource for developing picking chops in the context of jazz guitar.
Pros: Great exercises, well organized.
Cons: None.
TLDR: If you like how Jimmy Bruno sounds like & want to get an insight into his chops, get this book.
Get the e-book here: https://www.melbay.com/Products/20402M/the-art-of-picking.aspx
You can also find the book on Amazon or eBay, though for the digital version, I recommend buying it directly on the Mel Bay website since there are often discounts there.
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