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jimmy bruno

Book Review: The Art of Picking by Jimmy Bruno

March 20, 2023 by azsamadlessons Leave a Comment

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.

[Review Archive]
I wrote a lot of other book, course and video reviews too.
Check out the rest here:
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[Submissions for Review Consideration]

  • Are you an author who wrote a jazz, guitar or music book?
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Please send me a message at azsamad3 at gmail.com with:

For courses: a link to the course/video/product + access info etc.
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Depending on whether I dig the book/course, I’ll let you know if I do plan to review it!

I cannot guarantee a review for every submission & if I’m not too into it, I may opt not to review it. I mean, it’s better to get a good review that for me to write a bad review just because it’s not a match for the kind of stuff I dig right? :p

NOTE: All reviews reflect my honest personal opinion so be aware that I will point out both cool Pros and Cons that I see in the work. You dig? 

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Guitar Technique, Jazz, Jazz Guitar, Practice Secrets Tagged With: alternate picking, arpeggios, bebop, guitar lessons, how to practice guitar, jazz guitar, jazz guitar techniques, jimmy bruno, picking technique, sweep picking, vocabulary

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