Overall Comments

I bought this book a couple years ago. I’m a “seasoned” banjo picker of about 40 years now. I saw this book and TWO CD’s and songs I never would have thought about playing…so, I bought the book. The book clearly lays out tabs and accompanying CD’s so you can hear exactly what is written. I was also impressed with the “progression” of the same song through different styles and levels. I’m NOT sure it’s a great book for beginners, however. I think it’s great for intermediate players who can “glean” snippets to enhance their personal playing. I fear beginners might get caught up in playing Janet’s style and not develop their own as they progress. I have to give this book multiple ratings: Low for beginners, High for intermediate players, and High for experienced.

Overall Rating

7

Overall Comments

This is a fantastic book for a novice or intermediate who wants to learn about different playing styles. The book gives you multiple ways to play each song. In that sense its full of lot's of licks as well. In fact alternate licks are provided as well.

My only suggestion would be to repeat the songs on the CD for practicing over. Right now the tracks only demondtrate thr tabs.

Overall Rating

9

Overall Comments

My wife got me this book for Christmas. So far this book seems to be perfect for my level of playing (9 months) and also offers lots of growing room. I'm rating it 9 out of 10 even though I feel it's a ten because it is really only one of two books that I've used for banjo. There are 8 of the 26 songs that are must learns for me and a 7 others I'm very interested in and of the rest there are 3 or 4 that hold some interest for me. Currently I am learning Fireball Mail, Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Dueling Banjos. I really like they way the first versions are easy and the following versions get more and more challenging. This books will be dog eared by the time I'm though with it and then I'm sure it will continue to be a great reference. My one critisism is a couple of the songs are not very banjo-y, but Janet kept these few and far between and it seems like a ligitimate attempt to stretch out the banjo genre and so I'm not really complaining. If your not already playing the standards that are in this book, it is sure to be a great learning tool. If you are an advanced player, I would guess you would enjoy all the alternate licks and more challenging versions of the songs you already play. Thanks Janet.

Overall Rating

9