Giants of Metal - Jamie Humphries
Choosing a guitar book is pretty easy - Choosing a good guitar book is a whole different story.
As I have previously mentioned I have spent a small fortune impulse buying guitar books that I had hoped would help me improve as a guitar player. Almost all guitar books promised this but rarely did I find any that actually helped me. in this section of the site i will give you my favorite and worst guitar books with honest reviews. Hopefully this will prevent you from spending a fortune on what I would consider worthless purchases. Please bear in mind though, these are just my opinions and won’t necessarily mean that the guitar tuition books I did not get on with, will not work well for you.
Giants of Metal by Jamie Humhpries was one of these impulse buys. Fortunately it turned out to be a good buy! This guitar book is still one I go back to today not as such to learn but for the fun aspect of it as you will read.
The idea behind this guitar book is to illustrate how some of the biggest names in metal achieve their sound. I personally would not class myself as a great fan of metal music. Having said this is is hard to define where hard rock ends and Metal begins. I personally love Guns N Roses. I would not count them as a metal band but they feature in this guitar book! i guess what I am trying to say here is do not be put off the book by it’s title - Its filled with rocking guitar and rocking guitar solos - What more could a guitarist require!?
The important reason why I like this book is that it is accompanied by a CD which includes backing tracks - whilst playing the guitar alone can be fun, playing with backing track is even better (of course playing with a real band is even better!).
So what is in the book?
Well firstly there is a section on each of the featured bands explain in brief the story of the band there is then a section that looks purely at how the guitarist achieves his or their sound that makes this band special. It talks of the equimpent used to achieve this and even tips on how to make your current equipment sound similar. It really makes a good read.
Next, my favorite bit - the music track - Here a section of both a rhythm section and solo written in guitar tab and performed on the CD in the stlye of the given band. I guess for copyright reasons the music it is not exactly the music the band plays but a music fanatic like myself could easily identify which band it was meant to represent just by listening to the accompanying CD.
The solos are quite easy to learn and very enjoyable to play. Even a guitarist just starting out could quite quickly master the basics and play along with the backing tracks.
Here is the list of the bands that are featured in the book.
I certainly have my favorite tracks to jam along to here. Be prepared to have to alter your tuning occasionally to accommodate the different band’s styles. Bear in mnd also you are not limited to just playing the solo over the backing track. The backing tracks are quite long so easily gives you the ability to try and play your own music in the stlye of the given band or even, in your own style!
I really enjoyed the sensible way Jamie Humphries laid out this book. Some books remain cluttered and make a poor read. This is an enjoyable read and very easy to use. I managed to email Mr Humphries to express how pleased I was with the book (and indeed his other books that I will review shortly). Being the nice chap he seems to be it didn’t take him long to reply - How good is that!
You may have heard of Jamie Humphries before, he has done a series on the Musicians Channel on Sky television - certainly worth a look.
So the bottom line - if you are a guitarist that wants to learn some solos and play along to backing tracks this guitar book is great. If you want to learn about any of the bands featured in this booke and attempt to achieve their sounds this book is also good. My overall experience is this is worth the money and is one I will always go back to when I fancy a jam.
