Chris Letchford’s Guitar Technique Book

Chris Letchford (Scale the Summit) was born in Houston, Texas in 1984 and began playing guitar at the age of 8 -- since then he’s attended MIT, Berklee School of Music and the Houston Community College and managed to tour in support of Dream Theater -- does he really need any futher evidence of his musical credentials or abilities? If so then the fact he’s also busy teaching private students whilst endorsing Sherman Guitars, Music Man Guitars, Ernie Ball Products and Hipshot Bridges on top of writing this Technique book should provide ample evidence of his talent.

Chris Letchford’s Guitar Technique Book is his first instructional release (be sure to check out the Tab books for both STS albums however!) and reading the contents of this remarkably concise volume does to some extent appear to be a list of every popular technique for guitarists these days….and given Chris’ pedigree that’s not surprising in the least! Without further adoo, here’s the full breakdown:

• left hand and right hand technique
• string skipping
• scales
• modes
• alternate picking
• chord stretching
• chord arpeggiating
• odd meter
• metric modulation
• sweep picking
• sweep picking in odd meter
• hybrid picking
• sliding
• legato
• bending
• grace notes
• hammer on / pull offs
• economy picking
• arpeggios
• rolling bar technique
• tapping
• tapping with multiple fingers
• tapping with slides
• visualizing the neck exercises
• chromatic
• combing multiple techniques
• using octaves
• melodic exercises
• applying all 4 fingers
• using tritones
• right hand picking exercises and warmups
• harmonic minor exercise

Now, this is a relatively short book (52 pages, 52 exercises) but I think that the unnecessary verbiage we’re sometimes laden with can be a definite shortcoming for some authors so adopting a somewhat abbreviated approach is actually a breath of fresh air….AND it’s spiral bound so it doesn’t have to be wedged open whilst you’re busy trying to get your fingers around some of the examples -- ALL of which are usable in and of themselves as musical ideas.

Without addressing every single set of exercises I’ll summarise as thankfully Chris has managed to write them all to a very high standard and his methodical approach lends itself nicely to study and review.  Each example is prefaced with a short paragraph explaining technical notes and the tempo followed by the tab and standard notation…and that’s it. No frills, nothing extra….but nothing extra is needed.  I have to say that it’s all clearly laid in a minimalistic black/white colour scheme (with a large font) and is actually visible from across the room on a music stand which raises the question:  why isn’t this approach taken by more companies?

Even in the space of a single technical approach (let’s take economy picking as an example) there are several different ideas incorporated to give an unexpectedly wide overview of each technique in a minimal amount of space -- in a mere two pages we go from a fairly simple scale sequence in 8th note triplets, to a more angular approach including the famous “rolling bar” technique in straight 16th’s, to a meandering arpeggio lick…in short this is an amazingly good introduction tool for those new to the techniques, and a great means of advancement for those that aren’t.

There are a couple of very minor details -- there’s no accompanying CD which does keep costs down but it’s always nice to hear a player od Chris’ caliber performing, and the absolutely spartan approach to layout (no pictures or chapter breaks) might not be to everyone’s taste but I personally like the “no nonsense” style he’s adopted.

You will need a basic theoretical and technical background to get the most from Chris Letchford’s Guitar Technique Book but it’s a great addition to a modern guitarist’s library.

Rating:

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