This fingerstyle guitar book includes many wonderful gospel songs adapted for DADGAD tuning–a style not typically used in gospel. The material includes standards, as well as songs less familiar to fingerstyle players. Intended for advanced-beginners, intermediate-level players, and anyone looking to dive into alternating-bass music and more complex chordal work. Includes access to online audio.

El McMeen has authored many guitar books for Mel Bay Publications, but this book holds a special place in his heart. This cutting-edge collection includes melodic, challenging, and exuberant band marches carefully arranged for fingerstyle guitar. The book contains arrangements of seven marches (including six by John Philip Sousa), many of which are in various open tunings. These pieces are challenging and geared for intermediate-advanced and advanced guitarists. There are so many great mel...

El McMeen has painstakingly compiled and presented a stunning collection of fingerstyle guitar arrangements of his favorite Celtic songs, airs, and dance tunes from his 30 years of recording. These gems of the repertoire range from aching laments and gorgeous songs to lively dance tunes. 27 pieces are included in this monumental folio. A 77-minute recording of the tunes is available for download to help the reader access and enjoy the magical CGDGAD guitar tuning. Includes access to online...

This book features 22 gems of gospel and hymn music, arranged in various keys in dropped D tuning (DADGBE - 6th to 1st string) for the intermediate and advanced guitarist. The arrangements provide compelling evidence that dropped D tuning has been liberated from its usual position as simply a variant of "standard tuning." In this book, it takes on an exciting open-tuning character. Innovative string choices and guitar voicings are employed to evoke different textures for the various melodi...

We can have fun with food without worrying about our weight! Let's make up words for food or situations concerning food!El McMeen does this, playing with words and puns, and engaging in other semantic shenanigans pertaining to food. El also addresses dining problems at the restaurant, and defrocks some "fancy" foods.The patron suffering through some watery and tasteless Gazpacho has experienced “Gazbotcho!” For the person who has the temerity to view a Truffle as just some ...

All the arrangements in this volume are played in CGDGAD tuning. Selection include: Ashokan Farewell, Carolan's Welcome, Carolan's Dream, Star of the County Down, and an array of others. Written for the intermediate player in notation and tablature.

Take a common aggravation. Your cat misbehaves. Or you suffer indignities while driving. Or at the supermarket. Or at the doctor’s office.You grumble a bit, but then have an idea: “Holophrasis!” That means using one word to capture the situation! Hmmm. Let’s deploy or invent an amusing word, and have some fun with misery!That’s just what El McMeen does in this rib-tickling book.You’ll be LOL and nodding in agreement as you enjoy it!Examples:You are at...

El McMeen is a renowned musician, a Christian minister, and a humorist. His passions include the “three M’s” -- ministry, music, and mirth. Those three subjects reign in this Volume 2 to El's acclaimed memoir from 2018, "Growing Up in God's Country."The earlier book starts with El's birth (and a disability: cerebral palsy) and takes the reader on a captivating ride to what El characterizes, with a chuckle, as his "early dotage." This book covers the ensuing six years, during which ...

Open G guitar tuning [DGDGBD] is a most evocative and versatile tuning. It has been a staple in blues and Hawaiian slack-key music, and it’s a revelation when you learn that the classic rock tune you’ve been struggling to perfect is actually in open G.In this book, authors El McMeen and Sandy Shalk propel this tuning in new directions with their Celtic, spiritual, jazz, Americana, and pop interests. The result is a cornucopia of styles and textures that inspire and convince readers...

The name of this book is no exaggeration. It includes some of the most gorgeous music that the authors El McMeen and Sandy Shalk know. To make things even more interesting, none of the music was originally written for guitar!In addition to Celtic favorites, El includes his arrangements of two of the most beautiful arias in all of opera: "Che Gelida Manina" from Puccini's "La Boheme" and "My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice" (“Mon Coeur S'ouvre à ta Voix”) from "Samson and Delilah" by Camil...

Authors El McMeen and Sandy Shalk love the sound of a guitar when played like a harp! Rather than a bouncy, alternating-bass picking pattern, the notes flow and ring out in an atmospheric and evocative way. This book explores the application of that approach to tunes in several different genres, to show the range of possibilities: hymn music, Irish, Scottish, and English traditional music, Stephen Foster Americana, and a Jerome Kern show tune. Includes access to online audio.

El McMeen has found a new way to have fun with animals! It doesn't involve the petting zoo. It’s playing with words! El's idea is to find animals whose names can be manipulated so that they would be ideal "pets" for certain people or personality types.For the gal who is always receiving calls from friends who are bored, the perfect pet might be the "Boredom Callee!" The guy at the gym who has pumped a little too much iron might like the "Brawntoosoreus" tagging along with him (were...