Mike marshall's finger busters

[Jeroen]

I am trying to locate a legal copy of Mike Marshall's Fingerbusters book. Elderly sold out. Anyone have any ideas where to try?

[WJF]

I spoke with Mike over the weekend and know that he's planning to get some of the Finger Busters books out to Elderly as soon as humanly possible. If you can wait just a few more days, I'd check back with them.

BTW ... This second printing of books have all been proof-read (by myself and a few other folks) and will correct (hopefully) all of the inaccuracies (especially in the TAB) that managed to sneak into the first printings.

[Jeroen]

Great! Thank you, I promise to try to be patient.

[Soupy1957]

Must be nice to be able to just call Mike Marshall up on the phone ....wish "I" could!!

Imagine being able to be personally embarrassed by his skill level, when I hear HIM play in my living room, and when he hears ME plunk away....lol.

-Soupy1957

[DMC]

WJF,
I just ordered his Bach book. Assuming it's from the first batch, will I be able to find out about the corrections and pencil them in myself?
Thanks, Dan

[WJF]

DMC - The Bach book is the one in the group that I didn't do (though I'd have loved to just 'cause I'm really focusing on Bach myself these days). So, I'm not really sure what corrections there might have been. I'll see what i can find out and post back here.

For clarity's sake, I should point out that the "corrections" in the books that I was involved with were minimal (after all, Mike wrote them!) and mostly involved the notation software that was used to produce the books making some bad fingering guesses when translating from notation to TAB. There were a few other small tweakas here and there but mostly little stuff that Mike just wanted to get right. So ... first printing or second printing, go ahead an buy 'em ... they're a great resource to have!!

[DMC]

Thanks for that WJF.
I guess we all have to play around with fingerings/postions to suit ourselves anyway, so some erroneous suggestions won't be a problem. The Bach book was shipped today and I can't wait until it arrives.

[Jeroen]

The fingerbusters are back in stock at elderly. They let me find that out myself though. They shipped that and the improvisation book today. I am curious.

[swampstomper]

I have the first editions of all the books (got them as soon as they came out) and indeed the fingerbusters had lots of obvious errors, especially using open strings when clearly the exercise called for closed positions. But they were easy enough to find and correct as I worked through the exercises. Consistent work with this book (10-20 min per day as warmup) has really strengthened my hands and got me used to different finger positions. My pinky could lift a VW Beetle (no, I haven't actually tried it....). I have added some alternate-finger exercises (1-3-2-4) which Mike doesn't have.

The improv. book is really cool for getting ideas. It could use more explanation but then again there are jazz theory books for that.

The chord book is OK and also has good ideas. Niles' little chord book is easier to digest and work through, I find.

The Bach book is just plain amazing. A mandolin entry into this repertoire, and perfect for a classical dillettante like I will always be.

[Jeroen]

No more Bach for me until I can handle the wide intervals in partita III. I'd love to be able to play that, but I need way too much time to get my index finger on the low G# and the pinky way up on the the A-string d#. And I don't even have small hands! Maybe someday I will try to tackle the piece with the G string tuned up to G#, or a matchstick under the G-string at the first fret. Grrr.

[chip]

I saw mike's book at wintergrass and thought that it would be more helpful if there was a CD included with the exercises. I find that it's a better teaching tool to be able to hear how exercises, etc. are supposed to be played. What do ya think mike?

[DSDarr]

I saw mike's book at wintergrass and thought that it would be more helpful if there was a CD included with the exercises. I find that it's a better teaching tool to be able to hear how exercises, etc. are supposed to be played. What do ya think mike?

This is my main complaint about all of the books in the Mike Marshall series. They could all use an accompanying CD with them -- either to play the exercises along with, the pieces of music (Bach and choros), and examples (improv). They are all very useful as it stands but they would be MUCH more useful if they had CDs!

my two cents, David

[Perry]

FYI:

MIDI files of Bach music is available for free. Here's one of many sites: (be careful sometimes these Midi files start off with an abrupt pop of volume)

http://www.midiworld.com/bach.htm

Scroll down for the solo violin stuff. Talk about finger busters!!

[mandopickin4Him]

Where can I get a copy of his Bach book?

[twaaang]

Jeroen, I've hit the same rocky stretch you have in the Partita #3 prelude.

Purists may scoff, but for the time being my work-around is to hold the G# twice its written length (dropping the second note of each measure altogether) and play the rest of each measure as written. My hope is that after I have it going smoothly that way, I'll be able gradually to work that second note back in. After all, there are two difficult things going on here: both the inherent difficulty of the fingering, plus the mental difficulty of the subtle changes working through these eight or ten measures -- I don't expect to conquer all aspects of the passage at the same time, but I do want to be able to make some measurable progress and meanwhile have access to the measures which follow.

Remembering which thread we're in, I should note that I'm not working from any of Mike Marshall's materials, but from the score downloadable from the Werner Icking archive. -- Paul

[Jeroen]

Never mind, the thread was dead anyway, and the Mike Marshall books discussion moved elsewhere.
I think I have heard classical violinists take a little quaver rest before diving down to the G# and, as you describe, doubling its duration. It sounds like some kind of smart Bach interpretation, but I like Bach with solid scruggs timing.

Good luck getting it down!