Bookshelf: For Guitar Players Only Tommy Tedesco

The cover photo beckons like some mysterious relative who lived an entirely different life than anyone else in the family.

For Guitar Players Only endures because it isn’t only about playing guitar. Mr Tedesco does not suffer pretensions lightly. He found what he wanted to succeed at and he did. This book has kept its rightful place on the bookshelf for forty years. I still refer to it once in a great while, its lessons ready to help.

American Bandstand hits, movie scores, TV theme music, commercials, band leader, and countless studio and performance gigs for bands and solo artists: that’s where Mr Tedesco lived. Was his playing recognizable? I’m sure for those in the business it was, but few outside of that. I couldn’t tell you if on that Lalo Schifrin recording the guitar player, or the many other fretted/picked instruments he played, was Mr Tedesco or not.

He doesn’t have a sound in the sense that Cornell Duprie or Ry Cooder do. If anything, that is the point of his playing.

The only references in the book to sound or style are these:

“When you sit in with a group, use only your own equipment. This gives them ‘your’ sound. Don’t let strange equipment be the reason you don’t get the job. The complete sellable product is your sound, don’t blow it.” pg VIII

To this point about equipment I would add: check to see it’s all in good working order before you arrive! Nothing is more unnerving than an electric guitar pickup fading in and out, or not having that high E string when it breaks and everyone waits while you look for a new one.

“Listen to all kinds of guitar players. Know their names and the style they are known for. This helps when a leader asks for a specific style of guitar playing.” page VIII

About style, I would say ninety-nine percent of serious guitar players are hell bent on creating a unique style and making a name with it. I imagine Jeff Beck reading the above quote and saying to himself “thanks Tommy, that’s all I need to know!” The thinking, of course, being that if Jeff Beck can make a living playing Jeff Beck style, then Jeff Beck has no need of instruction books because Jeff Beck has done that thing that all serious guitar players search for but few find: a sound and style known as [ insert your name here].

Mr Tedesco had a more down to earth goal. He was there to make the music the session required. How do you get there? Practice. A lot. Didn’t mean he couldn’t have a good time doing it, making the sound in style.

Right from the gitgo he defines 3 kinds of guitar players.
Guitar Player One— the dedicated;
Guitar Player Two— the dedicated if called ( as in called on the phone to play a gig, not called by God or some other spiritual source) ;
Guitar Player Three — somebody who bought a guitar. – page VI

He was a Two that developed into a One. I’m a Two forever slipping into a Three. Mr Tedesco’s book is for guitar players One and Two. He would have a pleasant conversation with Three, but not about guitar technique.

A well constructed work on music theory will engage the practitioner in a good review of essential fundamentals. In addition, the volume will present ideas or techniques that the reader has overlooked or not realized before. In these essentials Mr Tedesco gets five stars. (out of 5)

Chapter One: Picking Techniques.

Holding the Pick:
“ I use the same technique… as golfers holding a golf club.”
Okay…

Using a Pick for Sound:
“ Try different picks for tone quality.”
Simple enough…

“Super Professional Advice: If you are happy with… [REDACTED]”
You’ll have to buy the book if you want know…

Alternate Picking
“This takes all the guess work out of my mind and I can concentrate on the notes.”
Straightforward, simple, and actually pretty self-explanatory. For this I paid $8.95?
But then he moves right to—

Economy Picking For Runs

That is to say

Down/Up/Down,
Down/Up/Down,
Down/Up/Down,
Down/Up/Down,
Down.

Say it as fast as you can and you’ll get the idea. It may be economical, but not so easy.

The adventure begins. Time to start the metronome. Less talk, more music. Oh, and one more thing. Regardless of what it promises on the cover, there are no shortcuts.

Tommy Tedesco, For Guitar Players Only Dale Zdenek Publications, a Division of Belwin-Mills Publishing Corp, 1979-81 All rights Reserved.