Killer Technique: Fingerstyle Guitar

Mentored by three legendary guitarists, Michael O’Dorn is the living repository of not only the Merle Travis thumbstyle technique, but also the fingerstyle legacies of Chet Atkins and French guitarist, Marcel Dadi. This book contains a discussion of the differences between fingerstyle and thumbstyle technique, plus the most advanced exercises and tunes of any of the author’s three books for Mel Bay Publications — a must-have for any serious fingerstyle guitarist!


The book begins with a series of progressive picking patterns with practice points that guide the player through intermediate and advanced licks and techniques. The harmony of each exercise was intentionally left unresolved so that it can be repeated to perfection. Soon, you will be playing O’Dorn’s challenging Travis/Atkins/Dadi-inspired licks and compositions using the left-hand hammer-on, pull-off, and thumb-over techniques, and the right-hand thumb rake and palm mute.


While the purpose of this book is to help you establish study habits that enhance your performance abilities, the exercises can also be used as intros, outros or springboards to kickstart your own compositions. At the end, as a payoff for completing the book’s lessons, the author presents three original compositions for player and audience enjoyment.


Learn the evolutionary, often unconventional fingerstyle techniques of Travis, Atkins, Dadi, and O’Dorn withKiller  Technique®: Fingerstyle Guitar! Includes access to an outstanding online audio recording of the book’s 47 exercises and solos.