“There are many fine guitar books available. This isn’t another one of them. This book isn’t “fine”, it’s great. If you love the guitar, but feel you can’t get very far or don’t know what to do next, this book should speak to you. It is a little bit of gold, an indispensable addition to the music library.

Someone who is thoroughly absorbed in their field can see a wide range of meaning and applications in the field they love. Just as Bruce Lee could teach you about philosophy and psychology and not just martial arts, so Adam Rafferty can give you advice that seriously improves, and yet goes way beyond, what happens when you pick up the guitar.

It may not be what you expect – there are no pages of tab, or pieces of music, or pictures of exercises for your hand position or your scales or whatever. If you don’t know anything about music theory, then somehow you will by the time you’ve finished it, without having been weighed down by any “teaching”. If you care about the mysteries of how your music connects with an audience – whether at a family party or an open mic night or a “proper” gig – this book will lead you towards them.

More than anything, this book is about what it means to you to have any involvement with music, whether you want an audience or not; and how you can apply the same principles to other areas of life. The only other thing I have read by a musician that came close to this is “Effortless Mastery” by Kenny Werner, a wonderful book but a little bit “spaced out” – Mr Rafferty has a more down-to-earth approach. Useful, sensible, helpful – and from the heart.“

“This is all of Adam Rafferty’s wisdom accumulated through his illustrious career, and from his amazing musical friends.

This is not “how to play fingerstyle guitar”; it’s much better. It tells you everything you need to know to become a true musician rather than just a guitarist. You’ll learn to select what pieces to play, and how to play them to entertain and captivate an audience. You’ll learn how to practice effectively and how to move past technical skill and truly groove.

Adam has done it all, from classical guitar learned from the finest NYC teachers, to jazz guitar played with the great Harlem jazz bands, to modern fingerstyle guitar with Tommy Emmanuel.

And he shares it all in the pages of this wonderful book, just like he does on his teaching website, StudyWithAdam.com

Adam is a treasure. He’s learned from the musical giants, and shares it freely in the pages of this book.

You need to own ‘The Inner Game of Fingerstyle Guitar’ if you love to play and whether you aspire to share that love with your family and close friends or a world-wide audience of music lovers.

Any guitarist from beginner to performer can apply the lessons from ‘The Inner Game’ to elevate their playing to the next level and beyond.”

“Adam Rafferty is generous and he has come to know the art of the guitar deeply. This book is a portrait of his musical journey including the wonder of first discovery, the middle-earth of the guitar that is colored by ‘what should I play’ and inevitable self-doubt, and the weekly tutelage under master-musician Mike Longo who challenged and shaped how he thinks as a musician.

The generosity side of Adam Rafferty includes the fact that among other accomplishments, he is a masterful educator who understands the process of how people learn. For the rest of the world who would like to better at playing the guitar (and who wouldn’t?) that’s a winning combination because he puts some of this on a silver platter for us have.

The “inner game” can be part of the problem or part of the solution. In his book, the “War of Art,” Steve Pressfield personifies that inner voice of negativity who takes as victory everytime you tell yourself you’re no good. And here Adam takes all of that and applies it to creating success with playing the guitar.

The book literally takes off when we get to Adam’s guidance under Mike Longo who served as Dizzy Gillespie’s piano player and arranger. What Adam has done in this book is to open the doors for the reader that Longo opened for him. It remains your choice to walk through those doors, but in the true spirit of generosity shaped by the mind of a consummate educator, Adam takes you there.

The most powerful example when he shares Longo’s structured thinking of “What to play” and “How to play.” Each of those categories has 5 components. That alone is worth the price of admission, but then Adam offers his guidance on effective means of practicing and his personal and humbling experiences with both success and failure in performance.

It is the how to proceed on the guitar, with Mike Longo philosophies and Adam Rafferty applications that make this the fine work that it is. Highly recommended.”

Michael Miles
Concert Artist & Author (Banjo & Guitar)