Author:Robert Fripp

Perhaps it is easier to start with what this book is not. It does not provide tips or tricks to improve your guitar playing other than at a metaphysical level (more of this later). It does not teach you to play like Robert Fripp, nor does it teach any theory, scales or tasty Crimson tinged licks. It doesn’t consider the benefits of a .7mm plectrum vs a 1mm (believe me, there are books which do), nor does it debate effects pedals or how to play D. In fact for long periods it doesn’t talk about guitars at all. What, you may be wondering, is it about then?

Having read it once cover to cover then skimmed through it a second time, I’m struggling to articulate what it is about really. Probably the easiest way to explain it is to say it is a detailed exploration of Fripp’s personal philosophy of guitar playing (the eponymous Guitar Craft), some of which is quite specific (how to strike the string, when to move fingers, how to sit on a chair) and large sections are letters to his Guitar Craft students or responses to their queries. It stresses the student’s need for … Continue reading The Guitar Circle