Buying Beginning Fingerstyle Blues Guitar (Book and Audio CD) (Guitar Books)

Although this book has received numerous reviews, here's one more. Berle and Galbo take the player step by step into rural blues in the tradition of Robert Johnson and others from the early twentieth century. It does take several exercises and short pieces before the music starts to sound like the blues, due mostly to the major triad focus at the beginning of the book. By the end, though, the pieces are like shortened versions of real blues instrumentals and songs. The pace of learning from piece to piece is just a little uneven at times, and there are some places where the player has to work out some technical details that need to be drilled beyond the printed exercises. Therefore, it's a book that would probably work well in guitar lessons. The CD is one of the more personable recordings that I've seen packaged with a music instruction book. The fluidity of the rural blues style really comes out in Galbo's playing on the CD, and he improvises beyond the printed scores just enough that the user of the book gets some ideas on how they too might change things up a little. Frankly, a couple of times he even flubs a lick and repeats the piece again. It may seem unheard of in a commercial product, but it makes this one of the more human packages out there. Because so much of this music was and is spontaneously composed by performers, perhaps one of the most valuable parts of Beginning Fingerstyle Blues Guitar is the section on short vamp phrases. Players can take these vamps and create their own pieces by working them out, modifying them as desired, experimenting with stringing some of the ideas together, and so on. The vamps are especially helpful to learn for accompanying yourself singing, especially if you find it difficult to sing a melody, remember or improvise the lyrics, and play an ever-evolving guitar accompaniment at the same time. While some of the licks and pieces are quite challenging and may present roadblocks, there's plenty of opportunity to work out your own solutions. One minor annoyance: every once in a while the player encounters a half note that is missing a stem. For those who read music, it's annoying; for those who read tabs, but are working on reading traditional notation, it could present a confusion. The editor should have been more careful.Get more detail about Beginning Fingerstyle Blues Guitar (Book and Audio CD) (Guitar Books).