Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12970 in Books
• Published on: 1993-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 98 pages

Customer Reviews

You'll not find a better tutor than this!
"Ultimately your playing will only be as good as your rhythmic drive is solid" - a (profound) quote from the beginning of this fine book. The rhythmic drive is established by the stomping foot & the alternating bass in the right thumb. The book then superimposes gradually more complex melodies & counter rhythms on top of this fundamental alternating bass with the three main fingers of the right hand - each finger dedicated to a particular string of the guitar. Always geared to playing actual 12 bar blues rather than just technical exercises, this book methodically & relatively painlessly takes the student deeply into this intricate & beautiful music - introducing hammerons, pulloffs, slides, bends, heel damping, walking bass, vamps, turnarounds etc. The accompanying cd is wonderfully inspiring. On it Mark Galbo talks & plays you through each section of the book, emphasising & demonstrating the importance of the solid alternating bass as the music gains in complexity. You'll find yourself listening to the disc for pleasure as much as for enlightenment. The book ends with 5 actual blues pieces in the styles of various great players (Robert Johnson etc). I honestly can't think of, or even imagine, a better book to get you started with this style of guitar - pure communication - from & to the heart!

An extremely exciting book
As a relatively new guitarist who has taken a fondness to blues music, i thought i would purchase this book in order to get me on my way to playing my own blues solo's. I wanted something to learn that would sound great round a campfire for when i go off on my travels next year and to play with my harp.
Well after one minute of listening to the CD i was not dissapointed!!
You may be thinking " yes it all sounds very nice but i'm sure impossible to play ". The answer is yes, but, reading through the book it takes a step by step process which is easy to follow, being a begginner, and misses nothing out. The first songs sound simple but with the gradual addition of simple melodies and syncopations to the walking bass line and finger picking you get something sounding a bit special! ( especially when the "blue" note is added! )
As i said these words will all be easily explained in the book, and as i said it is exciting because, i can't wait to progress a little further especially to the last five solo's including 32-20 blues by the legendary R.Johnson!! Well worth buying!!

buy this book
I'm a guitar teacher and this is the best book I've seen on introducing blues or good fingerstyle guitar in the last 20 years. I use it in lessons and recommend it to all interested guitarists. Buy it and do the exercises - you can play like this!