Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: Master Acoustic Blues Guitar Fingerpicking and Soloing (Learn How to Play Blues Guitar)

This is the 3rd method book for Blues Guitar that I've purchased. In my opinion, it is far and away the best method book for an older beginner like me. The other books start out with the 12 bar blues chords and theory, or teaching the blues shuffle. This book is completely different. It starts out with teaching rhythms geared towards thumb-finger independence. First, keep a steady beat with your thumb. Then add a note on the same beat with a finger. Then add another note in between beats. Then another note, but always with the thumb just keeping the beat. In this way, you see and practice how rhythms are built. There are audio files to go with the lessons, which are indispensable. Even really simple rhythms sound fantastic and are fun to play. It's only after learning some rhythms that chords are introduced, then you can articulate the notes in the chord, all the while striving to keep the thumb's base line going. Later the book shows skills and techniques that make my head spin to think about. This might be where more advanced players would start. I honestly think this book will give me a solid year's worth of fun things to do on the guitar. The book has both standard notation and tabs. I'm not interested in tabs because I want to learn site reading, but they're there if you like them. If you like the blues and you're a beginner like me, buying this is a no-brainer.

I have had this book about a week, and so far I love it. It starts by helping with rhythm and finger/thumb independence. The exercises start out fairly easy, and progress at a reasonable pace. They do get a bit tricky and awkward, but with consistent practice you'll notice improvement in fairly little time. It is really helpful in developing fingerstyle guitar mechanics.

I have several books on learning Finger-style acoustic guitar. This is by far the best of them. First: It begins with simple exercises to master the most challenging part of finger--style-->The independent thumb. The author understands that this is an unnatural style for many players and that it takes time to get the thumb playing bass lines independent of the melody line being played with the fingers The exercises begin very simply, but progress steadily and do become more challenging. The author is very good about providing encouragement with each exercise as well as suggestions on how to build speed and fluidity with the piece. Second: In Part 2 of the book, the author introduces complete finger style pieces using the steady bass thumb along with increasingly complex melody lines. Mastering these pieces really give you a feel for how finger-style is played. By the time you finish the book (which may be many, many months) you will have a good handle on playing acoustic finger style guitar and that opens up a vast range of song material. Highly recommend the book, but realize it is a longer term commitment to building playing skills. UPDATE: After working with this book for about six weeks, I still think it is the best of the lot. The audio files of slides and hammer-on/pull-off illustrates some very nice sounds that can be produced once you understand the technique. The only thing I feel may be missing are fingering suggestions for some of the more challenging exercises. For example: one exercise requires a hammer-on of the 3rd to 4th fret on the 3rd string followed by a hammer on of the 3rd to 5th fret on the 2nd string. Finally, the first string is fretted at the 5th and 3rd. It is okay in quarter notes, but it is played in 8th notes. There is not a lot of time for moving fingers, so a suggestion for how to finger this for easiest playing would have been very helpful. How, a player will eventually find the best fingering, but a suggestion on some of these more challenging pieces would be very helpful.

Check out my in-depth YouTube video review ("Guitar Books Review #8: Fingerstyle Blues Guitar by Joseph Alexander " by Joe McMurray) in which I objectively go through the book chapter by chapter and play through many examples. You can also hear the full review on "Guitar Books the Podcast" - Review #8. For context, I’m a professional player and teacher with a background in jazz, I’ve released two fingerstyle guitar albums, and I’ve written my own book on arranging for fingerstyle guitar. Joseph Alexander’s Fingerstyle Blues Guitar (published by Fundamental Changes) is an excellent book for learning the fundamentals of fingerstyle blues guitar with either a monotonic or alternating bass. This book is good for intermediate or advanced players and is also great for non-fingerstyle blues, rock, or jazz guitarists looking to get into fingerstyle blues. The first half of the book is focused on improvising lead melodies over a monotonic bass (mostly E minor pentatonic over an open 6th string), and the second half of the book is focused on blues chord progressions and picking patterns, soloing over blues progressions, turnarounds, bass lines, and two short studies. This book presents lots of licks to teach you how to play over a monotonic bass line. If you haven’t ever improvised using pentatonic scales, then you may find yourself just learning and memorizing cool blues licks. If you really want to get the most out of this book, then you need to spend time incorporating the phrases into blues progressions and improvising your own blues phrases over blues progressions. I suggest mastering each example with the monotonic bass (open 6th string) and then playing it over a 12-bar blues progression. For each technique presented in the book, I suggest coming up with your own phrases using that technique – if the book presents examples using slides, then improvise using slides. Then improvise using slides over an entire 12-bar blues progression. A great practical goal would be to play actual blues tunes with some improv in the middle. The second half of the book provides a bunch of accompaniment patterns over the I, IV, and V chords, and it provides some melodies on top of the chords. There is a section on turnarounds, a short section on bass lines, and a final section with two short “studies.” By the time you get through all of this you should have a decent idea of how to play a generic or improvised fingerstyle blues with a variety of feels in the keys of E and G. Aside from the studies, there aren’t any actual tunes in this book, but you’ll have the tools to learn them from other sources. 1. Authentic fingerstyle blues lines and grooves 2. Good difficulty graduation – examples build off each other and get gradually more complex and difficult. Cohesive feel especially to the first half of the book. 3. No actual fingerstyle blues tunes to learn other than two short studies. 4. Online audio access is really helpful – difficult rhythms and feel are much easier to learn with the audio tracks. 5. No fingerings for right or left hand for much of the book. Chapter 1 and Chapter 7 do have some picking hand fingering. 6. Some examples are difficult to play on an acoustic guitar because of whole step bends. You can always substitute slides for these big bends. The book doesn’t get into the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc. No thumb slaps, guitar body percussion, or tapping. For most of the tunes you could use an acoustic steel string or electric guitar. You could use a nylon string classical guitar if necessary, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

These lessons are not only efficient they are fun. You learn quickly and as long as you listen to the audio files included you get instant feedback as to how good you are following the lessons. I strongly recommend. I will buy his other lesson books.

Il libro, nella sua semplicità, è davvero ben fatto e utile. Fin dai primi esercizi si assimilano nozioni e si possono constatare progressi. L'inglese è accessibile anche a chi non ha padronanza con questa lingua. Le tablature, quando non immediatamente comprensibili, sono scaricabili in formato audio dal sito dell'autore, il quale, oltre a fornire questo tipo di aiuto, invia costantemente aggiornamenti su altri prodotti e tutorial. Il prodotto soddisfa pienamente le mie aspettative e sicuramente acquisterò altri libri dell'autore.

LA méthode de blues aux doigts. Extrêmement bien faite. J'ai beaucoup progressé avec.

I've been playing guitar for over 50 years. I've always wanted to play The Blues but never been able to find resources (books, cd's or dvd's) that were effective. But this book is different. I bought it just a couple of weeks ago and already I can feel the improvement in my playing and in my "finger independence". My only regret is that I hadn't bought it long ago. I recommend Fingerstyle Blues Guitar without reservation to anyone who wants to improve their guitar playing.

Tolles Buch, um Methoden und Techniken für Fingerstyle-Blues zu lernen. Es ist aber ein reines Technik-/Methodenbuch, es werden - bis auf zwei Übungsstücke am Schluss - keine Lieder oder Bluesstücke gelehrt. Und für die diversen Bendings in den Übungs-Licks empfiehlt sich entweder eine E-Gitarre oder eine Short-Scale-Acoustic mit dünnen Saiten. Mit meiner Acoustic-Gitarre krieg ich die Bendings nicht hin… Macht aber nix, ist auf jeden Fall ein gutes Buch, um das Blues- Handwerkszeug zu erlernen:)