Hal Leonard Guitar Method: Blues Guitar

by Greg Koch

The Hal Leonard Blues Guitar Method is your complete guide to learning blues guitar. This book uses real blues songs; no corny arrangements of nursery rhymes here (well, except for "Mary Had a Little Lamb", but this is NOT the version you learned in kindergarten) to teach you the basics of rhythm and lead blues guitar in the style of B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, and many others. Lessons include: 12-bar blues; chords, scales and licks; vibrato and string bending; riffs, turnarounds, and boogie patterns; hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides; standard notation and tablature; and much more. Songs include: Boom Boom | Born Under a Bad Sign | Double Trouble | Killing Floor | Sweet Home Chicago | You Shook Me | and more. The CD includes over 70 tracks for demonstration and play-along.

Genres: Music

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Jenna Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got to see Bonnie Raitt perform live at the Edmonton Folk Festival when my sister and I performed there in 2012. I'd already been getting into a bit of blues music due to the fact that I was researching and building a cigar box guitar at the time. Although I've played guitar for a long time I havn't played blues at all really. So far, I'm really enjoying this book. It's helping me a lot with my dexterity and moving around the fingerboard. It's challenging enough that I have to focus and make myself do the exercises properly, but not so difficult that I get frustrated and give up. Most books that I've worked with (I used to teach guitar) are either way too simple in their explanations, or are overcomplicated and make students focus on random details that can be obstacles to them learning to play and enjoy the guitar. This one hasn't been that way, so I'm happy with it. Also, I like that it comes with a CD. I'm not a big music reader, I play by ear most of the time, so the demos really help.