Guitar Books Review #9: Complete Country Blues Guitar Book by Stefan Grossman
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- Is this one of the best or worst repertoire books for fingerstyle blues guitar?
You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.
Stefan Grossman’s Complete Country Blues Guitar Book is a repertoire book of various substyles of fingerstyle blues (general old time country blues, Delta blues, ragtime blues, Texas blues, and bottleneck blues). Most of the tunes are suitable for late-beginner and intermediate fingerstyle players, although advanced players will certainly enjoy the tunes as well. The music in this book may sound “old-timey” (much of it comes from the 1920s and 30s), but it is really fun to play if you are interested in the style. Aside from the large selection of tunes, the book provides tons of cool history, interviews of blues players (Skip James and W.C. Handy), and historical photos - makes for a great coffee table book!
The book is organized into sections for each substyle of fingerstyle blues. At the beginning of each section there is a textual description and history of the blues substyle being presented. Before each tune, there is a description of where that tune originated from, who played it in this style, important recordings to listen to, and some technical performance details.
Most of the tunes provide you with a single progression of the tune - sometimes only 20 or 30 seconds long. In a real performance you would probably want to repeat the form multiple times with singing, variations, or improvisation. My only complaint about the book is that it would have been helpful if the author had explained this a bit more. However, if you take the listening recommendations seriously then you will get the idea.
The book provides both treble clef and tablature. There are no right or left-hand fingerings provided (except occasionally in the description before the tune). The tablature is unusual in that the fret numbers are written between the lines instead of on the lines, but I quickly adjusted to it without any problem.
The majority of the tunes use standard tuning. However, alternate tunings are used extensively within the sections on “Country Blues Guitar: The Alternating Bass and Open Tunings” and “Bottleneck Blues Guitar.”
This is a repertoire book full of song arrangements. This is not a method book that teaches you the fundamentals of how to play fingerstyle blues guitar. However, if you have some fingerstyle experience, then this book will provide you with a lifetime of fun (at almost 260 pages, it will literally last you a very long time).
1. Authentic fingerstyle blues tunes from various substyles.
2. Great organization.
3. Good difficulty graduation - easier tunes to start each section.
4. Short tunes.
5. Lots of alternating bass and monotonic bass
6. Strange tablature will take a few minutes to adjust to.
7. No fingerings for right or left hand.
8. ***Corection***: Online audio access!
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.
I recommend using an acoustic steel string guitar rather than a classical guitar since there are multiple tunes that utilize the fretting hand thumb over the top. You will need a slide for the final section, but you can use it with your normal guitar.
Published by Mel Bay Publications. © 1992
eBook: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to joemcmurray.com... to purchase a pdf of my eBook.
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Hey Joe,this books actually used to come with 2 cds,now it comes with a download of the 2 cds.I'm not sure how yours did'nt have either.Anyway great review.
Chris- Thanks for bringing this to my attention! That is an embarrassing oversight. Yes, this book comes with online audio access for each of the tunes in this book.
Great playing Joe and review of the book.. think I will buy one
Thanks for checking out the video! Let me know what you think of the book once you've spent some time with it.
Thank you
Thank YOU for watching and commenting!
Are these complete transcriptions of the songs.
Hey - in general each arrangement provides one full form of the song, although there are at least a few shorter ones (12 bar blues, etc.) that go through the form twice. A lot of these end up being 20-30 seconds in length as written. However, if you were to arrange one of your own choruses/forms, then you could play the main melody (the book's arrangement), your arrangement, and then end with the main melody again. Alternatively, you could take an improvisation chorus in the middle. Finally, you could play and sing many of these tunes (so you would extend them with the multiple verses, instrumental breaks, etc.). Hope that helps!
I loved this thank you, i wonder if you have time to review "easy celtic songs in DADGAD by Rob McKillopp or Stuart Ryans "The Tradition" book. Inspiring playing from you.
Thanks for your comment and the recommendations! I'll put those two books on my shopping list. I'll get to them after I get through my current batch of book reviews.