Blues Guitar Songs For Dummies

[stringbreaker]

This book just increased my "songs I can play" by about 20 songs. First I must say I laid some groundwork. I have spent the last couple of months since BGU 2012 concentrating on the Basic 12 bar Blues and different ways to play.

I picked up this book and within 2 weeks was able to play the rhythm to 20 songs.  I still need practice, but after analyzing each song in the book for the chord progression, picking a mp3 (which style I wanted like Clapton, SRV etc) to play to, figuring out the key, I can now glance at the key, the chord progression, and play along with the song including two SRV songs.

The middle part "Performance Notes" gives some hints on how to play lead and some history which is great!

Of course I did other things to help like made a CD of the mp3s that I wanted to play to and listened to it in the car.

 

[FishKiller]

That's great Michael, it's a great moment when you discover that there are 1000's of songs out there that are 12 bar blues, and you can play along to them
Carlos

 

[giayank]

Great way to play along with other people is to learn the type of song .  For example blues in E, or the How How from zz top, 7th chords, and such .Start to hear the difference is in the turnarounds and the fills. The basic songs are the same.

 

[obsidianskies]

Well done Michael. Your experience illustrates how much more we learn when we have a route map and structure for learning.

I bought the book a few weeks ago but have yet to look at it. You have just motivated me to go and get it.

Thank you

Chris

 

[Spencer]

That's awesome man! It's amazing sometimes how much time we spend wishing we could play songs, but when you break out the book and actually analyze things and put in the effort, we can all play so much more that we thought!
   Great tips on how to go about it. Which SRV songs were you talking about? I'd like to check those out.

 

[stringbreaker]

That's awesome man! It's amazing sometimes how much time we spend wishing we could play songs, but when you break out the book and actually analyze things and put in the effort, we can all play so much more that we thought!
   Great tips on how to go about it. Which SRV songs were you talking about? I'd like to check those out.

I have been working on "Pride and Joy" and "Texas Flood" really enjoying it.  Trying on "Mary had a little Lamb"  but the chord progression is hard.

I also tuned my guitar in SRV style, but found I didnt like the action on the strings, so am just using a capo to get that style.

 

[Spencer]

That's awesome man! It's amazing sometimes how much time we spend wishing we could play songs, but when you break out the book and actually analyze things and put in the effort, we can all play so much more that we thought!
   Great tips on how to go about it. Which SRV songs were you talking about? I'd like to check those out.

I have been working on "Pride and Joy" and "Texas Flood" really enjoying it.  Trying on "Mary had a little Lamb"  but the chord progression is hard.

I also tuned my guitar in SRV style, but found I didnt like the action on the strings, so am just using a capo to get that style.

Nice. Now that Anthony over at steviesnacks is doing beginner/intermediate/ and advanced solos for Texas Flood I really need to settle in and get going on that progression. I have the tabs for the original version but it's just in a different key and even though the styles are similiar, the timing is way different. Both great.

Pride and Joy is so fun to play, but the solo's are too fast for me right now.

 

[CJ_Allan]

Sounds like something to get........

 

[KevenKanten]

I went with the big 150 songs of the Blues White Pages instead. Checked all the tab of the songs that are in Dummies and they are identical so for a similar price, I went for volume.