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The Everything Rock And Blues Guitar Book - 267 Pages Paperback

This is a book and CD set for making you a better guitar player.
You can probably use this as a beginner book, thought the author recommends you have at least some basic grasp of open and bar chords first.
And towards the other end of the spectrum, he promises intermediate and advance players will find plenty of material that interests them too. As you see by the title, the book takes on 2 genres: Rock and Blues. As the author explains a topic, like the pentatonic scale for example, they alternate back and forth by first giving you a paragraph or two on how the pentatonic scale is used in Blues music. Then they switch gears and give a paragraph or two on Rock music and the pentatonic scale. This works well and keeps the book interesting as well as understandable.


What You'll Learn From This Book:
At the front of the book is a helpful chart outlining the top 10 things you'll learn from the book.




Here's a walk through of the subjects of the contents you'll find in this book. It starts out with a overview and history of Rock and Blues music: major artists, how it all began, the transition from Blues to Rock. It's interesting reading. Scales: major, minor, pentatonic, blues scale. Later in the book there's a section on modes to go deeper into different types of scales that are used in music. Phrasing and inflection: very interesting reading on making it all musical. There's a chapter on music theory: Intervals, scales, major and minor keys.


Chords: including chord theory, how chord progressions work, voicings, etc. Arpeggios: theory and fingerings of common arpeggios. Technique: 2 chapters on this subject. Tricks: harmonics, slides, etc. Playing by ear: ear training, recognizing scales, telling the difference between major and minor. How to practice: scales, modes, arpeggios, chords. A chapter on sound and gear: Technology: and Some ideas for further study. There's also appendix information that includes some music for you to listen to and a Music reading tutorial.



About the audio CD -- The Everything Book comes with an audio CD. Many of the concepts presented in the book are demonstrated on the CD. In total the CD has 95 tracks on it. The benefits to you the guitar student of having an audio CD can't be understated. It's a huge advantage being able to hear the tracks, especially for guitar. Even if you're very familiar with reading guitar tablature - though many students aren't -- or even if you have the capability of reading music, the audio tracks will be of benefit to you. Chances are the audio track is teaching you a certain flourish or demonstrating a guitar technique that you want to learn about and haven't done before. You could spend an hour playing a four bar sample over and over -- and still not have it right! But you spend 30 seconds listening to that same guitar technique being properly demonstrated, and now you own that lick, you've learned it in the most efficient way possible. Almost as if you had a guitar teacher sitting right next to you. So, the point is, if you're deciding between a book with a disk and one without a CD, it's worth paying extra for the one that comes with a CD.


General observations -- This book is easy to use. While it's loaded with important info about playing electric guitar in the Blues and Rock styles, it has a lot of charts and music staff examples. The text it does have is relevant and complete, presenting the important points and concept information without giving too much and getting boring. The book also has a lot of block quote sections that give important pointers and little-known facts. It's fun and very educational to spend time just flipping through and reading these short info blocks. A lot of information is covered - and exhaustive treatment of all things electric guitar for Blues and Rock -- but condensed and fit into a book of 267 pages.


If this is your first guitar book, you'll get a great overview of Rock/Blues guitar and a ton of instruction to study and learn from. And chances are, even if you've been playing for twenty years, you'll still find out a few things you never knew before.


This book will give you plenty of solid Blues and Rock guitar instruction for both rhythm and lead guitar playing. You'll get a little more focus on lead playing in Rock and Blues, and the role the guitar plays in providing it. So, if you're wanting to learn to play electric lead guitar in the style of your favorite Blues and Rock players, then this is the book and CD for you to buy.


There are a lot of books available to teach you how to play the guitar - the mechanics of how to make notes and chords on the guitar. Where this book excels and is different is it's like having a skilled and experienced music teacher / guitar instructor at your side as you go through the book. For example, when they teach you to slide into notes, they don't just show you the mechanics or motions of doing the slide. But they teach you WHY you want to slide, what's great about a slide, etc. And the same for note bending, inflection, phrasing, etc. They give you background on why you should phrase, where does the concept of phrasing come from? Tips on how you can improve your phrasing. All the books teach you to play, this one goes way beyond just teaching by supplying background information and understanding.