Acoustic Blues Guitar

To suggest that the material contained in this volume is intermediate level is misleading. I consider myself to be an intermediate level acoustic guitarist and I find the prcatice material in this book far too simple - a more accurate description of the level would be 'post beginner'. The same goes for the demonstration pieces on the CD. The 'fast' renditions are far to slow and the slower ones are painfully slow. For example, if you have never heard the original 'West Coast Blues ' and you learn the version in this book, you are in for a very big surprise when you hear Blind Blake (or any other competent guitarist) play it.

it really is a good book (7/7 people found this helpful)

I got this about a week ago and have been using it non-stop ever since. There's a very good CD to go with it as well. Much much easier to learn the songs by listening, playing along, practising, listen again and so on. Kenny is *encouraging* on the CD - I like his style!

I've learned more from this book in the past week or so than I've learned in about the last year.

it's fun and relaxing!!! (2/3 people found this helpful)

I got this book back in july 2004, and i wish i had it before. It's a great book and fun! I found it very relaxing to sit down with. The tunes are not hard but you gotta memorize them to play well. If you like the blues - you'll love fingerstyle blues.

An excellent stepping stones to mastering blues guitar (12/13 people found this helpful)

Learning to play fingerpicking acoustic blues guitar can be difficult, it has taken me 25 years to find the right learning materials! The problem is that many instructional books either present material which is a 'technical' study and doesn't sound like the blues, or they present transcriptions of the original country blues players which are too difficult to start on. This book pitches it just right with tunes that can be leant fairly quickly and which sound like authentic blues tunes. Indeed they all are authentic, some written by Kenny Sultan himself, others arrangements by masters such as Blind Blake and Rev. Gary Davis. I found it very satisfying to learn tunes by these players and I haven't managed it from transcriptions of the originals. I am looking forward to the next volume in this series. It is well worth listening to Kenny Sultan's CDs, especially his solo CD 'West CoastBlues' which actually uses some of the licks he presents in this book.

An excellent guide for the intermediate student (4/5 people found this helpful)

Learning fingerpicking blues/ragtime guitar can be a fustrating business - some beginners' books only present exercises that don't sound like real music whilst many more advanced books are transcriptions of the original blues players and are too difficult for many students. This book and CD fills this void with some great tunes which aren't too difficult to play. I have been learning this style for a few months and could play simple tunes with alternating bass before I got this book but these were exercises that didn't sound much like a real tune. The tunes in this book are all very muscial and are suitable for performing to family, friends and even in concerts (repsecting Mr Sultan's copyright of course). I also liked the way that the reader is not completely 'spoon-fed' and has to listen carefully to the CD to get all the details of the tunes.

Kenny Sulton, Kenny Sultan

Reader Reviews:

Kenny Sultan , acoustic blues guitar. (1/1 people found this helpful)

it really is a good book (7/7 people found this helpful)

it's fun and relaxing!!! (2/3 people found this helpful)

An excellent stepping stones to mastering blues guitar (12/13 people found this helpful)

An excellent guide for the intermediate student (4/5 people found this helpful)

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