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Comparison #3: Best Fingerstyle Blues Repertoire Books

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Looking to learn new fingerstyle blues tunes to play on your acoustic guitar?  This is a rundown of my favorite fingerstyle blues repertoire books.

Hopefully you have already seen my previous video of “Best Fingerstyle Blues Method Books.”  Method books provide a guided course of study with explanatory text, exercises, example tune arrangements, etc.  In this video I will be talking about my favorite fingerstyle blues repertoire books, which simply provide tune arrangements and possibly some background info for each tune.

I’ve been through many, many books, and I have been teaching and performing professionally for over a decade, so hopefully my insights can help guide you to the book that is best for you!

Be aware that all of these repertoire books provide standard notation and tablature, and most of them do NOT provide any picking or fretting hand fingering.  Working out optimal fingering is extremely important when learning an arrangement – good fingering choices make playing easier and minimize the potential for mistakes.

Best Repertoire Books

1) The Complete Acoustic Blues Guitar Method (Mann, 2014)

Repertoire book that presents lots of tunes from across the many subgenres of fingerstyle blues.  These are solid arrangements that occasionally provide multiple choruses to show variations- this is extremely valuable for extending short tunes into performance length pieces.  It is also worth analyzing the author’s variations so that you can learn to create your own!

Late beginner to advanced, but majority of the tunes are of an intermediate difficulty.

I really like the organization of the book: tunes are organized by subgenre, and within each section the tunes are arranged from easiest to hardest. 

Each tune comes with nice historical background info and listening recommendations.

2) 12-Bar Fingerstyle Blues (Rubin, 2012)

Repertoire book.

Mostly intermediate.

More repetitive grooves than some of the other fingerstyle blues books on the market.  Fewer lyrical phrases in the melodies. 

I like that the tunes organized by subgenre, but the difficulty jumps around from tune to tune.

For experienced players, this is a fast book to work through.  Because each tune is a 12-bar chorus, you will get a lot of ideas that you can digest, combine, and make your own in the future.

Next, I want to introduce a special book that doesn’t quite fit into the simple “Repertoire Book” category:

3) The New Art of Ragtime Guitar (Saslow, 2011, 2017 2nd Ed.)

This book is essentially a repertoire book of ragtime blues tunes, but the analysis that accompanies each tune is extensive and extremely valuable.

Late beginner to advanced and difficulty progresses with each tune.

These tunes are really fun, and you will gain valuable insight from the analysis.  The author coaches you through fingering choices, his use of guide, anchor, or pivot fingers, etc.  These lessons will make you a better player.

4) Fingerstyle Blues Songbook (James, 2005)

Another repertoire book with good arrangements and historical background info.

Honestly, it’s not all that much different from Woody Mann’s The Complete Acoustic Blues Guitar Method, but this book is much shorter.

Late-beginner to intermediate, although advanced players will certainly enjoy the tunes as well.

5) Complete Country Blues Guitar Book (Grossman, 1992)

Repertoire book.  Good arrangements.  Lots of authentic tunes.

Stefan Grossman is an incredible musicologist who helped rediscover and promote much of the old fingerstyle blues music of the 1920s and 30s.  I really like the interviews and historical information that he has included making this a great coffee table book.

Late-beginner to intermediate.

Tunes organized by subgenre.

Strange TAB.

*6) Solo Blues Guitar (Rubin, 2006)

Repertoire – I’m putting this book at the end because it is NOT a fingerstyle blues guitar book.  The examples can be played fingerstyle, but most seem to work best with a plectrum/pick/flatpick.  However, I want to include this book for a couple reasons:

  1. It is focused on solo blues guitar arrangements
  2. I LOVE this book.  These examples are fun and they inspire me to improvise in new ways with new grooves.

Like Rubin’s 12-Bar Fingerstyle Blues, these tunes also feature repetitive grooves alternating with melodic lines and licks, rather than choruses focused on lyrical melodies.

My own books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)]. The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, & then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Comparison #2: Best Fingerstyle Blues Method Books

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If you want to get started playing fingerstyle guitar, you will benefit from private lessons with a teacher, online video courses, listening to fingerstyle recordings, and of course… books.  It is beneficial to mix and match all of these resources.  Remember that everyone’s brain works differently, so you may gravitate more toward certain styles of learning / methods of presentation.  I love learning from books because I can read the text at my own pace and as many times over as I want.  Seeing the music written out is extremely helpful for me – I always had more difficulty keeping track of song forms or chord progressions without some sort of written reference.

So, for those of you who want to utilize a fingerstyle blues book to beef up your chops, I’ve done my homework and I’ve distilled my favorites into this “greatest hits” list.  I’ll try to be objective and describe who each book is best suited to.  Additionally, I’ll separate things out and first tell you about my favorite method books and then my favorite repertoire books.

Method Books

Guided course of study with explanatory text, exercises, example tune arrangements, etc.

Repertoire Books

Tune arrangements and possibly some background info for each tune.

Method Books

** Travis-Style Guitar From Scratch (Emery, 2006)

My all-time favorite book for learning to play solo fingerstyle guitar with an alternating bass or “Travis-style”, which is used in much fingerstyle blues playing. 

Beginnner to intermediate. 

Lots and lots of exercises, smooth difficulty progression, repeated tunes at increasing difficulty levels, text with a sense of humor.

* Fingerstyle Guitar From Scratch (Emery, 2003)

Great for absolute beginner guitar players looking to step into the world of fingerstyle guitar. 

More focused on fingerstyle accompaniment or backup rather than solo fingerstyle guitar.

Now on to my favorite method books that are focused on fingerstyle blues.

1) Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Method (Hamburger, 2007)

Method book – could be the best initial book to work through if you’re just getting started with fingerstyle blues or fingerstyle in general.  Effective organization of topics, progressive exercises, short but fun song arrangements at the end of each chapter.

Primarily aimed at beginner to intermediate, but some of the final chapters are fairly difficult.

Overall, this book provides a great overview of the techniques and approaches used in fingerstyle blues, giving you a solid foundation.

After working through this book, you could move on to any of the other method or repertoire books that I’m about to introduce, where you can refine your skills and technique, learn to improvise, and learn more tunes.

2) Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in the Key of E Major: Books 1 & 2

It is without shame that I present my own books.

These method books are focused on lyrical improvisation over monotonic bass.

  • First priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues in the key of E major, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or jam.
  • You should be up and running by the end of the 3rd chapter, and each subsequent chapter will add icing to your cake.
  • Organized the books so that the concepts and exercises progress logically, thoroughly, and with a smooth difficulty progression.
    • Take care to explain how to immediately apply each concept to your playing.
  • These are essentially one long book split down the middle: Book 2 picks up right where Book 1 left off.  It was just too long – it would have been around 350 pages.
  • I recommend that everyone start with Book 1, which is suitable for all skill levels.
    • Complete beginner players who work through the first few chapters should be able to improvise a satisfying fingerstyle blues solo.
    • Intermediate to advanced players will breeze through the first few chapters, but will hopefully pick up some useful information starting around Chapter 4.
  • Book 2 is more suitable for intermediate to advanced players.
    • It digs deeper into higher level concepts that are more technically and theoretically difficult, but will elevate your playing to new levels.
    • You will learn to play new scales, turnarounds, rhythms, time signatures, key signatures, and more!
  • Again, I recommend that everyone start with Book 1, and then move on to Book 2.
  • When comparing my books to other fingerstyle blues books on the market, most other books focus on playing the blues over an alternating or Travis-style bassline, although they may present some material on using a monotonic bassline.
  • One other book, which, SPOILER, happens to be the next on my list, focuses on playing the blues over a monotonic bassline – Joseph Alexander’s Fingerstyle Blues Guitar.
    • I was honestly very influenced by this book, and I highly recommend it in addition to mine!
    • However, Alexander’s book focuses more on teaching you a bunch of authentic blues language and licks over the monotonic bassline, with less emphasis on putting together a full lyrical 12-bar solo, nonetheless a full multi-chorus performance.  In my books, I actually provide lyrics to help guide the spontaneous creation of melodies.
    • My book starts from a more beginner-friendly place and builds with a much more gradual difficulty progression.  Easier melodies and rhythms at first, with many, many examples.
    • My book also focuses on the bigger picture of putting together a cohesive blues chorus and then a cohesive multi-chorus performance.
  • One other aspect about my book that is very valuable is that I have provided both fretting and picking hand fingering throughout every example.  Optimal fingering is extremely important when learning an arrangement – good fingering choices make playing easier and minimize the potential for mistakes.
  • I have spent a lot of time working through other books, I have real world experience, and I’ve tried to create a series of books that will be most effective at teaching you to actually jam on the blues.

Now, a downside for many of you will be that I can’t currently offer audio recordings (I have 2 little kids and life is incredibly busy!), but I can email you the GuitarPro files for every example if that would be helpful.  I’m also happy to send out videos of specific examples if you reach out. joemcmurrayguitar@gmail.com

Available thru Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)]

3) Fingerstyle Blues Guitar (Alexander, 2015)

Method book, focused on improvisation and licks over monotonic bass.

Late beginner to advanced, like my books, but it is best for intermediate.  It’s honestly a great companion to my books!

Lots of great licks and blues phrases, but not as much explanation about how to apply these phrases into a cohesive blues chorus or multi-chorus performance.

My advice is that you take each phrase from the book and incorporate it into a 12-bar blues.  Then spend time improvising your own similar blues phrases over the 12-bar blues.

Overall, if you want to learn to improvise over the blues using a monotonic bassline, there is a wealth of valuable information in this book, and it takes a wonderful approach, but I think that I have filled in some gaps with my own books.

4) Beginning Fingerstyle Blues Guitar (Berle / Galbo, 1993)

Method book.  Does a good job starting from the basics and providing exercises that progress gradually and logically.  Almost entirely focused on playing the blues with an alternating or Travis-Style bassline.

Beginner players who can play basic chords through to intermediate players.  

This is the first fingerstyle blues book that I’ve come across that provides a great chapter on how to incorporate singing over your guitar playing.

Overall, a very solid purchase if you are a beginner looking to learn to play traditional fingerstyle blues with an alternating bassline.

5) Rainer’s Acoustic Blues Guitar Picking School (Brunn, 2022)

Method book, but minimal text and fairly short book overall.  Valuable info and exercises, but less comprehensive.

Late beginner to intermediate

You will gain important technical/physical skills to play fingerstyle blues, but there isn’t much explanation on how to approach a new blues tune, there’s not much music theory to help you choose the proper notes while improvising, etc.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  It gave me good workouts and I got some new ideas.

6) Fingerstyle Blues (Rivera, 2020)

Inspiring, well-graduated method book for learning to play fingerstyle blues.

However, this is for intermediate to advanced fingerstyle players. 

Each chapter ultimately provides a full performance tune, but starts by describing a new concept or technique (or two) and providing examples that prepare you for the performance song.

Overall, this book has some really cool tunes and ideas, but to be clear, I would not recommend approaching this book until you’ve worked through at least one of the other books that I’ve already mentioned.  You will get more out of this one if you are adequately prepared.

7) Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations (James, 2014)

Last on my list is actually a hybrid repertoire/method book, Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations (James, 2014).

I call this a hybrid repertoire/method book because it is mostly a collection of tunes, but with a few exercises and extra technical explanations and historical anecdotes.

Again, this is a book for learning to play fingerstyle and bottleneck blues. 

Late beginner to advanced fingerstyle players but is best for intermediate players.

This is at the bottom of my list here, but it is good for learning open tunings and how to play fingerstyle blues using a slide.

Before we go, I want to introduce another special book that doesn’t quite fit into the “Method Book” category:

* The New Art of Ragtime Guitar (Saslow, 2011, 2017 2nd Ed.)

This book is essentially a repertoire book of ragtime blues tunes, but the analysis that accompanies each tune is extensive and extremely valuable.

Late beginner to advanced and difficulty progresses with each tune.

These tunes are really fun, and you will gain valuable insight from the analysis.  The author coaches you through fingering choices, his use of guide, anchor, or pivot fingers, etc.  These lessons will make you a better player.

My own books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)]. The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, & then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Review #29: 12-Bar Fingerstyle Blues by Dave Rubin

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Is this one of the best or worst method or repertoire books for learning to play acoustic fingerstyle blues guitar?

You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

12-Bar Fingerstyle Blues by Dave Rubin is another great repertoire book full of 12-bar blues choruses.  I loved the author’s other book, Solo Blues Guitar, and now I recommend this one as well – these fun arrangements inspire me to improvise in new ways with new grooves.  However, unlike the arrangements of his other book, these arrangements all need to be played without a plectrum.  This book has some tunes that late-beginner fingerstyle players could handle, but the book is most appropriate for intermediate players.

The tunes in 12-Bar Fingerstyle Blues contain more repetitive grooves than some of the other fingerstyle blues method books on the market.  Fewer lyrical phrases in the melodies.  Whether that’s what you’re looking for is up to you.  However, I find that these pieces present some great grooves that you can use as the foundation for your own variations and improvisation.

To really get the most out of the book, you will want to:

  1. Learn an example as written,
  2. Understand and internalize the groove – the shuffle, chord stabs, etc.
  3. Create your own melodic variations and improvisations while maintaining the original groove.

By treating each short 12-bar tune as a seed or template for your own creativity, you can really milk these ideas and extend them into longer performances.

This book presents a lot of great 12-bar choruses from various subgenres.  For experienced players, it is very fast to go through the entire book.  Because each tune is a 12-bar chorus, you get a lot of ideas that you can digest, combine, and make into your own in the future.  This book is simple and effective if you know how to use it.

I appreciate the chronological organization of this book, which separates tunes out into subgenres including Delta and Southern Country Blues (the longest section), Ragtime Blues, Piedmont Blues, Prewar Chicago Blues, Texas Blues, Postwar Chicago Blues, and Modern American Solo Steel-String Blues.  Unfortunately, the tunes don’t really follow a clear difficulty progression.  Within each section, multiple keys signatures and grooves are presented, and some happen to be a bit harder than others.

At the beginning of each subgenre, the author presents some cool history and key players to listen to.  I try to set aside time within my practice sessions to listen to lots of recordings of these players.  Personally, I listen on Spotify.  This listening is time well spent as it attunes me to the sounds and feel that I should aiming for as I play the tunes.

12-Bar Fingerstyle Blues provides both treble clef and tablature for each arrangement.  Unfortunately, no fingering is provided in the music.  For each example, I notated my own fingering in the music, after which I was able to play much more smoothly, accurately, and confidently.  The skill of choosing sensible fingering is important, and you will need to look elsewhere to further develop this skill.

Recordings are available online through Hal Leonard’s website.  These will be very helpful to many readers.  As with Solo Blues Guitar, the recordings were done by Doug Boduch, the author of Hal Leonard’s Fingerpicking Guitar, which I reviewed in Review #17.

© 2012 by Hal Leonard

My own books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)].  The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.  Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.

My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Review #28: Solo Blues Guitar by Dave Rubin

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Is this one of the best or worst method or repertoire books for learning to play acoustic fingerstyle blues guitar?

You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Solo Blues Guitar by Dave Rubin is different from any other book that I’ve reviewed thus far in that it is not a fingerstyle guitar book.  The examples can be played fingerstyle, but most seem to work best with a plectrum/pick/flatpick.  However, I want to review this book for a couple reasons:

  1. It is focused on solo blues guitar arrangements
  2. I LOVE this book.  These examples are fun and they inspire me to improvise in new ways with new grooves.

Solo Blues Guitar by Dave Rubin is a repertoire book for learning to play, well… solo blues guitar!  With a plectrum.  This book is suitable for intermediate players who already have some knowledge of the blues and how to improvise.  Each example provides a groove that intersperses melody and lead lines.  To really get the most out of the book, you will want to:

  1. Learn an example as written,
  2. Understand the rhythm guitar groove – the shuffle, chord stabs, etc.
  3. Insert your own melodies and improvisation while continuing to hold down the original rhythm guitar groove.
  4. You can try creating variations to the original groove as well.

Other than a half-page introduction, there is no text in this book.  Only full 12 or 16-bar blues examples:

  • (35) 12-bar, single-chorus examples in the keys of E, A, G, and D,
  • (15) 12-bar, two-chorus, slow blues examples in the keys of E, G, and A, and
  • (5) 16-bar examples with non-standard chord progressions in the key of A.

Solo Blues Guitar provides both treble clef and tablature for each arrangement.  Unfortunately, no fingering is provided in the music.  For each example, I notated my own fingering in the music, after which I was able to play much more smoothly, accurately, and confidently.  The skill of choosing sensible fingering is important, and you will need to look elsewhere to further develop this skill.

Recordings are available online through Hal Leonard’s website.  These will be very helpful to many readers.  Interestingly, the recordings were done by Doug Boduch, the author of Hal Leonard’s Fingerpicking Guitar, which I reviewed in Review #17.

© 2006 by Hal Leonard

My own books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)].  The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.  Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.

My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Review #27: Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations by Steve James

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Is this one of the best or worst method or repertoire books for learning to play acoustic fingerstyle blues guitar?

You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations by Steve James is a hybrid repertoire/method book for learning to play fingerstyle and bottleneck blues.  This book is suitable for late beginner to advanced fingerstyle players but is best for intermediate players.  I would definitely not recommend this book for complete beginners – it starts out too hard for inexperienced fingerstyle players.  The book offers some technical advice as well as fun historical anecdotes and quotes.

There are a bunch of fingerstyle blues books on the market, and I would generally not recommend this book over some of the others.  On the positive side of things, this book excels in its material focused on open tunings and bottleneck slide.  If you watch the included videos, you’ll see that the author is an incredible bottleneck slide player, and that is reflected in these chapters.  On the other hand, I do not like multiple things about this book.

  1. The difficulty progression isn’t very smooth – the book starts out with some difficult (late beginner/intermediate) tunes, and then the difficulty varies from tune to tune.  Part of this is because the open tuning arrangements (starting in the middle of the book) are a bit easier to play.
  2. There aren’t a lot of exercises.  There are some, but this is more of a repertoire book with analysis and technical advice in the text.
  3. I’m not a fan of the way that Acoustic Guitar Magazine lays out their books.  They don’t integrate their text and playing examples.  Instead of text that prepares you for an example, then the example, then more text, then the next example, etc., they usually have the text in a big block, and that text will refer you to the examples which are together in another block.  It requires more jumping back and forth for the reader.  It’s not the end of the world, but it’s not my favorite.

Late-beginner fingerstyle players could utilize Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations as a supplement to a traditional method book:

  • A general fingerstyle method like Alfred’s “Beginning Fingerstyle Guitar,” or
  • A more focused method like Bruce Emery’s “Travis-Style Guitar from Scratch.”

Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations provides both treble clef and tablature for each arrangement.  Neither fretting nor picking hand fingering is provided in the music, but it is sometimes mentioned in the separate text.  You can usually tell which notes should be played with your thumb by looking at the treble clef – bass notes generally have down stems.  Regardless, the skill of choosing sensible fingering is important, and you will need to look elsewhere to further develop this skill.

Videos demonstrating the examples are available online.  These are great.  For me, it was especially helpful while working through the bottleneck slide chapter.

© 2014 by Steve James.

Produced by String Letter Media in association with the Acoustic Guitar Magazine.

My own books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)].  The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.  Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.

My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.

Grateful Dead: “Scarlet Begonias”: Solo Fingerstyle Guitar

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R.I.P. Bob Weir (1947-2026)

Original solo fingerstyle guitar arrangement of the Grateful Dead tune, “Scarlet Begonias” (arr. Joe McMurray). “Scarlet Begonias” was released on the 1974 album, “From the Mars Hotel” and was written by Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter.

TABs are available for purchase through my PayPal link at https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/6D97WM3YV2JS6

If you are interested in purchasing the TABs, be aware that this arrangement is suitable for players with an intermediate skill level.

Performed on my treasured 2023 Collings OM2H guitar.

My books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)].  The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.  Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.

My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.