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Fingerstyle Blues

Review #12: The New Art of Ragtime Guitar by Richard Saslow

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Is this one of the best or worst method books for fingerstyle guitar?

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

Richard S. Saslow’s The New Art of Ragtime Guitar is a fun, well-graduated repertoire + analysis book for learning to play the fingerpicking guitar style known as ragtime guitar.  It is aimed at intermediate and advanced fingerstyle players, although late beginners can certainly take a stab at the first couple tunes.  The book teaches ragtime guitar through studies of 8 tunes of increasing difficulty.  Each tune is broken down into sections with around 6 measures of the music (treble clef and tablature) on one page and a detailed analysis on the facing page.  Full condensed tunes are in the back of the book.

Out of the author’s eight original tunes, seven are standard sounding ragtime tunes and one is a blues.  Among the ragtime tunes, there is a bit of variation in feel from upbeat and happy to bluesy and minor to jazzy.  There are also several key signatures and some unique harmonizations.  All of the ragtime tunes utilize an alternating bass line as well as some short segments of walking bass line.  The blues tune mainly uses a monotonic bass typical of the Texas blues fingerpicking style.

This is not a method book for learning the basics of fingerstyle guitar in a logical progression from your first notes through to mastery (check out Alfred’s Beginning Fingerstyle, Hal Leonard’s Fingerstyle Guitar, or Mel Bay’s Complete Chet Atkins Guitar Method).  However, there are about 20 pages of introductory text discussing equipment, notation, the ragtime style, and technique.  There is definitely some useful information in this section, especially for novice players.  However, I wouldn’t get too caught up reading this entire section all at once – I would recommend jumping into the tunes which often refer you back to the technique sections of the introduction.  Read the detailed stuff then!

Where the book really excels is in its presentation of the music and its corresponding analysis.  As I mentioned before, for each ragtime tune you will see ~6 measures of music on one page and the detailed analysis on the facing page.  This analysis features detailed directions, techniques, and other tips for the 6 measures at hand.  I usually play through the music once, and then go through the analysis carefully, marking fingerings, anchor fingers, guide fingers, etc. into the music as well as into the condensed version of the tune in the back of the book.  The analysis really does give you insights into how to properly play these tunes (and future tunes from any source) smoothly and musically.

  1. Authentic sounding fingerstyle ragtime tunes.
  2. Good difficulty graduation.
  3. You will spend much more time playing music than analyzing music theory. 
  4. Online recordings of each tune are available.

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.

Independently published by the author via Acoustic Truth.  © 2011, 2017 (2nd edition)

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

Riding the Wave: my second fingerstyle guitar album is available on all streaming platforms.

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album will be released in January 2024. The first single, “Open Road,” was released 10/20/23. Watch it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C

Review #9: Complete Country Blues Guitar Book by Stefan Grossman

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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. No audio access, but there are lots of listening recommendations that are helpful.

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 http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.

Riding the Wave: my second fingerstyle guitar album is available on all streaming platforms.

Review #8: Fingerstyle Blues Guitar by Joseph Alexander

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

Joseph Alexander’s Fingerstyle Blues Guitar (published by Fundamental Changes) is an excellent book for learning the fundamentals of fingerstyle blues guitar with either a monotonic or alternating bass.  While this book does have some beginner friendly material, it will especially resonate with intermediate or advanced players.  It is also great for non-fingerstyle blues, rock, or jazz guitarists looking to cross over into fingerstyle blues.  The first half of the book is focused on improvising lead melodies over a monotonic bass (mostly E minor pentatonic over an open 6th string), and the second half of the book is focused on blues chord progressions and picking patterns, soloing over blues progressions, turnarounds, bass lines, and two short studies.

This book presents lots of licks to teach you how to play over a monotonic bass line.  If you haven’t ever improvised using pentatonic scales, then you may find yourself just learning and memorizing cool blues licks.  If you really want to get the most out of this book, then you need to spend time incorporating the phrases into blues progressions and improvising your own blues phrases over blues progressions.  I suggest mastering each example with the monotonic bass (open 6th string) and then playing it over a 12-bar blues progression.  For each technique presented in the book, I suggest coming up with your own phrases using that technique – if the book presents examples using slides, then improvise using slides.  Then improvise using slides over an entire 12-bar blues progression.  A great practical goal would be to play actual blues tunes with some improv in the middle.

The second half of the book provides a bunch of accompaniment patterns over the I, IV, and V chords, and it provides some melodies on top of the chords.  There is a section on turnarounds, a short section on bass lines, and a final section with two short “studies.”  By the time you get through all of this you should have a decent idea of how to play a generic or improvised fingerstyle blues with a variety of feels in the keys of E and G.  Aside from the studies, there aren’t any actual tunes in this book, but you’ll have the tools to learn them from other sources.

  1. Authentic fingerstyle blues lines and grooves
  2. Good difficulty graduation – examples build off each other and get gradually more complex and difficult.  Cohesive feel especially to the first half of the book.
  3. No actual fingerstyle blues tunes to learn other than two short studies.
  4. Online audio access is really helpful – difficult rhythms and feel are much easier to learn with the audio tracks.
  5. No fingerings for right or left hand for much of the book.  Chapter 1 and Chapter 7 do have some picking hand fingering.
  6. Some examples are difficult to play on an acoustic guitar because of whole step bends.  You can always substitute slides for these big bends.

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.

For most of the tunes you could use an acoustic steel string or electric guitar.  You could use a nylon string classical guitar if necessary, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Published by Fundamental Changes.  © 2015

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

Riding the Wave: my second fingerstyle guitar album is available on all streaming platforms.