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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.
