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Review #31: Understanding DADGAD by Doug Young

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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.

Understanding DADGAD for Fingerstyle Guitar is a method book for… learning to play fingerstyle guitar using the wonderous alternate tuning known as DADGAD tuning.  This tuning is often associated with Celtic fingerstyle (Pierre Bensusan and Tony McManus), the British folk revival of the 1960s (Davy Graham), and modern fingerstyle (Andy McKee), but it truly excels in any genre.  

So, if you have some fingerstyle or classical guitar experience and you have an interest in beginning to utilize DADGAD tuning, this book will provide a comprehensive introduction.  Be aware, it is appropriate for intermediate to advanced fingerstyle guitarists.  Do not try to work through this book if you are just starting out with acoustic fingerstyle guitar – you really need to have the basics down before starting in this book.

Understanding DADGAD covers a lot of ground with regards to this alternate tuning, starting out by showing you simple chords, the basics of fretboard navigation, a few easier arrangements, and some accessible ideas for improvisation.  The book provides useful insights into how to leverage your knowledge of standard tuning to facilitate your learning of DADGAD – your 3rd, 4th and 5th strings are tuned the same as in standard tuning, while your 1st, 2nd, and 6th strings are tuned exactly one whole step down.  The book also does a great job introducing you to many of DADGAD’s unique characteristics – the tuning is especially well-suited to the harp-like cross-string technique, the use of drones, and the use of octaves paired with hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides.

Where the book falls a little flat is that it doesn’t effectively show you how to arrange a tune in DADGAD tuning.  Upon completion of the book, you may have a few cool DADGAD tunes that you can play, but you may not know how to apply your newly acquired familiarity with the tuning to other music.  Personally, I am always arranging tunes for fingerstyle guitar, and while some tunes work great in standard tuning or drop-D, others seem to shine in DADGAD.  I recently arranged the Guns ‘N Roses hit, “Sweet Child of Mine,” to beef up my set-list for bars and breweries, and I started out arranging the tune in standard tuning.  It wasn’t sitting right in the original key, so I transposed it a couple times, but still didn’t like the results.  Finally, I arranged it in DADGAD and voila, the result was lush, musically satisfying, and playable/performable.  Here’s a sample of that arrangement.

My recommendation is that all fingerstyle players learn to arrange tunes in standard tuning, drop-D, and DADGAD.  While Understanding DADGAD doesn’t cover this topic, it does give you lots of tools (intervals, cross-string technique, etc.) to use in any future DADGAD arranging.  In my eBook, Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar, I show you how to arrange Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in multiple keys in standard and alternate tunings (including DADGAD).  You can also check out my video/podcast series: Arranging Melodies for Fingerstyle Guitar, in which I show you how to arrange examples from the Essential Elements Guitar Method.  I’ll put a link to these videos in the corner and in the show description.

A nice supplement to Understanding DADGAD would be another book from our author: A DADGAD Christmas, again, also by Doug Young.  This other book contains great DADGAD arrangements of Christmas carols that you can both play and analyze to gain arranging insights.

Understanding DADGAD provides both treble clef and tablature for each arrangement.  Unfortunately, no fingerings are 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 Mel Bay’s website.  These will be very helpful to many readers.

© 2008 by Mel Bay

My own books:

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.

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.  There is an focus on using a monotonic bass to maximize melodic freedom, and there is an emphasis on creating lyrical melodies using actual lyrics.

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.

Arranging Melodies for Fingerstyle Guitar: Essential Elements Example 29

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Welcome back to my mini-series on how to become a better acoustic fingerstyle guitarist through the use of general guitar method books.  I’ll show you how to arrange melodies from:

  • Essential Elements for Guitar: Comprehensive Guitar Method, and
  • Hal Leonard’s Guitar Method Book 1

These books contain many of the exact same exercises.

When you arrange a tune for fingerstyle guitar, your goal is to take an unadorned melody and to put all of that fingerstyle goodness underneath.  This means that you will simultaneously play the melody and the harmony.  Sometimes you’ll even want to add percussive elements.  You want to sound like a full band all by yourself.

My arranging process has been codified in my book Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar, which is available as an eBook which you can purchase through the link below.

In today’s video, I’ll walk you through the process of arranging Example 29 from the Essential Elements book.

My own books:

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.

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.

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.

Arranging Melodies for Fingerstyle Guitar: Essential Elements Example 10

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Welcome to my mini-series on how to become a better acoustic fingerstyle guitarist through the use of general guitar method books.  I’ll show you how to arrange melodies from:

  • Essential Elements for Guitar: Comprehensive Guitar Method, and
  • Hal Leonard’s Guitar Method Book 1

These books contain many of the exact same exercises.

When you arrange a tune for fingerstyle guitar, your goal is to take an unadorned melody and to put all of that fingerstyle goodness underneath.  This means that you will simultaneously play the melody and the harmony.  Sometimes you’ll even want to add percussive elements.  You want to sound like a full band all by yourself.

My arranging process has been codified in my book Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar, which is available as an eBook which you can purchase through the link below.

In today’s video, I’ll walk you through the process of arranging Example 10 from the Essential Elements book.

My own books:

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.

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.

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.

Fingerstyle Progress Through General Guitar Method Books

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General guitar method books are intended to guide beginner players through a comprehensive study of technique, reading standard notation, playing basic chords, etc. However, they can provide a very useful platform for acoustic fingerstyle practice if you know how to use them!  Today we’ll take a look at two widely used guitar method books that are closely related:

  • Essential Elements for Guitar: Comprehensive Guitar Method (Will Schmid and Bob Morris), and
  • Hal Leonard’s Guitar Method Book 1 (Will Schmid and Greg Koch)

For years, I used the Hal Leonard Guitar Method with my kid students, but at some point, I came across the Essential Elements book (which is also published by Hal Leonard).  This book shares Will Schmid as an author, and most of the treble clef exercises and melodies are exactly the same, but there are a bunch of extra tunes mixed in to give students more chordal practice.  Other than about $3 in price difference, there is really no reason to ever buy the Hal Leonard Guitar Method.

These books do have value to beginner players who just picked up a guitar and have no idea where to start.  You can’t go wrong working through a general method book, especially with a teacher who can ensure that you are developing the proper technique, who can introduce appropriate supplemental repertoire, etc.  However, if you are trying to teach yourself to play guitar, a general method book will certainly get your farther than watching random YouTube videos.  A book like this will guide you from point A to point B in a linear, sensible course of study, whereas YouTube videos tend to jump around from topic to topic according to YouTube’s algorithm rather than your best interest as an aspiring guitarist.

Now, I almost never work with adult students straight through a book like this, as many of them already have some experience and have somewhat clear musical goals that may be better served with a more focused book.  For example, there are fingerstyle method books for my fingerstyle students, there are classical method books for my classical students, and so on.

However, having spent over a decade teaching kids out of these books, I have found that many of these melodies make great platforms for fingerstyle guitar!  In a typical guitar lesson, a teacher may ask their student to perform a melody from the book.  The teacher will generally either watch and listen closely or they will provide some sort of accompaniment – that is,

  • They will play the melody in unison with the student to help guide them,
  • They’ll play a harmony that is written out in the book, or
  • They’ll strum the chords. 

Over the years I started accompanying my students with solo fingerstyle versions of the tunes to provide both their melody and the underlying harmony.  This has proven to be helpful to my students, challenging and satisfying for myself, and fun for all.

I’m planning to do a series of videos breaking down how I create these little arrangements.  My process has been codified in my book Arranging for Fingerstyle, which is available as an eBook which you can purchase through the link in the show description below.  However, for this first video, I’ll just give you a sample of how I transform some of the exercises.

My own books:

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.

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.

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.

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.