ACCORDI - PENTAGRAMMA - TABLATURE / CHORDS - STANDARD NOTATION - TABLATURE

MANDOLIN BLUES From Memphis to Maxwell Street. CD TABLATURE

Mandolin Blues

From Memphis to Maxwell Street
Series: Mandolin
Format: Softcover with CD - TAB
Author: Rich DelGrosso

Travel back in time as acclaimed mandolinist Rich DelGrosso, author of the best-selling Hal Leonard Mandolin Method (00695102), traces the history and music of America's rich blues tradition through the eyes of the mandolinist. Follow the lives of players like Yank Rachell, Howard Armstrong and Charlie McCoy, and then learn their timeless music with standard notation, tablature, and an accompanying full-band CD of all the tunes in the book.

Inventory #HL 00695899
ISBN: 9780634072499
UPC: 073999178531
Width: 9.0"
Length: 12.0"
80 pages

Acknowledgments

Many thanks and hugs for my fiancee, Lisa Henry, for always standing by me, supportive and patient whenever I get into the "mando zone." Baby, you're the best!

It was my late wife Maureen who taught me to write music more than thirty years ago. She opened up my world of opportunity and I will always be grateful. Thank you, sweet Mo.

Thanks to James "Yank" Rachell and W Howard Armstrong for sharing their music and experience with me. Our times spent together changed my life as a musician. They were my teachers, my mentors. Howard inspired me both in my music and my art, and his gentle and warm spirit carried me through some tough times. I miss them both greatly.

This project could not have been completed without the help and support of my colleague and good friend Ernie Scarbrough. His skill as a musician and recording engineer pulled this work togetherl In addition to riding the console, he played bass and drums on the tracks. Ernie, 1 can't thank you enough! Thanks to Hal leonard for the opportunity to bring this great music to the world. After so many years and countless articles in magazines, it is great to now have it all in one volume. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to my many students who work with me in chipping away at the ice. There is so much good music to discover as we study the past together. irresistible music, skilled players, and passionate artists, who can ask for more?

About the Author

Rich DelGrosso is the leading proponent and expert on mandolin blues. The Blues Foundation in Memphis, TN, nominated him for a 2006 Blues Music Award in the Best Instrumentalist category According to Mark Hoffman, co-author of Moanin' at Midnight, the Life and Times of Howlin' Wolf, Rich DelGrosso is "the greatest living blues mandoman, the best since Yank." He has performed at clubs and festi\'als for the past thirty years, mentored by and performing with blues and string-band legends James "Yank" Rachell and Howard "louie Bluie" Armstrong. A respected writer in the blues realm, Rich's work has appeared in Living Blues, Mandolin World News, Frets, Mandolin Magazine, and Footsteps. He has been a writer for Blues Revue magazine since 1991 and an associate editor since 1996. A renowned teacher, his latest workshops have included the Telluride Blues and Brews, the Centrum Blues Workshop in Port Townsend, WA, and Mandolin Camp North, in Boston, MA. He received the "Keeping the Blues Alive" award (KBA) in 1989 from the Blues Foundation for his work coordinating

the Augusta Heritage Arts: Bluesweek. Rich will return as coordinator of Bluesweek in 2007. As his fans will tell you, this is not the same old blues. DelGrosso has a sound all his o,vn. As Przemek Draheim of "The Voice of the Blues" (Radio Bravo, Torun, Poland) wrote, "The sound of your axe is one of the coolest things l've heard in blues' It is old-school, rooted in history, but forging new ground. Rich can stand with any guitar slinger, and he often does!"

Rich's new release, Get Your Nose Gutta My Bizness! featuring Pinetop Perkins, James Harman, and Doug Macleod, is available. Bizness was reported on the Living Blues Top 15 radio charts for

the first four months after its release in the fall of 20051

For more info on Rich DelGrosso

From Memphis to Maxwell Street

the intro to DelGrosso's book by Hal Leonard Pub.

“They were led by a long-legged chocolate boy and their band consisted of just three pieces, a battered guitar, a mandolin and a worn-out bass . . . thump. thump, thump went their feet on the floor. Their eyes rolled. Their shoulders swayed . . . it was not really annoying or unpleasant. Perhaps ‘haunting’ is a better word . . .”

The words of W.C. Handy, band-leader and composer in 1903, describing one of his first encounters with the “blues.” The story continues with the trio exciting the crowd and earning more tip money than Handy’s band. Handy decided to add the “blues” to his repetoire resulting in his claim to be the Father of the Blues.

This is the story of the black mandolinist in America. In the hands of the black string band performers, the mandolin was there to nurture the infancy of ragtime and blues. It’s crisp, tenor voice was a perfect complement to the guitar and piano and its soaring tremolos energized the jug and street bands of the Deep South. An inspiration to composers Scott Joplin and W.C. Handy, the mandolin helped to shape the music that would gradually evolve into rock and jazz and their descendants.

At this point in the American timeline, Memphis, Tennessee, was the center of African-American culture and the crossroads for touring musicians. Players like Vol Stevens, Will Weldon, Eddie Dimmitt and Charlie McCoy added their string band skills to some of the bands of the day, like the Memphis Jug Band and the Mississippi Sheiks. From these collaborations came some of the popular blues/folk/bluegrass chestnuts like “Sittin’ On Top Of The World” and “Stealin.” Most people know of the legendary Chicago bluesman Muddy Waters. But only his hard-core fans are aware that on his first recording on Stovall plantation in Mississippi, Burr Clover Blues, Waters was a member of a string band, the Son Simms Four, with Simms on fiddle and Louis Ford on mandolin.

In the surrounding countryside other musicians and bands flourished. W.Howard Armstrong and Carl Martin and their Tennessee Chocolate Drops performed for medicine shows, parties and fish fries. Yank Rachell traveled about, playing the deep blues with his guitar partner Sleepy John Estes. Young Bill Monroe played guitar with a black fiddler named Arnold Schultz. Monroe then took the fiddle music of his Uncle Penn and the blues from Schultz and blended them together on the mandolin, creating a new American genre that came to be known as bluegrass.

As blacks migrated north to escape the social oppression and poverty of the South, the musicians were among the throngs settling in Chicago, St. Louis, New York and Detroit. The players from Memphis and Mississippi traveled due north to Chicago, and Handy’s Park in Memphis was replaced by the Maxwell Street market as the street-scene-center for the blues folks. Carl Martin and Johnny Young were often seen playing the mandolin with the harmonica and guitar players of Chicago’s Southside. Young often played electric mandolin with Muddy Waters and piano great Otis Spann. Waters had relocated to Chicago, where he popularized the electrified blues combo sound, which was copied by embryonic rockers both in the States and the UK. Blues Rock fans are aware that the greatest rock and roll band, the Rolling Stones, started as a blues band playing “old school” blues covers. Brian Jones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were aware of their roots. They asked Ry Cooder to play Yank Rachell-style mandolin licks on their early cover of Robert Johnson’s “Love in Vain (Let It Bleed, London Records nps-4).”

As more players pick up the mandolin, interest in the work of these seminal artists is growing. In the hands of Ry Cooder, Steve James, Andra Fay, Billy Flynn and others mandolin blues lives today. Everywhere I go people comment on the sound of my playing or on my writing for Mandolin Magazine. They want to know where it comes from.

And so the story begins.

Hampton Institute Hampton, Va. (circa 1898)

Library of Congress, Prints & phographs

The Mandolin in America

The mandolin was in fashion. It was the "rage."

Italians who emigrated from Europe to the u.s. in the 1850s comprised the largest Italian population outside of Italy. They introduced the mandolin to North America. Its popularity as a parlor instrument blossomed quickly and strains of mandolin waltzes, light classical pieces, marches, rags, and cakewalks filled the air of the eastern cities. Women added decorated mandolin cases to their accessories instead of purses. It was "in."

Scott Joplin, one of Americas most prolific and famous ragtime piano composers, was inspired by the bowl-back, eight-stringed instrument when he penned "The Entertainer." As Peter Gammond described this piece in Scott Joplin and the Ragtime Era, he noted that "the first strain [contains] octave chords with an added interior third, although not easy to play, probably have the intended effect of imitating mandolin chording." Joplin dedicated "The Entertainer·' to "Mr. James Brown and his mandolin club." In 1890, American luthiers Lyon and Healy employed Italian and Spanish craftsmen, and by 1897, they were making 7000 mandolins per year! The inexpensive instrument spread across the country and Cleveland and Kansas City were considered mandolin "strongholds." Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery Ward added mandolins to their catalogues as the instruments spread in popularity. In 1914, James Reese Europes African- American Clef Club orchestra was the first to present "pop" music at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Backed by drums, basses, pianos, violins, woodwinds, and twenty-sewn harp Guitars were forty-seven mandolins

Blue Notes, Seventh Chords, Bars, and Back Beats

What is the blues' You would be amazed to hear that even blues fans don't agree on a definition. For some it is strictly racial in origin, music born out of slavery, oppression, and deep poverty. For others it is music that expresses "blue" emotions, or the poetry of the blues. The record industry focused on these criteria as they waxed the early performers, even though these same artists were professional, versatile, and open-minded, playing every type of music under the sun. Imagine Muddy Waters singing a show tune; he did, but it wasn't what the record company wanted. Record vendors likewise struggled with the genre, finding it often difficult to draw the lines between jazz and blues and blues and rock. The racists of the South recognized the sexual energy of Elvis' blues as they tried to ban his imitation of the blues singers he grew up with in Memphis. So the debate rages on, but not for us. We will operate with a working definition of the blues, or what it means when you take the bandstand and say "let's playa blues."

Analyzing the blues style from a music-theory perspective, it's all about:

• Blue notes

• Harmonies based primarily on seventh chords

• Specific predictable progressions (l2-bar, 8-bar, etc.)

• Rhythms driven by back beats

Armed with these simple tools, you can jam on a blues with anyone.

Blue Notes

Blue notes gave the style its name. These notes are the flatted third, fifth, and flatted seventh scale degrees. Today there is plenty of music that employs the flatted third, fifth, and flatted seventh, but in the blues, emphasis on these notes and how they sound dissonant against major scale tones creates the "blues mood." In any given blues, the blue notes are not used exclusively and are often replaced by their natural counterparts, but by giving them more force and duration at key points in a progression, the music is given more feeling and soul. Check out the following scales. The parent major scales are shown first and are followed by the parallel blues scales.

The term "blue note" is sometimes used to describe the tonal area that exists in between the flatted and natural notes. Blues players and singers often bend or slide between these tones-particularly between the natural and flatted third-which creates a major to minor shift. Or happy to sad. This is another distinct blues characteristic.

Maxwell Street

From the 1920s to the present, Maxwell Street in Chicago has served as LheBeale Street of the North. At the crossroads where the poor African-American community merged with the jewish, Maxwell Street was bustling with commerce and music. It was home for many of the people who migrated north and had enjoyed the open-air markets of their birthplaces in the South. It was where musicians met to play and form associations. This led to the great blues bands of Chicago's Golden Age. Muddy Waters lived on West 13^th Street, just a few blocks from the market. He and jimmy Rogers could be heard on the street on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, competing with the squeals of children as they raced about in and out of the merchant stalls, surrounded by the smoke from the pork chop and sausage stands. Snooky Prior and Floyd jones bragged of collecting more money in their buckets than they could ever make in a night at a club.

Photo by Kenji Oda

Bernard Abrams grew up on Maxwell Street in the 1920s. In 1945, he converted his home into Maxwell Radio, TV, and Record Mart, where he sold electric appliances and recordings. Inspired by the music he heard on the street, in the back room of his workshop he created the Ora Nelle label, named after Little Walter jacobs' girlfriend. It was a good business move at the time. The singers, wanting to promote their records, set up in front of the store and drew crowds. Some performers not on the label were still drawn to the store, folks like Elmore james, Aretha Franklin, and B.B. King. At one point Abrams was so successful that his neighbors called him the "Mayor of Maxwell Street" because he owned one square block of it. johnny Young was one of the first to record for Ora Nelle, but it did little to help his career. Pete Welding of Testament Records recorded Young with Otis Spann, Big Walter Horton, Little Walter jacobs, and Robert Nighthawk Young also played with Muddy Waters. These recordings feature some of the best Chicago blues-raw spontaneous, and strong-what Howard Armstrong would call the "low-down, diny blues."

At one point, in the early '70s, Mick jagger was spotted playing on Maxwell Street. The Stones, on tour, stopped in Chicago to explore the roots of their music. They visited and recorded at Chess Records, where they were surprised by Muddy Waters, who was painting the walls. jagger was strolling in the market when he stopped behind Nate's Deli, the "soul food" restaurant of the market. Someone handed him a guitar and he played for the people. Most of the locals didn't have any idea who he was, but they were no doubt amused by his accent.

Today there is a community of blues fans who are trying to preserve a small segment of the street. A new blue record store has opened in what was Leed's Mensware, next to Original jim's Hot Dog Stand at Halsted. This store is also the site for the Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition, who has established a small museum. Piano C. Red and his Flat-Foot Boogie Band still work the street every Sunday, usually in front of the johnnie Dollar Thrift shop, one of 400 vendors open for business.

Maxwell is still the place to go to try out your chops and make a few bucks .

Contents

Introduction

The Mandolin in America

Blue Notes, Seventh Chords, Bars, and Back Beats

Scales.

12-Bar Blues in C ("Quick to the IV")

8- Bar Blues in G ("Circle of Fifths")

Duet in G

Duet in G (Triplets)

Rags, Drags, and Stomps

Coley Jones and the Dallas String Band

Dallas Rag

Jackson Stomp

Knox County Stomp

State Street Rag.

Vine Street Drag

Vol Stevens

The Jug Band

Vol Stevens' Blues

Memphis and Beale Street.

Will Weldon

Will Weldon's Blues

Eddie Dimmitt

Eddie Dimmitt's Blues

The Spectrum of Mandolins

Charlie McCoy

Charlie McCoy's Blues .

A Gig Is a Gig

W Howard Armstrong

Strings and Things

Betty and Dupree.

Howard Armstrong's Blues

Pulling Doors .

Carl Martin

Yank Rachell

Yanks Style and Technique

Yank Rachell's Blues

Early This Morning

A Mandolin for a Pig

Maxwell Street.

Johnny Young

Johnny Young's Blues

Young's 8-Bar Blues ..

Taking the Bandstand

Rich DelGrosso..

DelGrosso's Blues (It's Funk). .

Selected Discography

Mandolin Notation Legend

Tuning Track .

THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR FINGERSTYLE METHOD. LIBRO CON 2 CD E TABLATURE

LIBRO METODO DI MUSICA,  CON 2 CD.

SPARTITI PER CHITARRA FINGERPICKING :

ACCORDI, PENTAGRAMMA E TABLATURE.

The Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Method introduces you to the two most essential fingerstyle approaches for playing American roots music: Travis picking and the steady-bass style. In each lesson, you’ll learn new techniques, concepts, and chord voicings and ways to practice and get them under your fingers. Then you’ll use what you’ve just learned to play a classic song or solo break from the blues, ragtime, folk, country, and ragtime traditions. 18 In-Depth Lessons: Travis Picking Basics - From Backup to Melody - Switching Chords - Eighth Notes and Syncopation - The Steady-Bass Blues - Steady Bass from Chord to Chord - Triplet Feel - Picking Pattern Fills - Descending Bass Lines and Chord Substitutions - Quicker Chord Changes - Double Stops - Seventh Chords up the Neck - Walking Bass Lines - Doin’ that Rag - Chord Anticipations and Early Jazz - Dropped-D Tuning - Swinging the Blues - Open-D Tuning 15 Songs to Play: - John Henry - Since I’ve Laid My Burden Down - Delia - St. James Infirmary - Nobody’s Fault but Mine - Houston Blues - Down in Navasota - Alberta - Hazleton - The Uptown Lowdown - Rag Mama - I Ain’t Got Nobody - St. Louis Blues - The Blunn Creek Slow Drag - Battle Hymn of the Republic

Spice up your fingerstyle blues with this melodic technique. With audio examples.
Full song lyrics
Essential listening suggestions for classic recordings of every songs
Arrangements
complete guitar parts

Whether you are studying with a techer or on your own, let the acoustic guitar method be your guide to joys and pleasures of playing guitar. This comprehensive approach with graded lessons and supplementary songs, is the one tool you need to get started. On the companion CDs you'll hear clear performances of all the music in the book. 

Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Fingersty/e Method. This book focuses on the two most essential fingerstyle approaches for playing American roots music, Travis picking and the steady-bass style. In each lesson, you'll be introduced to new techniques, concepts, and chord voicings and shown ways to practice them and get them under your fingers. Then you'll use what you've just learned to play a new song or solo break. If you mostly play and sing, these lessons will give you the tools to spice up your guitar accompaniment as well as add instrumental breaks, intros, and outros. Ifyou'd sooner dance down the street in your underwear than sing, this book will give you lots of ways to make cool and complete-sounding music all by yourself without ever opening your mouth. Either way, by the end of this book, you'll have a whole new repertoire of tunes to play and a big handful of new chops to play them with. The Acoustic Guitar Fingersty/e Method picks up where the Acoustic Guitar Method left off, and assumes that you're familiar with picking patterns and with at least a dozen essential open-position chords. However, in case you're starting from scratch with this fingerpicking thing, or could just use a little brushing up, in the first lesson we'll review simple picking patterns and how to apply them to chords. (Speaking of which: for a detailed discussion of the theory, construction, and naming of chords, you might check out the Acoustic Guitar Chord Book, written by the very same quirkily handsome and surprisingly coherent gentleman who has the privilege of your attention at the present moment.) So if you think you've already got all these preliminaries in the bag, proceed directly to Lesson 2. Youmay pass Go, but alas, there is no $200 waiting for you. On the flip side, you won't have to sit on your hands for most of the book waiting for Mississippi John Hurt to hit your hotels on Boardwalk or Park Place ... 

Chapter 1 - Introduction.
CD Track: Tune Up

Chapter 2 - Travis Picking Basics.

Chapter 3 - From Backup to Melody.
CD Track: John Henry

Chapter 4 - Switching Chords.
CD Track: Since I've Laid My Burden Down

Chapter 5 - Eighth Notes and Syncopation.
CD Track: Delia

Chapter 6 - The Steady-Bass Blues.
CD Track: Nobody's Fault but Mine

Chapter 7 - Steady Bass From Chord to Chord.
CD Track: Houston Blues

Chapter 8 - Triplet Feel.
CD Track: Down in Navasota

Chapter 9 - Picking Pattern Fills.
CD Track: Since I've Laid My Burden Down

Chapter 10 - Descending Bass Lines and Chord Substitutions.
CD Track: Delia

Chapter 11 - Quicker Chord Changes.
CD Track: St. James Infirmary

Chapter 12 - Double Stops.
CD Track: Alberta

Chapter 13 - Seventh Chords Up the Neck.
CD Track: Hazleton

Chapter 14 - Walking Bass Lines.
CD Track: The Uptown Lowdown

Chapter 15 - Doin' That Rag.
CD Track: Rag Mama (Versions 1 and 2)

Chapter 16 - Chord Anticipations and Early Jazz.
CD Track: I Ain't Got Nobody

Chapter 17 - Dropped-D Tuning.
CD Track: St. Louis Blues

Chapter 18 - Swinging the Blues.
CD Track: The Blunn Creek Slow Drag

Chapter 19 - Open-D Tuning.
CD Track: Battle Hymn of the Republic

By David Hamburger.
Published by String Letter Publishing
Book/2 CDs

BOSSA NOVA GUITAR, Essential Chord Progressions, Patterns, Rhythms and Techniques, Carlos Arana. CD TABLATURE

Series: Guitar Educational
Medium: Softcover with CD
Author: Carlos Arana

Bossa Nova Guitar is intended for a wide range of guitarists, from those with little experience in complex musical styles like jazz, Samba, or Bolero, to highly trained professional guitarists looking to expand their musical palettes. From Joao Gilberto to Antonio Carlos Jobim, the Bossa Nova guitar style has become firmly entrenched in the jazz culture. In this book, you'll gain a strong command of the style, concentrating on these core elements: harmony, rhythms, right-hand technique, chord progressions, essential patterns, and more. Includes a CD.

INTRODUCTION

Bossa nova, an internationally popular style of Brazilian music, was originally developed in Rio de Janeiro, in the late fifties. Precise definition of its origins is uncertain given that there were a number of contributing factors and influences, many of which took place simultaneously and all of which can be considered legitimate precursors. Most musical historians agree, however, that the official "birth" of bossa nova occurred with the 1958 release of Elizeth Cardoso's Can980 de Amor Demais, on which a young guitarist named Joao Gilberto played a song called "Chega de Saudade" written by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moreas. The second defining moment, and the one that truly established the classic sound of bossa nova guitar, was the release of Gilberto's first album as a solo artist, also titled Chega de Saudade, later that same year. It was on this album that Gilberto beautifully demonstrated for the first time all of the principal rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic characteristics that have come to define bossa nova.

Gilberto's work on that record, as well as on his two subsequent albums, was musical genesi. It influenced not only the entire bossa nova movement but also subsequent generations of Brazilian pop musicians. It also established a strong connection with American jazz musicians, many who began to include elements of bossa nova in their own compositions and repertoires. This, in turn, led to a number of albums that had an unprecedented impact around the world. Many of these recordings are still popular today, including such classics as Antonio Carlos Jobim's Garota de Ipanema (Girl from Ipanema), the title track of which is arguably the most popular bossa nova song ever written. Bossa Nova Guitar is intended for a wide range of guitarists, from those with little experience in complex musical styles like jazz, Samba, or Bolero to highly trained professional guitarists looking to expand their musical palettes. To meet the needs of such diverse groups, the first chapter provides a background in bossa nova-related theory so that the reader can better understand the basic concepts that will then be applied in the examples and exercises found in the later chapters.

CONTENTS:

Introduction

Chapter 1: BASIC CONCEPTS

Harmony

Rhythm

Chapter 2: STYLES THAT INFLUENCED BOSSA NOVA

Samba

Origins of the Samba Rhythm, Habanera, Polca, Maxixé

Samba Cancao

Jazz

Chapter 3: RHYTHM

Right Hand Technique

Graphic Representation of the Rhythmic Patterns

Brasileirinho, Maxixé

Adding the Bass

Anticipating Chord Changes

Bass Notes in Bossa Nova

Muting

Bossa Nova Rhythm Patterns

Chapter 4: HARMONY

Preliminary Concepts

Bossa Nova Chords

Bossa Nova Chord Progressions

Chapter 5: PRACTICAL EXAMPLES

Pattern 1

Pattern 2

Compound Pattern: 1 + 2

Pattern 3

Pattern 4

Pattern 5

Pattern 6

Pattern 7

Pattern 8

Miscellaneous Patterns

Chapter 6: COMPLETE SONGS

Song 1

Song 2

Guitar Notation Legend

DJANGO REINHARDT, with Original and Play-Along Recordings, VOL.1. SHEET MUSIC BOOK WITH CD & GUITAR  TABLATURE

LIBRO DI MUSICA MANOUCHE CON CD.

SPARTITI PER CHITARRA CON:

ACCORDI, PENTAGRAMMA, TABLATURE. 

For Guitar TAB with Original and Play-Along Recordings. Django Reinhardt. For Guitar. This edition: Guitar/TAB. Guitar Method or Supplement. Jazz. Book & CD. This amazing compilation is the ultimate way to study the great Django Reinhardt! It includes TAB transcriptions, play-along tracks, and the ORIGINAL Django recordings! Each book contains 10 songs carefully selected for their medium tempos and "easier" chord progressions. Each melody is written out in notation and TAB, and the first full guitar solo is fully transcribed. Learn by listening to the ORIGINAL recordings and then play along with the slowed-down, sound-alike, play-along recordings.

Songs: Belleville - Blues clair - Daphne - Douce ambiance - Les yeaux noirs (Black Eyes) - Manor de mes reves - Minor Swing - Nuages - Swing 42 - Troublant Bolero

BLUES RHYTHM GUITAR, Mus. Inst. Keith Wyatt. SHEET MUSIC BOOK WITH CD & GUITAR TABLATURE. 

LIBRO METODO DI MUSICA BLUES CON CD. 

SPARTITI PER CHITARRA CON :

ACCORDI, PENTAGRAMMA E TABLATURE.

Series: Musicians Institute Press
Publisher: Musicians Institute Press
softcover with CD - TAB
Author: Keith Wyatt
Blues Rhythm Guitar concentrates on the heart of blues music: the rhythm. You'll learn the crucial elements of the style that no guitarist should be without, including blues changes and variations, several shuffle rhythms, slow and fast blues rhythms, how to combine different rhythm parts, and much more. The included CD demonstrates all the concepts and features rhythm tracks so you can try out your newfound skills with a full band. 112 pages

BLUES RHYTHM GUITAR
MASTER CLASS
The Complete Guide to Shuffles, Boogies, Jump, Slow Blues, and Other Blues Styles
by Keith Wyatt

Introduction
The heart of blues lies in the rhythm. Rhythm is not just a back-up part; it's the essential
glue that ties everything together, from the underlying beat of the drums to the vocals and
solos. With a great rhythm feel, you don't need much else. Conversely, without a great rhythm
feel, nothing else amounts to much. Ever since electricity unleashed the guitar as a blues solo
instrument, players have tended to focus the bulk of their time and effort on developing the
guitar's single-note voice, but two facts about guitar playing can't be ignored: First, most of
your career as a player is spent backing somebody up. Second, your solos will always be
inspired, or limited, by your sense of rhythm. Any attempt to separate great blues guitar playing
into "licks" and "rhythm" is ultimately meaningless-neither B.B. King nor Albert King play
many chords, but their phrasing is profoundly rhythmic. At the other extreme, you won't hear
many solos on a John Lee Hooker record, but he built an entire career on a distinctive rhythm
style. After a century of blues-guitar history, it's still the rhythm that holds it all together.
This book is specifically focused on blues rhythm guitar, but the principles of rhythmic
phrasing (e.g., how to capture a drum beat on the guitar, how to break down chords into
usable fragments, and how to mesh with other musicians) go beyond blues-specific vocabulary;
they apply to any groove or musical style. The blues developed during a period of time
in which the dance rhythms of American popular music were almost universally based on the
eighth-note triplet shuffle, and the bulk of this book is devoted to playing that rhythm at various
tempos. For decades, though, artists have been blending blues with other dance
grooves, from funk and R&B to Latin, rock, and disco. (Stevie Ray Vaughan made his debut
on a David Bowie dance-pop record, after all). Today, it's rare to find a blues band that doesn'
t incorporate a variety of grooves in its set, but the feel of the shuffle is still at the heart of it
all. In the end, this book is for anyone who wants to become a better guitar player-period.

How to Get the Most Out of This Book
To get started, you need to at least know the following:
1. The names of the notes on the sixth and fifth strings.
2. How to play major, minor, and dominant seventh chords in both open and barre chord
(movable) voicings.

If you don't have this knowledge under your fingers yet, practically any beginner guitar
method will provide it. (Check out Guitar Basics, by Bruce Buckingham [MI Press/Hal
Leonard], in particular). You might also want to pick up a basic theory book that explains
chord and scale construction (why a ninth chord is called a ninth chord, how scale tones are
numbered, and so on). A good (and admittedly biased) recommendation is Harmony and
Theory: The Essential Guide, by Keith Wyatt and Carl Schroeder (MI Press/Hal Leonard).
If you're a beginning guitar player or new to playing blues, Chapters 1 and 2 cover the
fundamentals of blues rhythm and chords. If you're a more advanced player or you want to
concentrate on expanding your blues rhythm vocabulary, you may want to start from Chapter
3, or just browse through the chapters and listen to the CD until something catches your
attention. The material is not arranged from "easy" to "difficult"-at any point along the way
you may find things that are challenging to your brain and to either, or both, hands. What I've
attempted to do is to break blues rhythm playing into segments, so that by learning how different
rhythm patterns are developed and how they relate to the other instruments in the
band, you can learn to create your own parts.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
How to Get the Most Out of This Book
How to Use the CD

Part I: Medium Shuffles and the 12-Bar Blues
Chapter 1: The Shuffle
Chapter 2: Blues Changes
Chapter 3: Medium Shuffle Part I: Low-range Rhythms
Chapter 4: Medium Shuffle Part II: Mid-range Rhythms
Chapter 5: Medium Shuffle Part III: High-range Rhythms
Chapter 6: 12-bar Variations
Chapter 7: Combining Rhythm Parts
Summary of Part I

Part II: Beyond the Medium Shuffle
Chapter 8: Slow Blues
Chapter 9: Fast Blues
Chapter 10: Beyond the 12-bar Form
Chapter 11: Beyond the Shuffle: Other Rhythms in Blues
Summary of Part II

Appendix
CD Track Listing
Suggested Listening
Guitar Notation Legend

Description
Straight Eighth Notes
Eighth-note Triplets
Triplet Shuffle
Accented Shuffle
Accented and Muted Shuffle
Boogie Pattern
Boogie with Accented Downbeats
Boogie with Accents and Muting
Turnaround in the Key of A
Turnaround in the Key of D
Ending in the Key of A
Ending in the Key of D
Adding the 7th
Separate, Sustained Notes
Adding Bass Notes with the Fourth Finger
Adding Bass Notes while Shifting Position
12-bar Walking Bass Pattern
Bass Riffs
Slapping/Muting Technique
12-bar Bass Riff
Upbeats
Chord Riffs
Riff-chord Variations
Riff Chord
Picking the Fourth String Separately
Sliding into Riff Chords
Legato and Staccato Phrasing Variations
Combined Legato, Staccato and Dynamics
Horn Riff Phrasing
Half-step Embellishment
Two-bar Riff with Whole-step Embellishment (R6)
Two-bar Riff with Whole-step Embellishment (RS)
12-bar Horn-section Riff with Embellishment
Robert Junior Ninth-chord Arrangement
Horn Riff with 13th Chords
Two-bar Horn Pattern Over a Slow Change
Two-bar Horn Pattern Over a Quick Change
B over A
Chicago Turnaround
Adding the IV Chord to the Turnaround
Adapting Two-bar Horn Pattern to the Turnaround
Four Turnaround Examples
Open-string Turnaround in the Key of E
"From the Turnaround" in the Key of G
Regular and Final Turnarounds
"Three Times Around" Ending

Boogie and Fill
Substituting the 4th
Expanding the Fill
Moveable Boogie and Fill
12-bar Moveable Boogie and Fill
Thumb-over Four-string Boogie
E Walking Line
Adding Upstrokes
Walking Line on A, with Upstrokes
V-IV (B-A) Walking Pattern and Turnaround
12-bar Shuffle in E
12-bar Combination Rhythm in G
Adding Chord Embellishments
Hybrid-picked Combination Rhythm
) Slow Blues Bass Riff
Quick-change 12-bar Blues in A
T-Bone-style Slow Blues Rhythm
Phrasing Combinations
12-bar Triplet Rhythm
Jump Blues Walking Line
Uptempo Boogie Pattern
Uptempo Mid-range Chord Riff
Organ-style Rhythm
Albert Collins-style Chord Voicings
Jump Horn Riffs w/ Variations
Two-note Horn-style Rhythm
Two-bar Repeating Riff
Bass Line Combined with Chord Punches
Bass Pattern combined with Two-note Chords
Boogie #1
Boogie #2
Boogie #3
Two-beat Bass Riff
Two-beat Bass Riff
Two-beat Bass Riff
Two-beat Accents and Fills
Eight-bar Progression, Version 1
Eight-bar Progression, Version 2
Sixteen-bar Progression
Blues Rumba Chord Pattern
Blues Rumba Bass/Chord Combination
R&B Combined Guitar/Bass Rhythms
"Chicks" in C
R&B Triplet Ballad
Minor Blues Rhythm with "Chicks & Fills"

Standard blues changes and form
Developing a strong shuffle feel
Useful rhythm parts in high, middle, and low ranges
Fast blues, slow blues, and beyond the 12-bar form

With a great rhythm feel, you don't need
much else. Conversely, without a great
rhythm feel, nothing else amounts to much.
This book is specifically focused on blues
rhythm guitar, but the principles of rhythmic
phrasing (e.g., how to capture a drum beat
on the guitar, how to break down chords
into usable fragments, and how to mesh
with other musicians) go beyond bluesspecific
vocabulary; they apply to any
groove or musical style.