Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: Book 2: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in the Key of E Major

Whereas Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: Book 1 was designed to quickly get you playing and improvising a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, Book 2 digs deeper into higher level (technically and theoretically difficult) concepts that will elevate your playing to new levels. You will learn to play using new scales, turnarounds, rhythms, time signatures, key signatures, and more!

I have organized the book so that the concepts and exercises progress logically, thoroughly, and with a smooth difficulty progression. I take care to explain how to immediately apply each concept to your playing. This book is suitable for intermediate to advanced players who have worked through the material of Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: Book 1.
Throughout the book, you will work to gain freedom within the structure of the 12-bar blues. You will:

1. Learn to maintain the 12-bar form (the structure),
2. Build the technical facility so that your fingers can play the notes that you want to play, and
3. Acquire the knowledge of what notes you could or should play.

*****We will focus on playing the blues over a monotonic bassline. This approach provides maximum melodic freedom with minimal effort. I think that you should eventually explore “Travis style” or alternating basslines in your blues playing (see Chapter 16), but not before spending some serious time with monotonic basslines.

So, I’m not here to teach you every authentic Robert Johnson lick and every subgenre of fingerstyle blues. You won’t learn and memorize a bunch of new tunes. However, I will clearly lay out how to create a solo fingerstyle guitar performance in which you improvise over the 12-bar blues structure. You will master ONE platform through which you can channel endless creativity.

Highlights from the Index:

• Chapter 8: More Notes – Expanded Sonic Palate
  • 8A) E Dorian Scale
  • 8B) Targeting Chord Tones
  • 8C) Minor 3rd to Major 3rd Rolls
  • 8D) Lyrical Choruses Including All New Notes and Approaches

• Chapter 9: Turnarounds
• Chapter 10: Triplet Rhythms and 12/8 Time
• Chapter 11: Unaccompanied Melodies
• Chapter 12: Quick IV Chord in Bar 2
• Chapter 13: Building a Performance with Multiple Choruses
• Chapter 14: Areas for Independent Study
  • 14A) Learn Actual Blues Melodies
  • 14B) Up the Fretboard
  • 14C) Double Stops
  • 14D) Natural Harmonics
  • 14E) Open String Rakes
  • 14F) The Major Pentatonic Scale
  • 14G) The Major Blues and Mixolydian Scales

• Chapter 15: Other Keys and Alternate Tunings
• Chapter 16: Alternating / Travis Style Basslines
• Appendix A: Essential General Music Theory
• Appendix B: Music Theory Specific to Fingerstyle Blues