Acoustique Blues Guitare Intermediaire [Intermediate Acoustic Blues Guitar]: Guitar Book & CD

Gritty and articulate. The focus on extensions and alternate tunings opens up textures that feel less polished than electric jazz but more sophisticated than beginner blues riffs. You'll discover how much resonance and personality an acoustic can hold when you're deliberate about voicing choices.

Guitarists who've mastered fundamental blues forms and are ready to explore harmonic complexity and regional variations. This works for students pursuing jazz and contemporary fingerstyle, as well as those interested in authentic blues vocabulary on acoustic.

• Build your dominant jazz voicings gradually; nail the triad shapes first, then add the extended intervals. Rushing into 6ths and 10ths without solid triad grounding creates muddy sonority.
• When working with open tunings, record yourself playing the same progression in standard tuning, then switch. The contrast forces you to hear the harmonic color change rather than defaulting to familiar muscle memory.
• Use the included CD to slow down the backing tracks if needed. Blues is about phrasing and pocket, not speed; sitting behind the beat deliberately requires careful listening to the rhythm section.
• Approach the different bar structures as compositional tools, not just exercises. A 9-bar blues changes the emotional pacing of your solo; experiment with where you land your strongest phrases.

Place this in the second or third year of a guitarist's development, either as a dedicated blues unit or woven into a broader improvisation curriculum. The accompanying CD makes it ideal for independent study between lessons, freeing up lesson time for technical refinement and performance feedback.

• 12-bar, 16-bar, and 9-bar blues progressions
• Blues scale applications in soloing
• Arpeggio-based improvisation using thirds, sixths, and tenths
• Triad voicings and extensions
• Dominant seventh jazz extensions in blues contexts
• Open tuning techniques and their harmonic implications
• Phrasing and timing within blues rhythmic structure