Real Blues Guitar: Guitar Book & CD

This method cuts through generic guitar instruction to teach blues on its own terms. Chipkin grounds the learning in actual master players, so students aren't just memorizing technique in a vacuum; they're studying the phrasing, timing, and soul that made these musicians essential.

This music throbs with the bent notes, unexpected timing, and emotional directness that define blues guitar. You'll feel the difference between playing notes correctly and playing them with the grit, patience, and soulful phrasing that made Albert King, B.B. King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan unforgettable.

Guitarists with basic playing ability who want to move beyond generic instruction into the real language of blues. Whether you're developing a blues vocabulary for jazz playing or pursuing blues as a primary focus, this method assumes you can already handle fundamental chord and rhythm patterns and are ready to learn authentic style.

• Study the recorded examples carefully before attempting to replicate them. The CD captures nuances of phrasing and feel that tablature alone cannot convey.
• Focus on the rhythmic placement of notes rather than just hitting the right pitches. Blues is as much about when you play as what you play.
• Listen repeatedly to recordings of the featured masters outside this method. Building your ear for authentic blues tone and expression will inform every technique you practice here.
• Spend time experimenting with dynamics and sustain on each technique before moving forward. The difference between a note and a blues note lives in how you shape it with your hands.

Use this as the core text for any blues elective or guitar performance track that aims for authenticity rather than surface-level understanding. It works equally well for individual study or small group instruction, and the included CD makes it accessible for students working independently outside rehearsal.

• Blues rhythm guitar patterns and comping techniques
• Single-note lead lines and melodic phrasing in blues contexts
• Bending, sliding, and vibrato techniques specific to blues expression
• Reading tablature and understanding how it communicates blues articulations
• Recognizing and applying stylistic approaches from major blues guitarists