The Complete Acoustic Blues Method: Intermediate Acoustic Blues Guitar: Guitar Book & CD

This book respects the intermediate player's readiness to move beyond 12-bar basics into real harmonic and stylistic depth. Manzi's progression from scale-based soloing through jazz blues and open tunings to fingerstyle arrangements mirrors how working musicians actually develop, rather than padding out pages with repetitive exercises.

The music unfolds with the confidence of a player who has lived inside these styles long enough to articulate what's actually happening harmonically and melodically. You move from analytical study into hands-on application, feeling the difference between a pentatonic phrase and an arpeggio-driven one, then bringing that understanding into fingerstyle arrangements that honor the acoustic blues tradition.

Acoustic guitarists who've mastered foundational technique and basic 12-bar blues and are hungry to understand the harmonic and stylistic dimensions that separate competent blues players from compelling ones. This book assumes you read music, know your fretboard geography, and want structured guidance rather than trial-and-error learning.

• Record yourself playing the backing tracks at different tempos to isolate problem passages. This reveals timing issues that you might not catch in real time.
• When learning the fingerstyle pieces, separate the bass line from the melody completely first. Once each voice sits comfortably under your fingers independently, layer them back together.
• Experiment with the open tunings on pieces you already know before diving into the written examples. Familiarity with the song will help your ear adjust to the new sonorities faster.
• Use the chord examples as jumping-off points rather than destinations. Once you understand how 3rds, 6ths, and 10ths function within a progression, improvise your own voicings over the same changes.

Assign this as independent study material for intermediate students during the summer or winter break, returning with new repertoire to perform at recitals. Alternatively, use the scale and arpeggio sections in group lessons as a bridge between technique drills and improvisation work, then have students choose a fingerstyle piece for a solo program or informal performance.

• Extended blues progressions (12-bar, 16-bar, 9-bar variations)
• Scale-based and arpeggio-based blues soloing
• Intervals and chord voicings (3rds, 6ths, 10ths, triads)
• Extended dominant chords and jazz blues harmony
• Open tunings and alternative tuning systems
• Fingerstyle technique and polyphonic arrangement
• Reading standard music notation in blues contexts
• Improvisation over complex harmonic changes