The Serious Guitarist: Blues Chops: Guitar Book & MP3 CD

Focused and purposeful. Every exercise has a clear blues application, so you're building strength while staying grounded in the phrasing and flavor of the genre. The MP3 accompaniments keep the work musical rather than mechanical.

Intermediate to advanced guitarists who want to strengthen their technical foundation specifically within blues idioms. This book works for self-taught players filling technique gaps and for ensemble guitarists who need to sharpen their chops in styles they actively perform.

• Work through the bending exercises slowly with the MP3 demonstrations, matching your pitch to the recordings before gradually increasing tempo.
• Practice shuffle rhythms with a metronome at half speed, locking in the feel before moving to the recorded examples.
• Isolate finger independence drills from the blues context first, then reintegrate them into the full examples to build muscle memory in musical context.
• Use the MP3 CD to develop your ear for blues phrasing while your hands are building the technical foundation.

Assign this as supplemental technical work for ensemble guitarists during rehearsals that don't require full group attendance. It's also ideal for private lesson contexts where a student wants to deepen blues technique between lessons on repertoire.

• Bending technique with intonation control
• Shuffle rhythm patterns and variations
• Blues turnarounds and phrasing
• Blues trills and ornamentation
• Finger strength, flexibility, and independence in blues contexts
• Listening and ear training through MP3 demonstrations