12-Bar Blues (Inside the Blues) [Paperback]

Dave Rubin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Inside the Blues | Publication Date: March 1, 1999

The term "12-bar blues" has become synonymous with blues music and is the basis for an incredible body of jazz, rock 'n' roll, and other forms of popular music. This book/CD pack is solely devoted to providing guitarists with all the technical tools necessary for playing 12-bar blues with authority. The CD includes 24 full-band tracks. Covers: boogie, shuffle, swing, riff, and jazzy blues progressions; Chicago, minor, slow, bebop, and other blues styles; soloing, intros, turnarounds, accompanying keyboards and more. In standard notation and tablature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793581818
• ISBN-13: 978-0793581818
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 8.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave Rubin is a NYC blues guitarist, teacher, author and journalist. He has written over 50 books for the Hal Leonard Corporation, being nominated for a Paul Revere Award for 12 Bar Blues, and conducted over 200 interviews for all of the major guitar and blues magazines. Currently he writes for Guitar Edge Magazine. In 2005 Dave won the Keeping the Blues Alive Award in Journalism from the Blues Foundation in Memphis. He has performed with Chuck Berry, Son Seals, Johnny Copeland and others.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Riff Building, February 4, 2004

By 

Stephen C. Watson (Houston, Texas and Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 12-Bar Blues (Inside the Blues) (Paperback)

If you want to play in a blues band, you better know these riffs. I would say memorize this book so you can play it in your sleep. There isn't alot of fancy stuff in here, but it is the foundation you need.

Before I ran into this book as well as a teacher who taught me similar stuff, I had been playing for years and thought I was pretty good - but I always fell apart when I tried to play with others. That's because I did not have these basic building blocks.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great book for blues fundamentals, March 23, 2007

By 

Tinpanalley "yonderwall" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 12-Bar Blues (Inside the Blues) (Paperback)

I am a beginning guitar player and this book has been a tremendous help. This is a book that you will use a little at first then return to it over time. For me some of the chord shapes are still a little difficult so what I often do is use my chord book (ISBN 0947183094) to find easier versions of the chords.
Also I just wanted to say that the thing that makes this book so valuable is the fact that after you learn one of the lessons you will find that you are now armed with a technique that allows you to play many different songs for example: the riff to good morning little school girl is in the book. After I got fairly comfortable with that I found that I could play born under a bad sign, sunshine of your love etc. there are many songs that use that same combination of notes just varied in timing and order a little. That seems to be the case with chord progressions as well. If you are a beginner like me, remember to play chords that are easy at first then progressively try to play the more difficult ones. Eventually you will be able to play the same chords the pros use. Also as a beginner you probably use open chords. You won't really see how the chords work until you use bar chords so start incorporating those into your playing. I would recommend the F bar chord and the B minor bar chord as there are really no good open chord versions of those. Also learn the A D E bar chord combination at the 5th and 7th frets.
I used to think that the more guitar books I owned the better guitarist I will be. That has not proven to be true. I probably have 30 or so guitar books on the shelf and of those 30 I only use maybe 5, one of which is this 12 bar blues book, the other being Progressive guitar chords.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good intro to the blues, September 18, 2006

By 

J. Robinson "starcatjr" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 12-Bar Blues (Inside the Blues) (Paperback)

This book introduces the fundamentals of blues chords and basic 12-bar progressions. It is on the beginner side, and while it provides a great basic course on blues styles and chords, it doesn't pay much attention to rhythm patterns, and theory is given out in small doses.

The book has progressions in different keys to get you going with a variety of styles, including your basic slow blues, shuffle rhythms, swing & boogie, riff blues and some cool jazz stuff, etc. Most examples are moveable chords, so it gets you playing all over the neck. The explanations are low key but pretty good, pointing out info on the sounds and tonality of the different chords, and some advice on getting a good sound.
There are also sections including some generic but cool turnarounds and intros, and a couple pages about soloing.
Don't think you'll be blazing open mic night after this book, but you will have a good foundation in chords and 12-bar progressions.