Customer Reviews

Acoustic Blues Guitar/157

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been playing for two years. I've worked very hard at it. But I got nowhere. Then I bought this book. The guy at the store said, "This book ROCKS". He was right. It has lifted me from the "I can't play a thing" level to the "dude, you've really gotten good" level in about three months. I've bought maybe 50 guitar books, and although a few of them have been very good, none of them (except for a John Hurt book & CD combo) even approaches this one. If you've tried to learn fingerpicking and given up in frustration, then buy this book. It will make the difference. Guaranteed. The first things you learn are all very simple, but each successive tune cleverly builds on what you've learned so far, and adds just a little bit more. Kenny plays each piece slowly and then quickly, unlike those Mel Bay books where they play everything at blazing speed. In short, I can't find a single bad thing to say about this book. It would have been worth ten times what they charged me for it.

I happened upon Kenny Sultan quite by chance when I was taking a fingerstyle class at the National Guitar Workshop. The teacher threw me a copy of this book to work on because I was too advanced for the beginners class I was in, but not at the level to check out any of the fingerstyle seminars with Martin Simpson, Paul Rishell etc.. In any case, my first love is the blues and ragtime, and those couple of days with this book had me hooked. When I got home I went right out and bought this book and, at the risk of sounding sappy, it changed my life. My work schedule prevented regular jam sessions and strumming chords was boring as hell with no one to jam with. This book took me to a whole new level of playing and has brought great joy to those hours between work and bed. The cassette is invaluable, the tunes soulful and you even get to dip a little toe into some ragtime and slide licks. You will quickly want to find other books by Kenny and probably start scouring the guitar shops for a National or Dobro. This is easily the finest fingerstyle blues guitar book I have ever seen. And the author is not only a helluva player, but a fine gentleman, too. A letter I sent him asking for some tips on double time bass runs was answered in a week.

Very fun book if you just want to impress your friends with a couple of nice songs (above all the not-Kenny songs are worthwile). Good for a starter to learn some blues basics (though picking technique is not explained at all!!!). But, if you are an intermediate that looks for a jump forward, beware: this book won't teach you a lot, no scale, no harmony, no improvisation, just some nice tunes.

The Introduction and Acoustic Blues books are excellent selections of tunes that progress from easy to quite challenging, but the real power is in the cassettes and CDs. My classical music training left me a somewhat skilled, mechanical and metronomically precises blues guitarist. The commentary and examples give excellent explanations of techniques for playing more loosely in a bluesy style without loosing musical control. I highly recommend these books

While I haven't put much time into practicing, it's not hard to see why this book and CD get great reviews. Sulton starts you out with some basic moves, and progresses into some great tunes that will definitely impress you and your friends. His teaching style is very laid back, and his pace is easy going.

I would say that anybody who has the time to practice these songs, regardless of your playing level, will master them quickly. And, by using what you've learned here, it would be easy to improvise and come up with some similar tunes of your own.

This is a great book. If you've never played the blues before, like me, this is the book for you. You start out with some basic shuffels and move right into some fun and impressive songs. It takes some focus and practice but by working with the book and CD a little every day, you'll find new joy and passion in that old accoustic sitting in the corner. If you're sick of strumming through songs and want to let the guitar "sing" for you, you won't regret buying this book.

This is an excellent book to learn to play blues in a relatively short time. It gives you the notes and the examples on the CD are very helpful. You have to add the feeling.
Shuffles and several blues pieces make this book one of the best choices to learn to play acoustic blues. The other one is Fingerpicking Blues for guitar. Combine both and you'll be playing very cool blues.

I can't speak highly enough about this book. I've been wanting to learn fingerstyle guitar for years and have been through a number of books and a few lessons trying (unsuccessfully) to learn.

His teaching method and his song picks are both excellent. The included CD is great. He includes both slow and fast versions of each song and explanations of the more complicated measures.

Great Work!

Get the accompanying video. Great for people who have been playing for about an year and have basic knowledge. Great for acoustic blues and the side effect will be that you will also learn fingerstyle which can be later used for other styles of music as and when you progress.

I was exceedingly grateful to stumble across Kenny Sultan's methods in Acoustic Guitar mag. They seemed to get you truly playing blues even while still learning at half-speed ! So getting this book was a must and to be exposed to so many blues styles and ideas in one book, without being overloaded speaks volumes for Kenny's approach. Great for your chops..and great for your knowledge. Kenny Sultan..does a top job for blues guitar.