Blues Guitar Inside And Out [Paperback]

Richard Daniels (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1986

This unique, insightful book tells the story of an old man and a boy as they travel through the history, development, implementation, and universe of the blues. Essential for every guitarist's library.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Cherry Lane Music (December 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089524148X
• ISBN-13: 978-0895241481
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very thorough and enjoyable, June 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Blues Guitar Inside And Out (Paperback)

Unlike any other music book I have ever seen. Rather than simply showing you various licks and techniques to memorize, Daniels goes deeply (really deep) into the theory behind the Blues, chord construction, major, Blues and relative scales, etc. In fact he gives a thorough background into music theory in general. (Though it is strictly via TAB, no standard notation here.)

The information is presented in the form of a story about and Old Man (called "Old Man") who teaches a young boy (called, you guessed it, "Boy") how to swing his axe. It sounds a bit hokey, but it's fun and it works. I guess that's what I like about this book. The info sticks in your brain and in your fingertips.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars kinda dumb, July 24, 2005

By 

Dan Page (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blues Guitar Inside And Out (Paperback)

Well, i didn't really like the whole narrative aspect of the book that much myself. it seemed to me to get in the way of the guitar instruction, and while there was some interesting information and culturization that occured while reading this, it would just be better to listen to some old records or maybe read something that goes into more depth about the music.

the actual instruction was where the book kinda suffered, mostly in the innane notational system that they devised. the different sized dots representing time values was pretty much the most confusing and stupid thing i've ever experienced..., they could have at least spaced them out more equally so you could tell what the values were.

there was some ok info about superimposing the major onto the minor pentatonic to get all the color tones, but then by saying one was the star, the other the crescent, etc. was like... what the hell? It's like they were trying so hard to seperate the instruction from standard music theory, which in principal i can agree with because standard western theory doesn't really cover anything well except for classical music, but then it just invents all these stupid terms and ways of teaching that are totally arbitrary rather than working with the materials that are all over the place in millions of other blues books.

blues you can use is a good series of blues books.

--Dan

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best music book I have found!, February 14, 2006

By 

Scott (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blues Guitar Inside And Out (Paperback)

This book is invaluable! I had piano lessons and guitar lessons as a kid but I never "got it." I read this book, and now I "got it." For the first time ever I know where chords come from, and I know the basics of how notes are chosen for the songs on the radio.

This books focuses on Blues, but the theory part will apply in principal to other styles of music. As for the Blues -- this book is one-stop shopping! Besides the theory from which scales, chords, and songs are made, all the notes for E and A across the entire fretboard are presented. More chords than you want are in there. Drills in E and A are in there. Numerous 12-bar and 8-bar Blues patterns are in there. Fifty little licks are in there. And the history of Blues music is in there.

Invaluable.