Blues Rhythms You Can Use: A Complete Guide to Learning Blues Rhythm Guitar Styles [Paperback]

John Ganapes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2009

Focuses on developing rhythm playing chops via 21 progressive lessons covering a variety of blues styles and techniques, including: basic theory and blues rhythms; major and minor blues; 8th, 16th and triplet rhythms; extensions; passing chords and chord fragments; lead-rhythm style; funky blues; jump blues; blues rock; and more. The book features standard notation and tab, and the CD includes 42 full-band tracks.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation; Pap/Com edition (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423456637
• ISBN-13: 978-1423456636
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 8.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Good Addition to a Good Series, January 28, 2010

By 

Joe Chicago (Chicago, Ill USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Blues Rhythms You Can Use: A Complete Guide to Learning Blues Rhythm Guitar Styles (Paperback)

This book has given me a lot of good creative ideas for playing blues, and it has filled in some of the gaps I had about playing blues rhythm. I like the clear tables of contents in Ganapes' books, which let me skip around to a particular topic easily when I need to. It won't teach you to play "soulfully", as another reviewer complains, but no book can teach you that. It can give you a solid technical education about playing blues rhythm. I have all the other books by John Ganapes, and they are all pretty good. I recommend going through this book between Blues You Can Use, and More Blues You Can Use. An added bonus is the Blues You Can Use website, where you can ask the author questions concerning his books and playing the guitar in general. John Ganapes is an excellent resource for guitarists.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very Very Basic: Good For What It Is, November 23, 2010

By 

D. MILLS (Manassas, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blues Rhythms You Can Use: A Complete Guide to Learning Blues Rhythm Guitar Styles (Paperback)

This is good for the beginner level guitar student who has a lot of time alone and doesn't play in a band. The book illustrates some very simple blues rhythms in various different styles, mostly slow blues but a couple of faster upbeat blues rhythm riffs. There is some introductory level music theory included in the lessons.

That's about it.

I enjoyed it. It was fun. I don't think I learned a whole lot though.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A lot of good ideas., December 21, 2011

By 

Minnesott Sailor (Minnesott Beach, NC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Blues Rhythms You Can Use: A Complete Guide to Learning Blues Rhythm Guitar Styles (Paperback)

I bought this book along with the other Blues You Can Use books and this is a good companion to the other books. I've gleaned a lot of ideas from this book for playing blues rhythm. I am more interested in being a solid rythym player than I am a soloist. When I pared this book up with the BYCU Chord book and the BYCU Jazz up your blues book, I have a ton of ideas and I'm doing things as a rythym player that causes heads to turn. I did discover that with these Ganapes books, you should spend about a week on each chapter, work on the exercises first and then work on the practice songs. This book presents just about every blues rythym imaginable and provides solid technical education about playings those rythyms. I have all the other books by John Ganapes, and they are all pretty damned good. I highly recommend going through this book. In a matter of a year, I've gone through the Blues You Can Use and the More Blues You Can use and the Jazz up Your Blues and this series of lessons has given me the technical knowledge to play blues, I just had to add a little of my own soul. Best educational material I've found on the blues.