Customer Reviews

Country Blues Guitar (Book & CD) (Stefan Grossman's Early Masters of American Blues Guitar)

5 star:		(3)
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3 star:		(2)
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Stephan Grossman has many years experience playing guitar and learning Blues Guitar from the masters. His books reflect his knowledge and experience. The pieces are actual transcriptions of various Country Blues artists, and they include clear explanations, background information, and even a CD of the artists playing each song. You couldn't go wrong with this or any of Mr. Grossman's method books.

This book is a must if you want to learn country blues guitar. Great selection, thorough transcriptions, and -- most important -- a cd with the real masters playing the tunes. I never thought I'd be able to learn Cincinnati Flow Rag but after spending a couple days with this book & cd I'm picking it like crazy.

What is not obvious about this very nice collection by Stefan Grossman is that the CD has the original blues men playing the songs. And they are awesome! I almost fell out of my chair when I realized that, put the CD into a player, put on the headphones, and heard the masters.

I'm an okay guitarist, and with time I might learn these pieces from the transcriptions, but it doesn't matter. Hearing the originals that Mr. Grossman gives you from the archives has no price. Right from the beginning with Scrapper Blackwell, you will be amazed.

Enjoy, and thank you, Stefan Grossman.

Are the tab "arrangements" the same as the actual recordings that appear on the CD? For example, to my ears, the first song, Blue Day Blues, on the CD, doesn't seem to match up with the transcription. The first high notes sounds like its at the 9th fret-high E string, not the 5th fret.

I'm an advanced beginner - intermediate player. First, it's written in the "other" tab notation (non-standard). The songs are greatly simplified...basic fingerpicking, with none of the extra "licks", songs are also abbreviated. I wouldn't purchase again. The old recordings of the original music vary greatly in volume. It's very hard to find good transcriptions of any style fingerpicking music.