Mel Bay Duck Baker's Fingerstyle Blues Guitar 101 [Sheet music]

Duck Baker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2004

A collection of 12 great acoustic blues guitar solos by Duck Baker in notation and tablature. The solos are intermediate to advanced in difficulty and successfully capture the earthy myriad of influences comprising classic American blues guitar stylings. Chords, scales, keys and turnarounds for the blues are taught in this method book. Standard notation and tablature. All songs from the book are included on the CD.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Duck Baker was born Richard R. Baker IV in Washington, DC in 1949 and grew up in Richmond, Virginia. His teenage years were devoted to playing the rock and blues bands before becoming interested in fingerpicking in local coffeehouses. Ragtime pianist Buck Evans was a major influence on Baker's developing interests, which by the time he moved to San Francisco in 1973 included rags, blues, old-time country, Cajun, bluegrass and New Orleans jazz. This variety inspired the title of his first solo record, "There's Something for Everyone in America," in 1976. During the next four years, Baker recorded four more solo records, including one devoted to swing, one to modern jazz and one to Irish and Scottish tunes, and appeared on nine others. He also wrote a book of fiddle tune arrangements and toured incessantly throughout America, Canada, Europe and Australia. He changed address almost as constantly, finally winding up in Europe for most of the '80s. He returned to San Francisco in 1987 and finally to Virginia in 1991. Most of his more recent solo recordings have featured his own compositions, an aspect of his work that has drawn particular praise from other guitarists. If Baker's insistence on studying and performing so many facets of folk and related music, from medieval European carols to avant-garde jazz, have made him somewhat difficult for the press to categorize, he certainly has earned the respect of his peers. A check list of musicians with whom he has been associated professionally (in performance or on records) would include blues man Charlie Musselwhite and Jerry Ricks, bluegrassers Tim O'Brien and Dan Crary, traditionalists Ali Anderson and Brian MacNeil, new music icon John Zron, rock legend J. J. Cale, and jug band king Jim Kweskin. Duck Baker has been a seminal figure and influence in the bringing of Irish traditional music to the guitar. Baker is one of those rare musicians who doesn't draw upon the repertoire of his chosen instrument for musical raw material, but rather finds ideas in the broader musical stream, and shapes them to the sensibilities of the guitar. From the application of that talent comes his acknowledged success at translating Irish fiddle, pipe, and harp music for the guitar. His memorable but not widely distributed 1980 album Kid on the Mountain outlined a stylistic approach that eschews any cosmetic prettiness of tone, and focuses rather upon the possibilities of stark, open harmonies and complex interwoven bass lines. That album first introduced to many guitarists in America viable arrangements of some essential Irish tunes, a few of which include "The Blarney Pilgrim," "Morgan Magan" and "The Duke of Fife's Welcome to Deeside." Though that album is long out of print, many of the landmark arrangements found there have been reissued on various CD collections.

Product Details

• Sheet music: 80 pages
• Publisher: Mel Bay Pubns (March 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786672102
• ISBN-13: 978-0786672103
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #589,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great tunes, with some useful theory, September 11, 2006

By 

S. M. Barden (Leesburg, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mel Bay Duck Baker's Fingerstyle Blues Guitar 101 (Sheet music)

The title for this book is a little misleading - there is nothing "101" or basic about this book. But it does contain some terrific and challenging blues and blues based fingerstyle solos. Seriously, this will keep even an advanced guitarist busy for some time.

There is a very useful chapter on theory as it applies to fingerstyle blues guitar, and other discussions scattered throughout the book that accompany and explain the songs.

The performance cd is a joy to listen to. Baker is a terrific performer and arranger. His performances have a fire and a flow that make them exciting and beautiful.

Unlike some of the old Kicking Mule transcriptions, Baker's solos here are tabbed out here pretty much in their entirety, with variations and all. A lot of work went into this book.

Be aware that this book takes an expansive view of "blues" - that is, this isn't just a collection of 12-bar solos in different keys, just as Blind Blake didn't sit around playing 12 bar solos his entire career. All of the selections are very musical and cleverly developed to sustain interest. Many of the songs feature unusually clever interplay between the bass and melody lines that uses leading tones, counterpoint, etc, rather than just sticking with "boom-chuck" alternating bass.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fingerstyle guitar.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lots of words....not much meat., December 30, 2009

By 

Stephen A. Pandolfo - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mel Bay Duck Baker's Fingerstyle Blues Guitar 101 (Sheet music)

I was disappointed in this book by Duck. I've several of his teaching videos which are real good, and I think maybe I was expecting something different from this work.
First of all, as mentioned, the title "Blues Guitar 101" seems to imply this is a basic work.
It's certainly anything but basic; many of the solos range in difficulty from medium to advanced levels.
Close to the beginning of the book there are eight full pages of what Duck refers to as "An Idiot's Guide to Theory" consisting of (1)an overly-complicated explanation of the construction of a basic major scale (2) naming the intervals: Tonic, Super-Tonic, Mediant etc. (3) Basic Chord construction (4) Cycle of Fifths and (5)How Upper Chord Intervals are determined.
When one later takes a look at the relative difficulty of the solos, one wonders why such basic theory is even included.....to mention nothing of the fact that the tie-in between the theory and the construction of the solos
is explained nowhere in the book and seems to be left to the reader's analysis.
There ARE 10 relatively good finger-style Blues solos included in the book; no question about it.
Nowhere is anything mentioned of the harmonic structure of the basic blues. Chord symbols are included in the music for only ONE (1) of the 10 solos. I guess it was meant to be an exercise to figure them out ourselves; kind of meaningless; it seems more like an oversight than an attempt at teaching.
No Minor Blues are included....a minor point; (pardon the pun).
A page or two is included as an introduction to each solo, consisting mainly of the left hand fingering mechanics of the more tricky chord forms used in the solo....again not really required considering the overall level of difficulty of the contents of this book.
I find Duck Baker a very likable, engaging and talented artist.
With all due respect, I do feel he tends to run on a little much in his teaching attempts; if he would stick a little closer to the "lesson plan" I think it would be more beneficial for those of us trying to learn from him.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "THE" fingerstyle blues book to have., November 23, 2008

By 

D. Suckau (LA JOLLA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mel Bay Duck Baker's Fingerstyle Blues Guitar 101 (Sheet music)

I bought this book about a year ago. I am still working out tunes from this great book. I've learned nearly all of them, and I have to say that though I own a lot of great music books, few have kept my interest as this one has.
All the tunes are great, Ive learned so much and I feel that I am a much better player for it. Thanks Duck!