Essential Blues Guitar [Paperback]

Dave Celentano (Composer)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

This handy guide to playing blues guitars emphasizes the essentials, such as: chord changes, scales, rhythms, turn arounds, phrasing, soloing and more. Includes lots of examples, plus 10 rhythm tracks for soloing and improvising.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Centerstream Publications (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574240609
• ISBN-13: 978-1574240603
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,076,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Reference and Tutorial but..., July 4, 2001

By 

sir_isaac_newton (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Blues Guitar (Paperback)

I would actually rate this a 4/5 (see why below) -- but I know this book is better than several others that have 5* ratings on Amazon -- and I would hate a player to miss out on this simple, excellent book. I have looked at many blues books and own several - but this is my favorite.

PROS: - Easy to read, attractive lay-out - *****Excellent Scale Diagrams (best I have seen)***** Cover all the main relevant scales in all fingerboard positions in a simple, effective way -- superb. - Excellent coverage of how to choose appropriate scales, by example -- again superb. - Hip/modern vibe - My guitar teacher really likes this book too (I found it tho'). - I have improved my playing and knowledge using this book, and it has given me ideas that I can build on to create my own original licks.

CONS. - The tracks start getting very fast and complicated too soon (my guitar teacher thought so too). Although by practising hard I have nailed a couple -- but a more gradual introduction would have made this a near perfect tutorial.

I lost the CD for a while and was quite upset about it -- I was considering buying the book again, but then found the CD. Buy this book!!

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Slightly eclectic tutorial, September 25, 2002

By 

guitar_buyer "guitar_buyer" (Queens, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Blues Guitar (Paperback)

Dave Celentano is great. I love his Flying Fingers and "Speed Metal--Classical" books. I believe this is one of his more disjointed books. If you're looking for a book full of blues licks, this ain't it. Dave spends about 20 pages on modes and scales (information you could get anywhere) and then goes into blues rhythms and turnarounds. The turnaround portion is quite valuable and useful. What would make sense at that point is Dave discussing some common blues licks. However, he jumps right into accompaniment tracks. If you are the guitar player who learns by playing along with CD tracks and transcription, this is the book for you. The play-along tracks really comprise the bulk of the book.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Backing Tracks but...., June 29, 2004

By 

Paul Aubuchon (Calgary, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Blues Guitar (Paperback)

This book is a good practice book to play along with the cd for, but there is little insight into the mechanics that go into the solos or soloing in general. The 10 rhythm tracks have a solo that you can learn and then the track plays again and you can improvise/write your own solo. This is the best part of the book, it tells you the key and which scales sound best and you get to create your own solos. Two of the solos in the book are completely 80's hair metal garbage though, with like 12 note legato passages that have nothing to do with the blues.