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4 Blues Guitar For Dummies
How This Book Is Organized
I’ve organized the book into seven sections that deal with holding, setting up,
and playing the guitar, and then I tackle how to buy a guitar, what to look for
in an amp, how effects work, and the major contributors to the blues.
Part I: You Got a Right to Play the Blues
Part I devotes three chapters to the guitar basics that you need to know
before you can start playing the blues. Chapter 1 helps you understand blues
guitar, the kinds of guitars available, the gear you may need, and the parts of
the guitar. In Chapter 2, you discover how the guitar works and the art of fretting.
Chapter 3 explains how to hold your guitar, position your right and left
hands, how to tune up (which is oh, so important), and how to interpret the
written notation throughout the book.
Part II: Setting Up to Play the Blues
The chapters in Part II all deal with playing the guitar (hooray!) and creating
music. Chapter 4 presents chords — the easiest way to start playing real
music. In Chapter 5, you strike the strings through different strumming patterns,
rhythms, and fingerpicking techniques. The overview in Chapter 6
shows how blues songs are structured, and Chapter 7 has you playing real
blues music!
Part III: Beyond the Basics:
Playing Like a Pro
Part III takes you into the world of the committed guitar student. In Chapter
8, you explore lead guitar, and Chapter 9 takes you into the expressive world
of melodic playing. Chapter 10 puts the finishing touches on your lead playing
with certain expressive guitar techniques.
Part IV: Sounding Like the Masters:
Blues Styles through the Ages
In Part IV of this book, you find the style chapters, where you get to play
blues in all the different styles throughout the blues’ colorful history. You
TEAM LinG