Blues Rhythms You Can Use: A Complete Guide to Learning Blues Rhythm Guitar Styles [With CD (Audio)]

I have just started lesson 11 out of 21... far enough into the book to be sure John Ganapes and his publishers have maintained their previous record of real quality, both in terms of presentation and in terms of teaching. Each lesson has theory and exercises and then a piece to learn. Each piece is played twice on the accompanying CD, once with the rhythm guitar included and once with it excluded, the latter enabling you to play along with "the band". The first two pieces involve using "spread" patterns, but you then move on to using chords and chord fragments and I have to say I progressed pretty quickly. All the pieces so far, but especially from lesson 4 onwards, sound very cool, though quite a few have a slight blues/jazz feel (lots of 9th chords) rather than being straight blues... I think they sound great, but you may like to bear that in mind if you know that's not your thing.I started this book after completing John Ganapes' earlier books: Blues You Can Use (BYCU) and More Blues You Can Use (MBYCU). Now that this book has been published, I think (if you are going through the series) it probably best fits after BYCU, giving time for you to consolidate your lead skills from that while learning these rhythm ones, before moving on to the more challenging MBYCU. In all, the three books are a great set, but of course each stands independently too (MBYCU maybe slightly less so).Pace of progress so far has been satisfying good, especially after spending months on each lesson in MBYCU. This book also requires slightly less brain power, so I find it fits nicely into my practice regime, in which I try to do some technical exercises, learn some new lead and lead theory (that's where my brain begins to frazzle) and to re-play some pieces I already know... this rhythm book complements those other practice elements very well.Rhythm playing isn't the glamour end of the blues guitar world, but you'll always have an enormous gap if you don't tackle it. This book works for me: it's satisfying to progress steadily, it's (so far at least) not too intense and the pieces sound a million dollars. Half way through and I can't find anything critical to write... my one concern is whether (rather than just being able to play some nice pieces) I will be able to take away and apply the theory, always much trickier I find. Not the book for you if you want rock or metal, nor if you are a complete beginner. But if you like blues with perhaps a hint of jazz then it is certainly accessible to you as an advanced beginner or a very early intermediate, and there's plenty in there for those who are more advanced. It is ideal if you have BYCU under you belt, but that's not a necessity. Enjoy!

I have been tinkering with blues guitar for years without a great deal of progressto be honest but at last, something that actually does teach you blues guitar.This entire series, not just this individual book, is definitely worth buying ifyou seriously want to progress, whether a beginner/intermediate or advanced player.Of course, like learning any style or instrument, it takes work, but Ganapes puts itacross in a way that makes it achievable.Impressive.

Good series of books with CD.Works fine for me.I'm a rubbish player that dreams on..still I see improvements from using this book.Rock on Tommy.

Some really useful stuff in this book would recommend.

not put into practice yet

New as described - not for the beginner