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Slide Guitar Z2A Book Review - Delta Blues Slide Guitar: A Complete Guide to Authentic Acoustic Blues Slide Guitar (Learn How to Play Blues Guitar)
The learning material here is not note-for-note transcriptions of famous slide players of the era, like Son House, Robert Johnson and many others. Instead the goal here is to take the student through the process of developing the skills to play in a style that replicates these famous players. Book Structure The book is paperback, printed in a standard 8 1/2 x 11 inch, glued-binding format, with 102 pages. There are a couple pages of introduction with some historical discussion about Delta blues, then it jumps into the lesson material About 70% of the material is focused on open D tuning, with about 30% of the material in open G tuning, which are the two slide guitar tunings that are most often associated with Delta blues. All of the music is presented in a "standard notation and tablature" format, which is appreciated. An example is shown below. The standard notation is very helpful for rhythm and beat counting, as tablature alone does not convey that information. The author, Levi Clay, provides downloadable audio examples for all of the lessons, and it is essential to listen to these for each lesson, especially as the examples become more complex toward the latter part of the book. Notation and tab comes close, but this is a nuanced, free-form style of playing that demands that the player listen closely to the phrasing in order to replicate the style. The Lesson Progression The lessons begin with what appears to be very basic, single note pieces, 4 to 8 bars each, ad mostly in quarter note rhythm. While this may seem quite simple at first glance, with slide guitar, it is the right appoach. The author wants the student to first develop clear, solid tone using the slide, which is the foundation of slide guitar. Then the book explores some of the strumming and rhythm variations found in this style, as well as some open position exercises and pentatonic scale exploration. The Red Meat Once the foundation material has been covered, Levi takes you on a path toward the guts of this style. That is, the swampy, stinging single note phrasing tricks that define this style of slide guitar. For me, it was eye-opening to see how this was developed in an understandable path that resulted in playing licks that sounded right out of Clarksdale, Mississippi. Then he combines it with blues triplet strumming and multi-string single note runs that bring it all together. As Levi points out, once you see how this is done in a structured way, it all falls into place. What sounds complex and mysterious on a recording becomes a lot more accessible, once you see the tricks up close. 
Again, it requires paying close attention to the recordings, while also respecting the basic counting presented in the notation. There is a requirement to understand how traditional blues fingerstyle phrasing works, with solid bass lines driven by the thumb, hard swung rhythm and melody notes played both on and off the beat.
If you are already familiar with those skills, then plugging into this material results in immediate fun, as you'll be able to mimic the complex sounds of an old blues pro in no time. Once you get the hang, you'll find ways to make it your own. Fingertyle Pieces Close It Out The last section of the book takes you down the path of playing complete fingerstyle blues slide pieces. It something that you can use as jumping off point for solo performance material. A Valuable Resource Overall, this book is a valuable resource for the slide guitar player who wants to understand the nuances of the traditional raw sound of blues slide guitar, which is not easy to decipher by ear along. This book explains how it is built, in detail. The beginner player may not grasp all of this on the first run through it, especially if your fingerstyle skills need some development, but if you play slide guitar, then this is a foundational book that exposes the player to some very tradtional slide guitar skills. Review by Dirk Johnson, Editor of SlideGuitarZ2A.com GET THIS BOOK AT AMAZON! Legal: This an ad/affiliate link |
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