by Jon Chappell
The Fun and Easy Way to Start Playing the Blues
 |
| Blues Guitar For Dummies |
About the Author
Jon Chappell is a multistyle guitarist, arranger, and author. He grew up in
Chicago, attended Carnegie-Mellon University, and earned his master’s
degree in composition from DePaul University. He was Editor-in-Chief of
Guitar magazine and played and recorded with artists such as Big Walter
Horton, Billy Branch, Pat Benatar, Judy Collins, Graham Nash, and Gunther
Schuller. Jon has also contributed numerous musical pieces to TV and film.
Jon served as Associate Music Director of Cherry Lane Music, where he
transcribed, edited, and arranged the music of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Steve
Morse, Bonnie Raitt, and Eddie Van Halen, among others. He has more than a
dozen method books to his name and is the author of Guitar For Dummies,
2nd Edition, and Rock Guitar For Dummies (both published by Wiley), Blues
Rock Riffs for Guitar (Cherry Lane), as well as the textbook The Recording
Guitarist — A Guide for Home and Studio (Hal Leonard). Please visit Jon’s
Web site at www.jonchappell.com for more info.
Author’s Acknowledgments
I gratefully acknowledge the folks at Wiley Publishing, Inc., for their support
in making Blues Guitar For Dummies a reality: Tracy Boggier, Kristin DeMint,
Carrie Burchfield, and Tim Gallan. Thanks also to Morgan Ringwald and
Robyn Orsini of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation; Leslie Buttonow of
Korg USA, Marshall Amplification USA, and Vox Amplification USA; Kellie
Wilkie and Tara Callahan of Roland Corporation U.S.; Brian McConnon of
MTECH Marketing Communications and Steinberg Media Technologies; Tim
Godwin of Line 6; Todd Stevenson and David Rohrer of DigiTech/DOD and the
Harman Music Group; Andrea Arredondo and Evan Skopp of Seymour
Duncan; Ari Surdoval of Gibson USA; Eero Kilpi; Jen Chappell.
I want to say a special thanks to blues scholar and writer Dave Rubin, the
technical editor for this book, for his keen eye, insightful suggestions, and
deep wisdom on all things blues; Pete Prown for his blues-rock expertise; and
Woytek and Krystyna Rynczak of WR Music Service for their artful music engraving.
Introduction
As B.B. King might say, “You’ve got a right to play the blues!” And you’ve
taken the first step in exercising your blues rights by getting a copy of
Blues Guitar For Dummies. Your blues rights are inalienable — like life, liberty,
and the pursuit of mojo. The blues is a form of music and a proclamation on
the human condition, delivered proudly and loudly in song. The great thing
about the blues is that it’s universal because everyone at one time or another gets the blues.
To help you sort out the many aspects of playing blues guitar, I organized this
book to help you in your blues pursuits. The following sections give you an
idea of what you’re getting into as you delve into the pages of this book and
into the world of the blues!
About This Book
Blues Guitar For Dummies covers all aspects of blues guitar, from playing the
instrument to understanding the legends and lore associated with it. This
book is for the beginning to intermediate blues guitarist. If you don’t know
much about the guitar as an instrument, just hang out with me as I take you
through the world of blues guitar. And even if you already own or know something
about guitars, you can use the info in this book before you go out and
make your next guitar purchase.
To get a meaningful experience from this book, you don’t have to play or own
a guitar. You don’t even have to know what kind of guitar you want or what
style of playing you want to pursue. This book is designed to help you figure
that out. But this book is a guitar book, after all, so I focus on just guitars,
guitar playing, and guitarists themselves.
Blues Guitar For Dummies also shows you how to play without requiring that
you know how to read music first. Sure, I give you shortcuts in the form of
written notation, diagrams, and symbols, but use these written figures as a
reference as your specific needs demand.
You should find your own way to absorb the music in this book so you can
play it back as your own. Do that through a combination of the elements below:
Chord diagrams: You form the left-hand chords you need by looking at
the diagrams and matching your fingers to the symbols on the guitar’s neck.
Guitar tablature: Tablature is a type of notation that tells you to finger
certain frets on specific strings. No “notes” are involved, just locations
on which frets and strings to play. The tab staff appears just below the
standard music notation staff. If you can already read music — even just
a little — you can always see what note you’re fingering by looking at
the staff immediately above the tab.
The CD: Playing by ear is important because after you get a good idea of
where to place your fingers, you want to let your ears take over. Listening
to the CD is important because it shows you how the music sounds,
so you can figure out the rhythm of the song and how long to hold notes
by listening, not reading. The CD also has some cool features:
• Provides accompaniment, so you can hear how the examples
sound in a band setting — with drums, bass, and rhythm guitar.
• Enables you to always find the track that corresponds to the
printed music example in the chapters
• Gives you a count-off so that you can play along in time
The tab staff and music staff: To those of you who do like to read music
(you two know who you are), this book delivers in that department, too.
The music for many exercises and songs appears in standard music
notation, just above the tab staff. You get the best of both worlds: tab
showing you where to put your fingers and the corresponding music
notation to satisfy all those schooled musicians out there.
Grab a copy of Blues For Dummies (no, I didn’t write it; it was written by
Lonnie Brooks, Cub Koda, and Wayne Baker Brooks) for general blues info.
Blues Guitar For Dummies is about playing blues guitar, and I devote more
pages to playing than I do historical stuff.
Conventions Used in This Book
This book has a number of conventions that I use to make things consistent
and easy to understand. Here’s a list of those conventions:
Right hand and left hand: If you play the guitar as a right-handed
person, the right hand strums and picks and the left hand frets. If you’re
left-handed, you can either play as a right-handed person, or you can
reverse the process. If you choose the second method, remember to
convert the terms and that I refer to the right hand and right-hand fingers
as the strumming and picking hand and the left hand as the fretting
hand. Nothing against lefties, mind you, but it’s easier and shorter to say
“right hand” instead of “strumming or picking hand.”
High and low, up and down: When I say “higher on the neck” or “up the
neck,” I refer to the higher-numbered frets, or the region closer to the
body of the guitar than the headstock. “Going up” always refers to going
up in pitch, which means toward the higher frets or skinnier strings —
which happen to be closer to the floor than the ceiling.
One staff at a time, please: Many of the exercises contain both music
notation and tablature. The tab tells you what frets and strings to play;
the music tells you the pitches and the rhythms. These ways present the
same information in different ways, so you need to look at only one at a
time. Pick the one that works best for you.
What You’re Not to Read
Occasionally, you will come across some boxes of text that are shaded gray
(also called sidebars). You have my permission to skip over this info. Don’t
get me wrong; the info is fun and interesting, but it’s not the most crucial
points of blues guitar.
Foolish Assumptions
In this book I make the following assumptions about you:
You’re an average reader who knows a little something about the guitar or the blues.
You want to sound like a blues player and take the path that allows you
to discover many things about the guitar and music.
You want to play quickly without a lot of messing around with music
theory and all that stuff. You want exactly what you need to know at that
moment in time without all the lectures and teacherly instincts.
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
discover the acoustic-based blues from the Mississippi Delta (Chapter 11),
history of traditional electric blues (Chapter 12), and the electric blues’
rowdy alter ego, blues rock (Chapter 13).
Part V: Gearing Up: Outfitting Your Arsenal
In Part V, you scope out the gear you need to complete your blues rig. Chapter
14 is a handy guitar buyer’s guide that covers everything from evaluating
a guitar to shopping strategies to dealing with the music store salespeople.
Chapter 15, on amps and their effects, gives you a primer on guitar amps and
those little magic boxes (effects) that give your guitar some superhip sounds.
In Chapter 16, you find out how to change strings on both acoustic and electric guitars.
Part VI: The Part of Tens
The Part of Tens provides fun and interesting information in a top-ten-style
format that rivals those late night talk show hosts’. The chapters in this part
prioritize important information by the many blues guitarists and recordings.
Part VII: Appendixes
The appendixes cover important info not contained in the chapters.
Appendix A explains reading music, and Appendix B provides a guide to the
CD that comes with this book.
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Product details
Price
|
|
|---|---|
File Size
| 20,114 KB |
Pages
|
385 p |
File Type
|
PDF format |
ISBN
| 978-0-470-04920-4 |
Copyright
| 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc |
Contents at a Glance
Introduction .................................................................1
Part I: You Got a Right to Play the Blues .......................7
Chapter 1: Every Day I Have the Blues . . . Hallelujah!...................................................9
Chapter 2: Blues Meets Guitar: A Match Made in Musical Heaven............................23
Chapter 3: Grab Hold, Tune Up, Play On! ......................................................................39
Part II: Setting Up to Play the Blues............................55
Chapter 4: Getting a Grip on Left-Hand Chords............................................................57
Chapter 5: Positioning the Right Hand for Rhythm and Lead ....................................71
Chapter 6: Blues Progressions, Song Forms, and Moves ............................................97
Chapter 7: Musical Riffs: Bedrock of the Blues...........................................................121
Part III: Beyond the Basics: Playing Like a Pro ..........137
Chapter 8: Playing Lead: Soaring Melodies and Searing Solos .................................139
Chapter 9: Playing Up the Neck ....................................................................................155
Chapter 10: Express Yourself: Making the Guitar Sing, Cry, and Wail......................171
Part IV: Sounding Like the Masters:
Blues Styles through the Ages ...................................191
Chapter 11: Acoustic Roots: Delta Blues and Its Country Cousins..........................193
Chapter 12: The Birth and Growth of Classic Electric Blues ....................................213
Chapter 13: Blues Rock: The Infusion of Ol’ Rock ’n’ Roll.........................................233
Part V: Gearing Up: Outfitting Your Arsenal ...............253
Chapter 14: Shop Till You Drop: Buying the Right Guitar for You............................255
Chapter 15: Choosing Your Amp and Effects ..............................................................267
Chapter 16: Changing Strings........................................................................................301
Part VI: The Part of Tens ...........................................315
Chapter 17: Ten Blues Guitar Giants............................................................................317
Chapter 18: Ten Great Blues Guitars............................................................................321
Chapter 19: Ten (Plus One) Must-Have Blues Guitar Albums...................................325
Part VII: Appendixes .................................................329
Appendix A: How to Read Music ..................................................................................331
Appendix B: How to Use the CD ...................................................................................339
Index .......................................................................349
Table of Contents
Introduction.......
About This Book.................
Conventions Used in This Book ......
What You’re Not to Read.........
Foolish Assumptions ..
How This Book Is Organized................
Part I: You Got a Right to Play the Blues ..........
Part II: Setting Up to Play the Blues ......
Part III: Beyond the Basics: Playing Like a Pro .........
Part IV: Sounding Like the Masters:
Blues Styles through the Ages ..........
Part V: Gearing Up: Outfitting Your Arsenal......
Part VI: The Part of Tens .........
Part VII: Appendixes.............
Icons Used in This Book....................
Where to Go from Here.......
Part I: You Got a Right to Play the Blues ........................7
Chapter 1: Every Day I Have the Blues . . . Hallelujah! . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Capturing the Blues Train from Its Departure Then to
Its Arrival Now ............................................................................................10
The pieces of blues that made the genre ..........................................10
The place of the blues’ conception....................................................11
Rejoicing over 100 years of blues:
The shifting shape of the genre ......................................................11
The qualities that made blues cats hit the big-time ........................12
It’s Not All Pain and Suffering — The Lighter Side of Blues......................13
Surveying the Means to Make the Music: The Guitar in All Its Glory......14
The low-fi acoustic guitar....................................................................14
The semi-hollowbody electric guitar.................................................15
Solidbody electric guitars ...................................................................15
The Collision of Two Worlds: Acoustic versus Electric ............................16
Getting a Grip on How Guitars Work ...........................................................17
You’ve gotta use your hands — both of them ..................................17
Producing the tones: String vibration and pitch ..............................18
Electric guitars only: Pickups and amplification..............................18
Performing and Looking Like a Blues Player ..............................................19
Expanding and filling your brain with know-how.............................19
Looking the part ...................................................................................20
Blues Trivia For Dummies.............................................................................21
The questions .......................................................................................21
The answers..........................................................................................22
Chapter 2: Blues Meets Guitar: A Match Made
in Musical Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Beyond the Delta: Defining the Blues Guitar Sound ..................................24
The method to the music: Chord progressions................................24
The guitarist’s language of melody ....................................................25
The expression that invokes your senses.........................................26
The groove that sets the pace ............................................................27
Dissecting an Acoustic and an Electric .......................................................27
Getting Down with the Blues: A Quick How-To ..........................................31
The foundation for all guitar playing: Acoustic guitars...................31
Shifting acoustic to overdrive: Electric guitars ................................32
What You Need to Get Your Groove On.......................................................35
Chapter 3: Grab Hold, Tune Up, Play On! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
Holding Your Axe (That Is, Your Guitar) .....................................................39
Grabbing your guitar’s neck................................................................40
Pushing down on the strings ..............................................................41
Getting sound to come out..................................................................42
Holding the Pick, Attacking the Problem ....................................................44
Getting Situated..............................................................................................45
Sitting down . . . ....................................................................................45
. . . or standing up.................................................................................46
Tuning Up........................................................................................................47
Helping your guitar get in tune with itself.........................................48
Holding your guitar to an electronic standard .................................48
Playing a Chord ..............................................................................................50
Music Notation: Not Just for Geeks .............................................................51
Guidance for your aimless fingers: A chord diagram ......................51
Mapping out your short-term path: Rhythm notation.....................53
Guiding you all the way through a song: Tablature .........................54
Part II: Setting Up to Play the Blues ............................55
Chapter 4: Getting a Grip on Left-Hand Chords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
Starting Out Simple: Blues Chords Even Your Mom Could Play ..............58
Going to the Next Level: Barre Chords........................................................59
Forming a barre chord.........................................................................61
Naming barre chords ...........................................................................62
Playing E-based barre chords .............................................................63
Playing A-form barre chords...............................................................65
Combining forms ..................................................................................67
Taking Advantage of Versatile Power Chords.............................................68
Chapter 5: Positioning the Right Hand for Rhythm and Lead . . . . . . . .71
Strumming Along............................................................................................71
Stroking down . . . .................................................................................72
. . . And stroking up ..............................................................................72
Combining down and up .....................................................................73
Striking to a beat ..................................................................................73
Mixing Single Notes and Strumming............................................................75
Separating bass and treble: The pick-strum .....................................75
Playing common pick-strum patterns................................................76
Shuffling the Beats with Syncopated Strumming.......................................79
A bit of notation: Dots that extend and ties that bind.....................79
Syncopation: Playing with dots and ties ...........................................79
Stopping the String Ringing (Just for a Sec) ...............................................81
Muting the sound between two chords (left hand) .........................82
Simulating syncopation with left-hand muting.................................82
Muting the sound of a note (right hand)...........................................83
Copying the Classics: Plucking Fingerstyle Blues......................................84
The Right Hand’s Bliss: Different Rhythm Styles to Play ..........................85
The shuffle groove................................................................................87
The driving straight-four .....................................................................87
The slow 12/8, with groups of three...................................................87
The two-beat feel ..................................................................................94
The slow and funky 16 feel..................................................................95
Chapter 6: Blues Progressions, Song Forms, and Moves . . . . . . . . . . .97
Blues by the Numbers ...................................................................................97
Recognizing the Big Dogs: Primary Key Families and Their Chords.......98
The Structure of a Blues Song, Baby ...........................................................99
Playing the 12-bar blues ....................................................................100
Slow blues ...........................................................................................103
The 8-bar blues ...................................................................................106
Straight-four (or rock blues) .............................................................106
Applying Structures to Keys .......................................................................108
A move with many chords: The Jimmy Reed move.......................108
The sound of sadness: Minor blues .................................................111
Accessorizing the 12-Bar Blues: Intros, Turnarounds, and Endings......114
Intros....................................................................................................114
Turnarounds .......................................................................................115
Endings ................................................................................................116
High Moves ...................................................................................................117
Chapter 7: Musical Riffs: Bedrock of the Blues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Basic Single-Note Riffs .................................................................................121
For the low-down bass notes: Quarter-note riffs ...........................122
The big daddy of riffs: Eighth-note riffs...........................................123
Adding a little funk: 16th-note riffs...................................................124
Throwing rhythm for a loop: Syncopated eighth-note riffs ..........124
Double the Strings, Double the Fun:
Two-Note Riffs (or Double-Stops)...........................................................125
Straight feel .........................................................................................126
Shuffle, or swing, eighths ..................................................................127
High-Note Riffs, the Bridge to Lead Guitar................................................128
Keith Richards’s borrowed trademark: Quick-four riffs ................129
Intro, turnaround, and ending riffs ..................................................129
Mastering the Rhythm Figure .....................................................................134
Part III: Beyond the Basics: Playing Like a Pro ...........137
Chapter 8: Playing Lead: Soaring Melodies and Searing Solos . . . .139
Mastering Your Picking Technique ............................................................139
Becoming smooth with your simple downs and ups.....................140
Tackling tricky alternate-picking situations....................................141
The Universal Lead Language: The Pentatonic Scale..............................143
Why the pentatonic is the perfect scale..........................................144
The two sides of the pentatonic scale.............................................144
A common scale for practice: E minor pentatonic ........................145
Pentatonic Plus One: The Six-Note Blues Scale........................................149
Adding Some Extra Flava to the Blues Scale.............................................150
Clashing bitterly .................................................................................151
A dash of sweetness...........................................................................151
Chapter 9: Playing Up the Neck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155
For Inquiring Minds: Why Up the Neck You Should Go...........................155
Positioning Your Digits for an Easy Key Change ......................................156
The pros of closed positions ............................................................157
The details of closed, numbered positions.....................................157
Easing Into Position: Moving the Pentatonic Up and Down ...................158
Changing Your Position ...............................................................................160
A natural first: Moving from fifth position to eighth......................161
The eighth-position blues bonus......................................................161
How low can you go? Moving from fifth position to third.............162
The Technical Side of Moving.....................................................................163
Like taking candy from a baby: The subtle shift ............................163
Seeking a bit of attention: The noticeable slide .............................163
When you don’t want to move, just reach or jump .......................164
Five Positions You Should Know: Meanderings of the
Pentatonic Scale .......................................................................................165
Relating the positions to each other................................................165
Connecting the positions: Licks that take you up and down........167
Understanding the Logic behind the Corresponding
Shift of Position and Key .........................................................................167
Recognizing common keys and their comfortable positions .......168
Mapping keys to positions ................................................................168
Chapter 10: Express Yourself: Making the Guitar
Sing, Cry, and Wail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171
Appreciating the Art of Articulation..........................................................171
Going In for the Attack ................................................................................172
A little bit louder now . . . a little bit softer now: Dynamics .........173
Hitting hard and backing off .............................................................175
Breaking Down the Music: Phrasing ..........................................................176
Connecting notes the slippery way: Slides .....................................176
It’s hammer time — get ready to strike a string! ............................179
Exposing a note by lifting a digit: Pull-offs ......................................180
Giving Your Sound a Bit of Flair..................................................................182
Shake that string: Adding vibrato ....................................................182
The rubber-band blues: Bends that stretch a string .....................184
Playing a Song with Various Articulations ................................................187
Part IV: Sounding Like the Masters:
Blues Styles through the Ages ...................191
Chapter 11: Acoustic Roots: Delta Blues and
Its Country Cousins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193
Delta Blues: Where It All Began ..................................................................193
Understanding the Delta technique .................................................194
Ladies and gentlemen, king of the Delta blues:
Robert Johnson...............................................................................194
Country Ragtime: The Piedmont Blues .....................................................201
Everything In-Between: Country and Folk Blues......................................203
A quick profile of country and folk blues........................................203
Giving these “in-between blues” a listen .........................................204
Closing with a lick and some style: Ragtime tags...........................204
Country and Folk Blues Had a Baby; Its Name was Rockabilly..............206
Quintessential Blues: Slide Guitar..............................................................208
The tools that let you slide ...............................................................208
Sliding technique................................................................................208
Tuning your guitar for slide, a technique all its own.....................209
Chapter 12: The Birth and Growth of Classic Electric Blues . . . . . . .213
The Rise of the Electric Guitar in Blues ....................................................214
Giving Props to the Earliest Electric Pioneer ...........................................215
Sweet Home Chicago, Seat of the Electric Blues......................................216
Muddy Waters, leader of the pack ...................................................218
Elmore James, slide guitarist extraordinaire ..................................219
Otis Rush: Soulful player with a flair for vibrato............................220
Buddy Guy, the father of blues rock ................................................220
Modern-Day Blues Styles: The Sounds of Texas ......................................222
Four Blues Giants: Three Kings and a Collins...........................................224
Albert King, the upside-down string bender...................................224
B.B. King, the blues’ king of kings ....................................................224
Freddie King, a two-pick man............................................................228
Albert Collins, master of the Telecaster..........................................228
Children of the Post-War Blues Revival.....................................................229
Son Seals, Chicago’s favorite son .....................................................229
Robert Cray, smooth persuader .......................................................230
Bonnie Raitt, stellar lyrical slides artiste ........................................230
Chapter 13: Blues Rock: The Infusion of Ol’ Rock ’n’ Roll . . . . . . . . .233
The Blues Had a Baby, and They Called It Rock ’n’ Roll .........................234
Chuck Berry, blues rock’s first superstar........................................234
Bo Diddley, king of the jungle beat...................................................235
The Brits Invade the Blues..........................................................................236
Clapton and Green, early blues icons ..............................................236
Jeff Beck, blues-rock’s mad scientist ...............................................237
Trippin’ the Blues.........................................................................................238
Eric Clapton, the original guitar god................................................238
Jimi Hendrix takes the blues psychedelic.......................................239
Heavy “Blooze”: The Infusion of Hard Rock..............................................241
Jimmy Page, frontrunner of the metal blues...................................241
Leslie West, big man with a big sound.............................................242
Blackmore and beyond, where blues gets scary............................243
Southern Comfort ........................................................................................243
The Allmans, especially brother Duane ..........................................244
Lynyrd Skynyrd...................................................................................245
Hot Barbecue Blues, Texas Style................................................................245
Johnny Winter, Texas blues-rock titan.............................................245
Billy Gibbons and ZZ Top, giving rock some soul ..........................246
Stevie Ray Vaughan, the greatest
modern bluesman of them all .......................................................247
Blues on Steroids .........................................................................................249
Eddie Van Halen takes the blues to ’80s metal ...............................250
Euro-Metal brings virtuosity and precision to the blues ..............250
21st-Century Soul .........................................................................................250
John Mayer, new kid on the blues block .........................................251
Allmans Redux: Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks,
keepers of the flame .......................................................................251
Part V: Gearing Up: Outfitting Your Arsenal ................253
Chapter 14: Shop Till You Drop: Buying the Right Guitar for You . . .255
Before You Begin Shopping.........................................................................256
Deciding On a Make and Model..................................................................256
Evaluating a Guitar.......................................................................................257
Construction .......................................................................................258
Materials..............................................................................................259
Workmanship......................................................................................262
Appointments (aesthetic options)...................................................263
Welcome to the Jungle: Shopping ..............................................................263
Bringing a friend .................................................................................263
Money matters: Deal . . . or no deal .................................................264
Protecting Your Guitar.................................................................................265
Hard cases ...........................................................................................265
Soft cases.............................................................................................266
Gig bags ...............................................................................................266
Chapter 15: Choosing Your Amp and Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .267
Getting Started with a Practice Amp .........................................................268
Shopping for a practice amp.............................................................268
Playing with a practice amp..............................................................269
Powering Up to a Larger Amp.....................................................................271
Choosing among different amp formats ..........................................271
Feeling the power ...............................................................................274
Dissecting the Amplifier ..............................................................................274
Input jack.............................................................................................275
Preamp.................................................................................................275
Tone......................................................................................................276
Effects ..................................................................................................277
Power amp ..........................................................................................277
Speakers ..............................................................................................278
The flexibility of having separate channels ....................................278
What’s That Sound? Checking Out Your Amp Choices ...........................279
Tube amps...........................................................................................279
Solid-state amps .................................................................................281
Hybrid amps........................................................................................281
Digital-modeling amps .......................................................................282
Remembering the Good Old Days..............................................................282
Vintage amps.......................................................................................283
Reissue amps ......................................................................................283
Dialing in an Amp Sound .............................................................................283
Chronicling Classic Amps for Blues...........................................................285
Fender Bassman .................................................................................285
Fender Deluxe Reverb........................................................................286
Fender Twin Reverb ...........................................................................286
Marshall JTM 45..................................................................................286
Marshall Plexi Super Lead 100..........................................................287
Vox AC30..............................................................................................288
Mesa/Boogie Mark IIc+.......................................................................288
Messing Around with Your Sound: Effects................................................289
Juicing Up Your Sound.................................................................................290
When your sound is too hot to handle: Distortion ........................290
Toying with Tone Quality ............................................................................291
EQ: The great tonal equalizer ...........................................................292
Wah-wah, the effect that is as it sounds ..........................................292
Modulation Effects, from Swooshy to Swirly............................................292
Stacking sounds for a fuller effect: Chorus .....................................292
Swooshing, like a jet plane: Flangers and phase shifters ..............293
Like a visit to the opera house: Vibrato and tremolo....................293
Pretending (and Sounding Like) You’re Somewhere You’re Not............294
Delaying sound in a cave-like way....................................................295
Adding reverb to make your sound slicker.....................................295
Choosing an Effects Format ........................................................................296
A string of effects: Pedals on parade ...............................................296
A box to house them all at your feet................................................297
A box to house them all at hand level .............................................297
Chapter 16: Changing Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .301
Change Is Good, But When?........................................................................301
Choosing the Right Strings .........................................................................302
Acoustic strings..................................................................................303
Electric strings....................................................................................304
Outfitting Your String-Changing Toolkit ....................................................304
Removing Old Strings ..................................................................................305
Stringing a Steel-String Acoustic ................................................................306
Stringing an Electric Guitar.........................................................................310
Part VI: The Part of Tens ............................................315
Chapter 17: Ten Blues Guitar Giants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .317
Robert Johnson (1911–38) ..........................................................................317
Elmore James (1918–63)..............................................................................318
T-Bone Walker (1910–75).............................................................................318
Muddy Waters (1915–83).............................................................................318
Albert King (1923–92) ..................................................................................318
B.B. King (b. 1925)........................................................................................319
Albert Collins (1932–93)..............................................................................319
Otis Rush (b. 1934).......................................................................................319
Eric Clapton (b. 1945)..................................................................................319
Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954–90)....................................................................320
Chapter 18: Ten Great Blues Guitars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .321
Gibson L-1 Flattop ........................................................................................321
Gibson ES-175 Archtop ................................................................................321
National Steel................................................................................................322
Gibson J-200 ..................................................................................................322
Fender Telecaster.........................................................................................322
Gibson Les Paul ............................................................................................323
Fender Stratocaster .....................................................................................323
Gibson ES-335 ...............................................................................................323
Gibson ES-355 ...............................................................................................324
Gibson SG......................................................................................................324
Chapter 19: Ten (Plus One) Must-Have Blues Guitar Albums . . . . . .325
Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings.............................................325
Blues Masters: The Very Best of Lightnin’ Hopkins.................................326
T-Bone Walker: Complete Capitol Black & White Recordings ................326
T-Bone Walker: Complete Imperial Recordings........................................326
The Best of Muddy Waters..........................................................................326
B.B. King: Live at the Regal .........................................................................327
The Very Best of Buddy Guy.......................................................................327
Robert Cray: Bad Influence.........................................................................327
Masters of the Delta Blues: Friends of Charlie Patton.............................328
Mean Old World: The Blues from 1940 to 1994 ........................................328
Chicago: The Blues Today...........................................................................328
Part VII: Appendixes..................................................329
Appendix A: How to Read Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331
The Elements of Music Notation ................................................................332
Reading pitch ......................................................................................333
Reading duration ................................................................................335
Expression, articulation, and miscellaneous
terms and symbols .........................................................................337
Appendix B: How to Use the CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .339
Relating the Text to the CD .........................................................................339
Count-offs ............................................................................................340
Stereo separation ...............................................................................340
System Requirements..................................................................................341
Audio CD players................................................................................341
Computer CD-ROM drives .................................................................341
Using the CD with Microsoft Windows......................................................341
Using the CD with Mac OS...........................................................................342
What You’ll Find on the CD .........................................................................342
CD audio tracks ..................................................................................342
Digital music .......................................................................................348
Troubleshooting...........................................................................................348
Index........................................................................349
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