Berklee Blues Guitar Songbook

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  • Suggested Retail Price: $24.99
  • Format: Book/CD
  • Pages: 112
  • Dimensions: 9 x 12
  • ISBN: 0-87639-100-5
  • SKU: 50449593
  • Publication Date: August 20, 2010

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Play ten blues classics in the style of the masters.

These transcriptions and annotations show you how the world’s greatest blues guitarists created their unique, inspired solos, and rhythm parts. Veteran blues guitarist and educator Michael Williams reveals the techniques and nuances behind the notes that give each solo and artist their personal character and sound. By studying these solos by the blues masters, you’ll be able reuse their techniques for your own performances.

  • Ten classic blues guitar solos, including four complete instrumentals, with rhythm parts featuring turnarounds and fills around the vocals
  • Traditional notation and guitar tablature
  • Clear, accurate transcriptions, featuring articulations
  • CD includes demonstration tracks and play-alongs (with and without guitar)

“Okie Dokie Stomp,” Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown “The Last Time (I Get Burned Like This),” Robert Cray “Frosty,” Albert Collins “The Woman I Love,” BB King “San Ho Zay,” Freddy King “The Sad Night Owl,” Freddy King “Worried Life Blues,” Robert Lockwood Jr. “I Need You So Bad,” Magic Sam “Wait on Time,” Jimmie Vaughn “Papa Ain’t Salty,” T-Bone Walker

“Mike Williams demonstrates here what classic blues guitar is all about, dissecting several modern blues masterpieces with understanding and depth. His explanations are spot on. He teaches you to learn the correct phrasing, fingerings, and tricks, then encourages you to blend what you’ve learned in to your own ideas and sound to eventually develop your own style.

Blues has always been a tradition of borrowing, interpreting, and reinventing. This book will give you a head start. There are years’ worth of valuable tips and techniques here that could take you twenty years to learn on your own. It is an excellent way to advance your chops and gain a deep understanding about what the technique of modern blues guitar is all about.”

—Duke Robillard, Guitarist (Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, the Fabulous Thunderbirds)

The Berklee Blues Guitar Songbook by Mike Williams is an excellent multimedia learning/teaching package that examines the blues stylings of nine of the most seminal American blues artists. In each example, Williams transcribes, deconstructs, and analyzes the individualistic (and idiosyncratic) playing of each featured guitarist, and then supplies his own passionate recordings of the example songs. You can listen to the guitar parts while following the printed music (as well as playing along with Williams’ performance). Then using the alternate track (sans guitar), you can play and groove away, making learning this material a truly pleasurable experience. Thumbs up for this welcome addition to the players’ palette.”

—Elliott Randall, Guitarist (http://www.elliott-randall.com)

Authors

Michael Williams

Michael Williams has been active as a blues and jazz guitarist since 1987, performing extensively throughout the United States and…