Learn to Play Guitar
25 Razor-Sharp Blues and Boogie Guitar Solos
Product DescriptionOpen-flat spiral blues instruction book and CD by Larry McCabe Red Dog Music Books is proud to offer this superb collection of 25 model urban blues guitar solos. This book was Mel Bay’s Book of the Month in the June 1984 Guitar Player Magazine, and is still in print. Blues guitar teachers, serious students, and blues band guitarists will all enjoy his large collection of 100% pure blues and boogie solos for guitar. Twenty-five exciting solos are presented h. . . More >>
25 Razor-Sharp Blues and Boogie Guitar Solos
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I’ve been playing guitar for over 40 years. Book content is mediocre at best. Not representative of mainline blues leads. Lead guitar recording was too soft to actually hear over the loud background rhythm section. Rhythm section was great tho. Could not turn stereo Balance knob left or right to isolate and listen to the soft lead part. Defeats the book’s purpose if you can not hear the actual lead being played in a clear manner to replicate it. Tab helps but not totally correct in all spots. Also many Leads repetitive (five in a row just a minor variation on a given theme) and very basic, and boring. Not really worth the money. Just okay. Beginners will find it somewhat useful and maybe some Intermediate players, but none of the Lead patterns jumped out and said play me now. So most uninteresting. Additionally, the book itself is cheaply printed and the the paper cheap too, causing smearing or blurring if you touch the pages. Also, no explanations are given on why he played this solo, or that riff against this chord, or why here in the basic 145 blues bar patterns. So all a beginner can do is hope to cop maybe 2-3 little licks. Better for the beginner to copy the rhythm parts, more useful. I would not recommend buying this book. More higher quality ones exist on Amazon that you can actually use to improve your lead playing or to get fresh ideas on riffs. See Stevie Snacks online or Justin’s Blues Unleashed courses etc. The words “Razor-Sharp” should be changed to “dull. ” Avoid the book. Sorry author.
Whether acoustic or electric, the guitar has been and continues to be intimately associated with blues, jazz, and country music. In whatever musical genre he plays in, Larry McCabe is a master guitarist and performance educator. He’s also the author of thoroughly ‘user friendly’ instruction manuals for aspiring guitarists seeking to improve and perfect their technique. “25 Razor-Sharp Blues and Boogie Guitar Solos” is McCabe’s newest spiral bound book/CD combination with an especial focus on ‘electric urban’ Chicago style’ blues showcasing twenty five guitar solos. With each individual solo fully transcribed in standard notation and tablature, the student guitarist operating at an early intermediate level can easily play along with the companion CD note-for-note. Of special value are the guitar phrases providing an informative introduction to new hand positions and fingerings, as well as chords and theoretical concepts which can be readily adapted into personally distinctive styles. Particularly noteworthy is the succinct advice on ‘Writing Your Own Variations And Solos’. In summary, Larry McCabe’s “25 Razor-Sharp Blues and Boogie Guitar Solos” is especially recommended for anyone seeking proficiency as a creative blues guitarist and is an excellent supplemental addition to music school curriculums for the guitar.
For its price, this book delivers a mind-boggling amount of useful information. These solos can be learned, played in various keys, and modified and learning these solos will teach you how to construct your own solos. Highly recommended.
This very fine book has been in print in one form or another since the early-to-mid 1980s. Not many music books remain in print that long, but this is an exceptional collection of model solos in the urban blues style.
The book is quite popular with music teachers (as evidenced by the other reviews) and it is enjoyable and productive for students as well. The book is aimed at the ambitious early intermediate student, and a few of the solos will challenge an intermediate guitarist.
There are 25 full-length solos in the book, each written in notation and tablature, and each recorded note-for-note on the accompanying CD. The band on the CD is excellent. There are five solos in C, five in G, five in D, five in A, and five in E. The solos are played to standard blues progressions, meaning that they may be “plugged in” to similar blues progressions that are found in many, many songs.
The solos sound exactly like the solos heard on real blues records. They are varied and performed with taste, authenticity, and feeling. You can hear why the author was a columnist for Living Blues Magazine and why his work has received consistently high reviews in a number of guitar magazines.
Great book, highly recommended.
I wish all music instruction books were written in this format. The song tabs just go from one page to the next without a bunch of talking/writing in between, and the song numbers in the book actually match the song numbers on the cd. . . what a rare and unique idea! Of course, none of that would matter if the material were bad, but that’s not the case, the solos are great – quite diverse too. There is a lot of helpful information in this book: theory, writing your own solos, a guide to blues styles and artists,etc. – but it’s all in it’s own section of the book, not sprinkled throughout the book here and there making it impossible to find. As a full time guitar instructor I would just like to say “great job”, “great blues solos” and “great, easy to use format”. Thanks.