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Guitar Books the Podcast

Guitar Books the Podcast

De : Joe McMurray
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 Join Joe McMurray as he thoroughly reviews guitar books – method, technique, song and repertoire. There are hundreds of books on the market, and Joe will help you to find the best book that explores your area/style of interest at the proper level of difficulty. Joe is a professional player and teacher with a formal background in jazz guitar, but extensive experience with folk, rock, blues, funk, and classical styles on instruments including the guitar, ukulele, piano, bass, banjo, and drums. He has released two solo fingerstyle guitar and ukulele albums, played on numerous rock recordings, and written his own book on arranging for fingerstyle guitar.© 2023 Joe McMurray Music Art Musique
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    • Review #27: Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations by Steve James

      Review #27: Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations by Steve James
      Jan 27 2026
      Is this one of the best or worst method or repertoire books for learning to play acoustic fingerstyle blues guitar? You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books. Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations by Steve James is a hybrid repertoire/method book for learning to play fingerstyle and bottleneck blues. This book is suitable for late beginner to advanced fingerstyle players but is best for intermediate players. I would definitely not recommend this book for complete beginners – it starts out too hard for inexperienced fingerstyle players. The book offers some technical advice as well as fun historical anecdotes and quotes. There are a bunch of fingerstyle blues books on the market, and I would generally not recommend this book over some of the others. On the positive side of things, this book excels in its material focused on open tunings and bottleneck slide. If you watch the included videos, you’ll see that the author is an incredible bottleneck slide player, and that is reflected in these chapters. On the other hand, I do not like multiple things about this book. The difficulty progression isn’t very smooth – the book starts out with some difficult (late beginner/intermediate) tunes, and then the difficulty varies from tune to tune. Part of this is because the open tuning arrangements (starting in the middle of the book) are a bit easier to play.There aren’t a lot of exercises. There are some, but this is more of a repertoire book with analysis and technical advice in the text.I’m not a fan of the way that Acoustic Guitar Magazine lays out their books. They don’t integrate their text and playing examples. Instead of text that prepares you for an example, then the example, then more text, then the next example, etc., they usually have the text in a big block, and that text will refer you to the examples which are together in another block. It requires more jumping back and forth for the reader. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s not my favorite. Late-beginner fingerstyle players could utilize Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations as a supplement to a traditional method book: A general fingerstyle method like Alfred’s “Beginning Fingerstyle Guitar,” orA more focused method like Bruce Emery’s “Travis-Style Guitar from Scratch.” Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations provides both treble clef and tablature for each arrangement. Neither fretting nor picking hand fingering is provided in the music, but it is sometimes mentioned in the separate text. You can usually tell which notes should be played with your thumb by looking at the treble clef – bass notes generally have down stems. Regardless, the skill of choosing sensible fingering is important, and you will need to look elsewhere to further develop this skill. Videos demonstrating the examples are available online. These are great. For me, it was especially helpful while working through the bottleneck slide chapter. © 2014 by Steve James. Produced by String Letter Media in association with the Acoustic Guitar Magazine. My own books: Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)]. The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake. Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook. Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar. My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026. My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew: Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.
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      30 min
    • Grateful Dead: “Scarlet Begonias”: Solo Fingerstyle Guitar

      Grateful Dead: “Scarlet Begonias”: Solo Fingerstyle Guitar
      Jan 14 2026

      R.I.P. Bob Weir (1947-2026)

      Original solo fingerstyle guitar arrangement of the Grateful Dead tune, “Scarlet Begonias” (arr. Joe McMurray). “Scarlet Begonias” was released on the 1974 album, “From the Mars Hotel” and was written by Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter.

      TABs are available for purchase through my PayPal link at https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/6D97WM3YV2JS6

      If you are interested in purchasing the TABs, be aware that this arrangement is suitable for players with an intermediate skill level.

      Performed on my treasured 2023 Collings OM2H guitar.

      My books:

      Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)]. The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

      Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook. Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.

      My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

      My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

      Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

      Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.
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      4 min
    • Review #26: The Complete Acoustic Blues Guitar Method by Woody Mann

      Review #26: The Complete Acoustic Blues Guitar Method by Woody Mann
      Jan 1 2026
      Is this one of the best or worst method or repertoire books for learning to play acoustic fingerstyle blues guitar? You can learn to play music using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books. Despite the book’s title, this is not a traditional method book for learning to play fingerstyle blues guitar. This is a repertoire book containing fingerstyle blues arrangements in a variety of subgenres (i.e. ragtime and delta blues). The book does offer more than a traditional repertoire book in that it has technical and historical notes before each tune, and then it occasionally introduces a new technique through a tune. This book is suitable for late beginner to advanced fingerstyle players but is best for intermediate players. I really like the organization of the book: tunes are organized by subgenre, and within each section the tunes are arranged from easiest to hardest. If you have zero experience playing fingerstyle guitar or fingerstyle blues, this is not the best book to start with. If you do have some experience, this is a great book for learning fun tunes, improving your skills, and learning some background history. What stands out about this book is that some tunes include multiple choruses. If you’ve studied fingerstyle blues from books, you’ve seen one or two page arrangements that, as written, are too short for a full performance. You might have gathered that you should play the original arrangement and then create multiple variations to instrumentally simulate different lyrics for each verse of a vocal tune, to extend your performance, and to make it your own. However, most books don’t actually write out any variations. The Complete Acoustic Blues Guitar Method is wonderful in that some of its arrangements do contain 2nd and 3rd chorus variations. These are great for beginners and players that just want to play a tune that lasts more than 30 seconds, and they are even more valuable for players that want to see and study concrete examples of variations. You can learn a lot from analyzing these variations and then you can implement these ideas into other tunes in your repertoire. Difficulty ramps up quickly in this book with the majority of the arrangements in that intermediate difficulty range. Beginner players may want to first use a traditional method book: A general fingerstyle method like Alfred’s “Beginning Fingerstyle Guitar,” orA more focused method like Bruce Emery’s “Travis-Style Guitar from Scratch.” Then you could utilize Woody Mann’s book as a supplement as you’re working through the method book. Later beginners should aim for the first tune or two from each different section and see what specific styles of fingerstyle blues catch their ear. You will improve faster and have more fun if you play tunes that are aren’t too difficult, so don’t get bogged down with the hardest tunes in the book. The Complete Acoustic Blues Guitar Method provides both treble clef and tablature for each arrangement, but neither fretting nor picking hand fingering is provided. At least you can tell which notes should be played with your thumb by looking at the treble clef – bass notes have down stems. Regardless, the skill of choosing sensible fingering is important, and you will need to look elsewhere to further develop this skill. Recordings are available online through Hal Leonard’s website. These will be very helpful to many readers. It’s fun and educational to hear some of the author’s little variations and stylistic techniques (slides, bends, etc.) that aren’t written into the music. The book doesn’t use the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc. No thumb slaps, guitar body percussion, or tapping. It says that the copyright is © 2014 Wise Publications, but the book seems to be published and distributed by Hal Leonard. My own books: Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)]. The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake. Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook. Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar. My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026. My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew: Pins on the Map: my third ...
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      25 min
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