Guitar Roots: Delta Blues. The roots of great guitar playing

Guitar Roots: Delta Blues. The roots of great guitar playing
By Fruitland Jackson
National Guitar Workshop Method
Alfred Publishing
ISBN 0-7390-3006-x

This is a very good basic Delta Guitar book for the starting guitar player. The book contains a DVD that explains open and alternate tuning that is very popular in Delta Blues playing. The books and DVD also discusses the 12 bar blues and 8 bar blues.

The book contains chapters on how to play Delta Blues in various keys. One of the chapters is the key of A, another chapter in D, another in G, another in C and so on. I found this method to be monotonous. Once the learner has the basic I,IV,V blues progression down, it can be applied to various keys. Once the guitar player has alternate tunings down, he should know how to apply it to the different keys.

Fruitland Jackson provides some arrangements to his original material in this book to provide examples of Delta Blues techniques. While his playing and singing is very good, I am not familiar with his material and therefore I was not very interested in his material.

The book and DVD came sealed in plastic, therefore I was not able to view the book before purchase. This has become a very popular trend with music publishers and seems to be the only way they can keep up with internet material. If the publisher includes a CD or DVD with the book, it becomes more appealing to the buyer. However, the book becomes sealed so the purchaser can not view the material before purchase.

This is a good book for the beginning blues guitarist. The starting guitarist that is trying to learn 12 bar blues, finger picking techniques, and shuffles will benefit from this book, the experienced player may already have this knowledge.