Book Review: Blues Guitar for Adults by Wayne Riker and Rock Guitar for Adults by Tobias Hurwitz

One of the difficulties I have faced in learning to play the guitar has been in finding books that match my level of proficiency. There are hundreds of titles out there for the beginner, and there are many more which are geared for those who already know how to play. But how about those of us who are in between? We may know some of the basics, such as chords and scales, but still have a long way to go before being ready to play the Led Zeppelin songbook.

Alfred Publishers have been in business since 1922, and are the gold standard when it comes to music instruction. To get an idea of just how big the largest educational music publisher in the world is, they currently have over 90,000 titles in print. This is a huge variety of material to sift through, but their recent publication of Rock Guitar for Adults and Blues Guitar for Adults caught my eye.

Beginning Guitar for Adults by Nick Vecchio is the precursor to this pair of books. All three are intended for those of us who are a bit older, and are either just developing an interest in learning to play or revisiting the instrument. It may seem like a minor distinction, but the “adult” tone is refreshingly geared towards people who may no longer be kids, but still have a lot to learn.

I decided to begin with Blues Guitar for Adults, by Wayne Riker. The book opens with an introduction, and basic information such as how to read music and tablature. The first three chapters stress the fundamentals. These are “The Twelve-Bar Blues Format;” “The Eight-Bar Blues Format;” and “Blues Techniques.”

Riker then shows us how to apply this material, with discussions of arpeggios, minor blues, and improvisation. The majority of the book is concerned with teaching the student how to improvise, or solo, over the various forms. The first rock and roll songs were basically the blues, sped up and amplified. There have been a lot of changes since then, but the basics remain the same. For anyone looking to advance their technique, these improvisational exercises are invaluable.

Article Author: Greg Barbrick

Greg Barbrick is a Seattle native who was first published in 1988, in his hometown music magazine, The Rocket. Since then his work has appeared in print and online for numerous sources. He Googles himself so often that his mother told him it would make him go blind.
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