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Rating: 
Summary: Excellence and generosity
Review: After years of just mucking around with guitar, and going through a few tutorial books on blues guitar, it was wonderful to come across Peter Gelling's books. I've been using his Blues Guitar Licks book for a few months now, and try out the licks with some mates who have a jam at my place each week. Peter's book is better than any others I've tried, as it puts the licks into a context. There's a real generosity of spirit in his work - he wants people to learn to improve their playing, not just make money from selling books. I won't mention names, but I had one very disappointing experience with a blues lick book by another writer/musician. It was just a series of licks - almost meaningless without the context of rhythmic backing and interplay with other instruments. Gelling's work combines generosity with his personal mastery of the blues guitar. Highly recommended by one who feels his playing has improved a lot. Dr. Barry York
Canberra, Australia
Rating: 
Summary: Above average but could be improved (3.5*)
Review: I bought this book as the local store where I take lessons because they carry the range and this one seemed the best of the bunch for where I am currently. The licks are quite good. The CD is good, although several licks (usually 4) are batched together in each track -- the advantage of this is that it keeps the number of tracks reasonably low but the disadvantage is that you really need to be ready to practice all 4 licks in rapid succession. The book is typical of many tutorials that have been available for several years, although with above average formating, clarity and print quality. I found it a tad uninspiring -- I prefer more context/background/hints/insights -- although there are a few interesting and unusual snippets. My teacher was less inpired (probably because he can pick licks off of any CD I present him with) and was reluctant to work from this sort of book. I have quite a few guitar books -- so I may be a little jaded on this, and if this is your main book I suspect it will provide good service. The licks I have tried in this book seem quite good, re-usuable and the approach seems solid. Although switching key when establishing licks for a certain scale position seemed counter productive to me -- I would have prefered to stick in one key initially to make the patterns solid. The Tablature Symbols section is unusally clear and useful (e.g. good description of tremolo picking -- something I had come across before but my teacher hadn't!). Decent scale diagrams for minor pentatonic and blues scales (CAGED) although I much prefer the more complete and better formatted scales in "Essential Blues Guitar" by Celenato (which I highly recommend). I still don't understand the sections on 6ths and 3rd and Dominant 7th Arpeggios (and I am quite bright - no really!) -- no context or explanation is given. I found the explanation of Call & Response lacking -- but I have yet to find a book that covers this adequately. At the end of the day you are probably better off getting a few lessons, listening to a lot of CDs and picking up licks from your favorite tunes (I know, easier said than done but this is what all the greats had to do and it will save you money and train your ear, which is priceless). In conclusion, a respectable book, above average of its type and reasonably priced. I prefer a similar but more interesting book called "Blues Essentials Guitar" and would recommend getting that one first.
Rating:
Summary: Above average but could be improved (3.5*)
Review: I bought this book as the local store where I take lessons because they carry the range and this one seemed the best of the bunch for where I am currently. The licks are quite good. The CD is good, although several licks (usually 4) are batched together in each track -- the advantage of this is that it keeps the number of tracks reasonably low but the disadvantage is that you really need to be ready to practice all 4 licks in rapid succession. The book is typical of many tutorials that have been available for several years, although with above average formating, clarity and print quality. I found it a tad uninspiring -- I prefer more context/background/hints/insights -- although there are a few interesting and unusual snippets. My teacher was less inpired (probably because he can pick licks off of any CD I present him with) and was reluctant to work from this sort of book. I have quite a few guitar books -- so I may be a little jaded on this, and if this is your main book I suspect it will provide good service. The licks I have tried in this book seem quite good, re-usuable and the approach seems solid. Although switching key when establishing licks for a certain scale position seemed counter productive to me -- I would have prefered to stick in one key initially to make the patterns solid. The Tablature Symbols section is unusally clear and useful (e.g. good description of tremolo picking -- something I had come across before but my teacher hadn't!). Decent scale diagrams for minor pentatonic and blues scales (CAGED) although I much prefer the more complete and better formatted scales in "Essential Blues Guitar" by Celenato (which I highly recommend). I still don't understand the sections on 6ths and 3rd and Dominant 7th Arpeggios (and I am quite bright - no really!) -- no context or explanation is given. I found the explanation of Call & Response lacking -- but I have yet to find a book that covers this adequately. At the end of the day you are probably better off getting a few lessons, listening to a lot of CDs and picking up licks from your favorite tunes (I know, easier said than done but this is what all the greats had to do and it will save you money and train your ear, which is priceless). In conclusion, a respectable book, above average of its type and reasonably priced. I prefer a similar but more interesting book called "Blues Essentials Guitar" and would recommend getting that one first.
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