Bluegrass Guitar

Rating:
Summary: There are better bluegrass guitar books available.
Review: "Bluegrass Guitar" by Happy Traum was probably the best book of its kind when it was published in 1974, but time and technology have passed this book by. There are better alternatives available, especially if you are a beginner. This book does have a lot of great bluegrass songs and includes standard music notation, tablature, and lyrics. As a collection of bluegrass sheet music it's just fine. My disappointment with this book is mainly with the included CD and it's instructional value. The CD contains less than nineteen minutes of material. Only five of the thirty songs in the book are included on the CD and only one of those is played at a slow tempo for practicing.

For guitarists wanting to learn bluegrass, I recommend, "Teach Yourself Bluegrass Guitar" by Russ Barenburg. It contains many of the same bluegrass tunes as Happy's book and all of them are included on its CD. Each song is played twice, once with lead guitar and once with rhythm only for practicing. (Which is a nice feature because most instructional CDs want you to use the balance control to isolate the rhythm part, but most "boom-boxes" these days don't have that control anymore.) While none of the songs are played really slowly for beginners, Russ isn't burning up the strings either. The songs are played at a moderate performance pace - suitable for learning. The music on this CD is so good that I often listen to it in my car just for fun.

For the true beginner interested in country/bluegrass and flatpicking, I suggest "Acoustic Guitar Primer" by Bert Casey. It's a great book for those just starting out and has some great bluegrass arrangements for beginners. It comes with an excellent instructional CD that has all of the songs played slowly and at performance tempo.

Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction
Review: Great things about this book:

1. It assumes only very basic guitar and Bluegrass knowledge.

2. Standard musical notation and tablature.

3. Teaches you not only the basics (the guitar run, the boom-chicka effect) but also a variety of guitar solos that gradually build up your skills.

4. Great instructional CD.

5. Gives you a good basic repertoire of classic Bluegrass / folk / gospel songs.

If you want to learn the basics before you go to a Bluegrass festival, take this book to the woodshed. Even if you aren't interested in Bluegrass per se, this book is a good introduction to flatpicking generally.

Rating:
Summary: A great book for beginner and on.
Review: Happy Traum's Bluegrass Guitar book is an excellent resource, whether you're a beginner or an advanced player. I've played mostly folk guitar for 12 years and this book helped me swing into bluegrass. It starts with a brief but clear and complete introduction to chords and picking, gets you through some basic runs and then right into the songs themselves. The book is full of fun old songs and even has some newer (for 1974!) bluegrass styles in a section in the back. Each song has the melody line written in standard music notation as well as the guitar version below in tablature. My book is falling apart I use it so often. It's by far the best book I've found for bluegrass guitar!

Rating:
Summary: A great book for beginner and on.
Review: Happy Traum's Bluegrass Guitar book is an excellent resource, whether you're a beginner or an advanced player. I've played mostly folk guitar for 12 years and this book helped me swing into bluegrass. It starts with a brief but clear and complete introduction to chords and picking, gets you through some basic runs and then right into the songs themselves. The book is full of fun old songs and even has some newer (for 1974!) bluegrass styles in a section in the back. Each song has the melody line written in standard music notation as well as the guitar version below in tablature. My book is falling apart I use it so often. It's by far the best book I've found for bluegrass guitar!

Rating:
Summary: Something for everyone - beginner to advanced
Review: This is an excellent book to learn bluegrass guitar, especially with the CD. Don't be fooled, you should have a strong guitar foundation to really appreciate this book, otherwise it'll be too fast and technical for you. Traum starts off with good basics but quickly moves into very challenging fast paced licks. There is a lot to this book as well: many songs (rather pieces because they are complete and sound great) that will take you a while to get through, with enough variation that you won't get bored. I recommend exploring this book in full and giving it a chance - if will expand your guitar playing if nothing else.

I got somewhat bored and frustrated playing from tab books where the guitar sound is only one part of what I know the song to sound like (i.e. hey! I'm missing drums, bass, another guitar and a singer - no wonder it sounds so thin). This bluegrass style, although other instruments help, will have you playing full satisfying songs with nothing but yourself and your six-string. Plus, its fun and once you get past the corniness, those bluegrass musicians really know how to play. Talk about hot licks!

I would strongly recommend this book if you are considering a book on bluegrass (I took a chance and was immensely happy with it). Look for other Traum books, I have flat-pick country guitar (and love the secton on the Carter family) and my roommate has the Blues Bag and he plays it constantly and it sounds great. Traum is a natural born teacher.