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Summary:
A guitar workbook that covers every aspect of bluegrass playing from simple accompaniment to advanced instrumental. Over 30 bluegrass and traditional songs graded from easy to advanced in both standard music notation and tablature. Compact disc included.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Classic
Customer Rating:
Forget the CD. If you're interested enough in bluegrass to work through this book, you've probably already got a fair collection of music to listen to and refer to for stylistic reference. As others have said this book is not for complete beginners. Younger players will notice the time warp - no mention of Tony Rice or David Grier but the "Newgrass" experimentation that went on in those days set the stage for those guys. (To be fair, Rice was actually around but not yet a well-known force) My favorites are the fiddle tune variations that remind me of the late (and sadly missing from the book) Richard Lieberson's approach.
I bought a second copy recently after losing my first years ago. What's interesting are the pictures and arrangements of players such as John Sholle, David Nictern and Russ Barenburg who I've listened to for years, but had barely heard of when I first got this book in the 70's.
I guess the mixed notation/tab format was kind of last gasp in the guitar world - which is sad because I'm one who thinks the prevelance of "tab-only" has had a negative effect, isolating guitar players from other musicians.
Buy it. Study it. Laugh - yes, you too once wore your hair that way.
Easy even for beginner
Customer Rating:
Traum's "Bluegrass Guitar" provides overall introduction to bluegrass guitar playing, termminology, famous singers and groups, and well-known songs. It has both standart notation and tablature. It uses simple language and explans the basic technique and term well. It includes information on famous groups in case you are beginning to like bluegrass and want to hear some examples from the masters. Comparing to "Bluegrass Guitar" by Barenburg, which has only Tablature, I highly recommend Bluegrass Guitar" for those who has not yet learned to read the tablature.
Not all that great
Customer Rating:
The CD seems to be an after thought and doesn't really match the book all that well. The book is very thin on technique and skill building which is the reason one would buy the book
Something for everyone - beginner to advanced
Customer Rating:
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.
There are better bluegrass guitar books available.
Customer Rating:
"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.
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