BLUES LICKS YOU CAN USE BK/CD Format: Softcover Audio Online

This book is for electric guitarists who want an accessible path to authentic blues soloing. It suits self taught players, students, and teachers and fits naturally into lessons, rehearsals, and focused home practice.

What is included. Blues Licks You Can Use by John Ganapes contains 75 blues phrases in standard notation and guitar tab. Brief performance notes point out fingerings, phrasing, and how each line outlines the chords, so you learn musical ideas you can reuse instead of isolated finger exercises.

You also get online audio with full band performances of every lick. A code in the book lets you stream or download tracks, slow them down, loop sections, and change key so you can hear details clearly and practice at a comfortable tempo.

The licks cover slow blues, shuffles, jazz blues changes, Texas and Chicago grooves, and swing feels. As you work through them you strengthen bends, vibrato, slides, double stops, turnarounds, and chord tone targeting, building a vocabulary that drops straight into your own solos.

How it helps players grow. Working through these phrases helps build confidence and technique because each lick feels like a complete musical idea. Playing with the band tracks improves rhythm, timing, and performance skills and trains you to lock in with a rhythm section.

The variety of keys and tempos keeps practice engaging. Teachers can use it as a music teacher resource for weekly assignments and improvisation work with blues focused students.

Closing thoughts. Blues Licks You Can Use is a compact toolkit for guitarists building blues vocabulary. Use it for self directed study, lesson planning, or jam preparation and hear your phrasing grow more expressive with every chorus you play.

John Ganapes is a Hal Leonard author.