Is this one of the best or worst method books for acoustic fingerstyle guitar?

You can learn to play music by simultaneously using a variety of resources including teachers, online resources, and books.

Rainer’s Acoustic Blues Guitar Picking School, written by Rainer Brunn, is a method book for learning to play solo fingerstyle blues guitar.  The material is generally appropriate for late beginner to intermediate players who want to learn this style.  The material progresses logically from an easy introduction to Travis style/alternating basslines and quickly ramps up to late beginner difficulty.  Text is kept to a minimum, so readers should spend some time analyzing the playing examples.  The entire book is fairly short and concise at 53 pages.

The majority of Rainer’s Acoustic Blues Guitar Picking School focuses on playing the blues using an alternating bassline, although some examples feature a monotonic bassline.  Each chapter generally features a concise explanation of one or two new concepts (i.e. inner and outer right-hand positions, the “long A” chord shape, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, etc.), provides a few playing examples to demonstrate, and finally provides a full 12 or 16 bar blues chorus utilizing the new concepts.

My overall impression from going through this book is that it contains valuable information, but it is not as comprehensive as some other books.  You will gain important technical/physical skills to play fingerstyle blues, but there isn’t much explanation on how to approach a new blues tune, music theory to help you choose the proper notes while improvising, etc.  Still, some people might prefer the concise text.  My advice would be to work through this book with a teacher or to combine this with another more comprehensive method book.  This book might make a great 2nd or 3rd book in your fingerstyle blues collection.  I got a great workout going through the book, I have immediately begun implementing some of the new ideas and chord shapes into my own playing, and I will be using some of the examples with my students.

Chapter by chapter breakdown:

Ch. 1: Intro to Travis style/ alt bass in blues keys of E, A, and C.  Intro to syncopation very soon.  If you are new to Travis style, then this will be difficult.  If you have some experience with Travis style, then this will quickly get you sounding bluesy.

Ch. 2: Inner and outer RH positions – shifting thumb to pick 4th and 3rd strings while i and m fingers shift to 2nd and 1st strings.  Accompaniment behind a blues tune in D.

Ch. 3: “Long A chord” – use pinky to reach 5th fret A note on 1st string.  Introduction of double alternating bass.

Ch. 4: Hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides.  Intro to monotonic bass.  Intro to triplets.  Keys of E, G, and D with alt bass.  Intermediate territory.

Ch. 5: Shuffle rhythm.  Advanced chord shapes (up the neck) for keys of E, A, D.  This is getting significantly more difficult – too difficult for beginners, in my opinion.

Ch. 6: Thumb over the top.  Rag in C – really nice 16-bar tune.

Ch. 7: Trickier hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides over Travis bassline.  Keys of E and A.

Ch. 8: Using alternating m and i picking hand fingers.  Lots of cool chromatic melodies.

Ch. 9: Accompaniment.  Variations to keep you from playing the same accompaniment pattern over and over.

Ch. 10: “Moveable modules” – chordal or interval ideas that can be moved around to fit over different chords/in different keys.

Ch. 11: Turnarounds – some good introductory turnarounds to learn and start implementing into your blues playing.

Ch. 12: Two blues tunes with discussions/analysis.

Videos available online – solid performances of examples that are helpful to view.

The book doesn’t use the modern percussive techniques used by modern players like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, Andy McKee, Mike Dawes, etc.  No thumb slaps, guitar body percussion, or tapping.

I recommend using an acoustic steel string guitar rather than a standard classical guitar since there are multiple tunes that utilize the fretting hand thumb over the top.

Published by Hal Leonard © 2022

My own books:

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon at https://a.co/d/g7Udsso.  The first priority of this book is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake.

Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook.  Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar.

My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026.

My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew:

Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C.

Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.