Acoustic Masters: Bob Brozman's Bottleneck Blues Guitar, Book & CD (Acoustic Masters Series) Paperback – December 1, 1996

I think Bob is one of the first R Kellys or Chris Browns. Specifically addressing the question of: does his art transcend his transgressions? It’s one of the hardest questions of our time. Rephrased: can and artist overcome their faults? I think to the victims, the answer is always, unequivocally, “no.” And for this you might be justified in writing off the work of Bob Brozman, a known child molester. Unfortunately, our interpretation of life is subject to perspective, and it may be difficult some times to discern which is more important, the art or the crime. Personally, I think that Bob’s work and musical philosophy greatly improves the collective art of the guitar, but it can not be considered in isolation of his crimes, and so we are left with an uncomfortable stalemate, where enthusiasts must do their best to parse his best intentions from his nefarious thoughts. Many believe this is impossible, maybe they’re right. It’s difficult for us to accept that some leaders may be so flawed as to be nearly unrecognizable under scrutiny, does that mean they are incapable of leading? I think that is a more difficult question.

This is a good book for Technique. A necessary book for True Blues. It walks you thru different aspects of the Blues playing technique. It seems quite thorough and clever in that He walks you thru it and at the end has a clever little song that includes all you are suppose to remember andDo in order to play the Blues with Authenticity. The style is Old School blues. For those who claim it is not for beginner: When you begin to learn a new style, look for information that is complete. Most books contain thesame information, however, not all authors can convey that information in an easily understood format. This book and CD are direct and to thepoint. They give enough information to keep most non professional guitarist busy for years, if perfection is the goal. Also, remember that there ismore than one style of Blues. I also have Beyond Basics - Blues Rhythm Chops and found it to be realistic and straight forward.

This is an early, first impression review I plan to revise later as I actually work through the instruction.For right now: The guitar on the accompanying CD is approximately a HALF STEP FLAT across the board. As another reviewer noted: it was most likely first taped first, then the subsequent conversion to CD used a slower playback tape speed than the original recording. This indicates the publishers did not really check their output ... at least not someone with an actual guitar in their hands.Yes, I know that its all relative and as long as the CD's guitar is consistently flat, you can tune down to it for your learning sessions. But really folks, no excuse for this - this is MUSIC instruction - tuning and pitch are basic essential elements.This can be solved in a few ways:* Change the calibration on your tuner [if it has such] down to 428 Hz and it should allow you to tune to his pitch. If you play with others or record on your own or play alongside other material, you'll need to tune to the standard 440 Hz pitches.* Rip the tracks to mp3 [or other digital audio file type]. Use sound editing software [audacity is freeware] ... to load each track, increase the speed by 2.75%, save or export to a new filename. [2.75% worked for me ... YMMV] Yes, this is tedious - but it results in a set of instructional tracks that are at proper pitch, like they should have been when delivered.Otherwise, I'm looking forward to digging it and hope to find I agree with the majority of positive reviews.Cheers.

I recently returned, again, to playing guitar and had always had an interest in the bottleneck/slide style. I had played slide years ago in standard tuning and also have Warren Hayes' book. The idea of open tuning and use of finger picks was slightly intimidating to me even though I have a fair amount of guitar playing experience. Bob Brozman's book is fairly clear, from my viewpoint, on getting started with this type of music style and the included CD offers some great audio examples of how things should sound; I've always had difficulty with rhythm notation on the printed page. I consider this book/CD set a good starting point for exploring bottleneck blues guitar and as a transition point for moving into other areas of bottleneck/slide guitar music.

A very informative book which is easy to follow and learn from… I’m already far ahead in learning the facets of Slide Guitar work than I would’ve without it.

Watching Bob Brozman on Utube you have to be impressed at his skill on the guitar. I've played guitar for more than 30 years, slide guitar for ten years, and I play pretty well but Bob is in league all of his own. So, buy his book and learn, the obvious thing to do. However, Bob didn't really write this book; he recorded himself, explaining and playing slide and this recording is included as a CD with the book. Then he passed this recording along to some other fellows who transcribed his words and slide playing. Its a difficult thing to do, transcribe what other people are playing just by listening, and the tablatures in the book sometimes don't quite match what Bob is playing on the CD. So when Bob says 'play along with me' you can't. This is not a book for beginners. After some basic, and useful, beginners tips Bob launches straight into playing advanced slide guitar. If you are good enough to play what is in this book then there is a lot to be learned and gained from it, but I wish Bob had written it.

This is the best book I have found so far on bottleneck slide guitar technique. Brozman does an excellent job illustrating the concepts that make bottleneck a such a different style. Highly recommend this one.

Tedious focus on exercise, with no examples from classic songs. "Boring".Mr. Brozeman has no charisma, his analytical perspective of the Blues is alien to the classic performers of the Blues. I can't imagine a young Robert Johnson sitting down with this tome in hand and emerging as the creative innovator he did, NO WAY!Not for the creative musician.

Very clear.

Bob reveals some of his secrets and those of some of the early masters too. Very clear method. Encouraging the art!