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  #16  
Old 04-22-2012, 07:51 AM
Judson Judson is offline
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"Colorado Girl" by Townes Van Zant ... I play it C, F, D7 using a simple outside-in Travis pattern with an occasional pull-off on the C chord.
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  #17  
Old 04-22-2012, 08:01 AM
BluesyRob BluesyRob is offline
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Originally Posted by bcollins View Post
A good book for this could be Acousic Guitar - Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar by Steve James. Good luck,

Billy
The Steve James book is an excellent choice.

I also recommend Fingerstyle Guitar Essential by Acoustic Guitar Magazine and The Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Method by David Hamburger (also by Acoustic guitar Mag.

I am also a big fan of Homespun Videos: Happy Traum's Blues Methods and The Blues Bag are great, so is his Brownie McGhee lesson. I also enjoy Josh White Jr.s lesson and Toby Walker's too! All these have given (and continue to give) me great blues lessons, improv, theory, etc. Good luck!
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  #18  
Old 04-22-2012, 08:09 AM
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devellis devellis is offline
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Blues is such a diverse genre. It took me a while to figure out what I liked playing. I gravitate toward what many refer to as country blues or Piedmont blues -- fingerpicked material with strong ragtime influences. Although I like listening to good Chicago style blues (e.g., Muddy Waters), I don't much like playing that stuff and it seems (to me) better suited to electric than acoustic guitar. Similarly, I love Robert Johnson stuff but more to hear than to play.

So, Step 1 may be finding what you like.

Step 2 is figuring out where and how to learn it. I prefer DVDs or other video formats to tablature because the rhythms and phrasings don't always translate well to a written form. But when you hear them and see them being played, they are often simpler than you'd expect. For any given style of blues, there will be multiple sources of instructional material. I started with some stuff that I bought and downloaded from the internet. I prefer this to most of the free stuff I've seen because the coverage tends to be more detailed and in greater depth than many of the YouTube videos out there. The latter may actually be more helpful after you've made a bit more progress.

Some of the teaching materials are initially quite confusing. Their tabs are often strange, for example. Stefan Grossman's tabs/notation took some getting used to. There seemed to be way too many notes of too long duration to fit into a measure. I had to realize that the bass notes were stuck in there among the others but that their time duration overlapped the other notes. Hard to explain and, looking back, I can't quite reconstruct my initial confusion. Once I figured out how he was tabbing the tunes, it was crystal clear but it wasn't the way I'd seen stuff tabbed before. Things like that are minor roadblocks but they can be gotten over fairly easily if you persist.

I have to say that my favorite teaching material is Roy Book Binder's stuff. I like his tune choices and also his teaching method. He structures tunes around a set of standard phrases that can be assembled in various combinations in any given key. Once you learn his "bag of tricks," you can apply them in lots of situations and figure out (if you have even a rudiment of theoretical understanding) what their analogues would be in different keys.

It took me a while to "learn how to learn" from some of these materials. I can't tell you how many times I'd think, "what the heck is he doing there?" Repetition and persistence paid off, however, and every time I figure out one thing, it makes it hugely easier to figure out the next one. I remember struggling to get the timing right on a piece (Blind Lemon) from one of Roy Book Binder's videos, listening to it over and over. After doing that about 2 dozen times and still seemingly winding up in the wrong place, I advanced a bit further and Roy explained how that particular phrase took him months to figure out -- and it's deceptively simple sounding. He'd had a couple of different players show him how they did but still had to struggle to make it work. I was greatly encouraged by his saying he found it so tough after I'd been struggling with it.

Another thing I've found helpful is to learn a song from one source with the support of instructional materials and then listen very carefully to how other players play it on non-instructional recordings. I learned "Hesitation Blues" from a Book Binder video and then listened to how Rev. Gary Davis played it. I examined note-by-note (stopping and repeating the audio a million times) what he was doing in certain places, found where on the fingerboard those notes conveniently fell, and worked up those phrases so that I could incorporate them where ever and whenever I chose.

So don't get discouraged if you hit obstacles. Sometimes you'll even come up with your own work-around which enables you to personalize a piece. Great fun.
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Last edited by devellis; 04-22-2012 at 08:15 AM.
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  #19  
Old 04-22-2012, 08:37 AM
Funkstarfish Funkstarfish is offline
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-XG8...eature=related

Poor Black Maddie by RL Burnside.

This is the best tutorial for it, most true to the sound of his.
RL Burnside is changing my life
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  #20  
Old 04-22-2012, 08:48 AM
gitardude gitardude is offline
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Kenny Sultan's books are a good start.
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  #21  
Old 04-22-2012, 09:07 AM
grumpyguybill grumpyguybill is offline
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Default Skip James

Yep,

Git yerself sum Skip James CD's and study up.

Grumps
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  #22  
Old 04-22-2012, 09:29 AM
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Blueser100 Blueser100 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jpd View Post
rag time in open tunings. It is fascinating
Where can one discover more about this, songs, tunings, etc?
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  #23  
Old 04-22-2012, 09:31 AM
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Blueser100 Blueser100 is offline
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As for resources for what to learn, I got started with Stefan Grossman's CDs, books and DVDs as well as Happy Traum's Homespun materials. Both have extensive catalogs and websites.

http://www.guitarvideos.com
http://www.homespuntapes.com
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  #24  
Old 04-22-2012, 09:39 AM
prsplayer12 prsplayer12 is offline
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Thanks for all the replies everyone! I dont have much time right now so I will go through everything right now, but I will take a look/listen to everything later this afternoon. I thought about trying to learn Deep River blues, but I dont think my skill level is up to par with that yet..
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  #25  
Old 04-22-2012, 09:56 AM
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All of the above are good suggestions. I would suggest another tact however. If there is a store in your area that still sells vinyl records and albums, go peruse the blues sections and look for a complimation of unknown blues artists. They won't be marked as unknown, but you'll likely not recognize any of the artists. These albums represent a class and style of blues that the more well known blues men made popular. Often not as polished as the more well known blues men, they (to me) can give you a better insight into what was being played on a more local and deeper roots level. Many times you'll discover songs that later became more well known, with a regional and "true to the life" feel and lyrics. You'll also likely discover the roots and/or the evolution of the playing styles the more well known and recorded blues men made popular. These records are the true gems of the blues to me.

These records still exist, in limited quantities and with a bit of searching. There are on line record stores that can be searched if you don't have such a store in your area. Just my opinion.

Mark
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  #26  
Old 04-22-2012, 11:51 AM
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I have three tabs on my website, two originals and one arrangement.
Here are the midis. If interested you can try them out.

"Three Bass Blues"
http://dcoombsguitar.com/Guitar%20Mu...eBassBlues.mid

"Sunday Night Blues"
http://dcoombsguitar.com/Guitar%20Mu...NightBlues.mid

"Deep River Blues"
http://dcoombsguitar.com/Guitar%20Mu...RiverBlues.mid
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  #27  
Old 04-22-2012, 01:27 PM
prsplayer12 prsplayer12 is offline
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Thanks again everyone.

I get paid this Friday so I think I am going to take a trip down to the store and just sort of rummage around in the blues albums. I think I am going to invest in a Stephen Grossman album and some Doc Watson. I think I am going to push my skill level some and challenge myself as well and learn Deep River Blues.

and Devellis, I know what you mean about learning how to learn before actually learning. haha I have had to do that quite a few times. But I dont really get easily discouraged, so I am going to stick with it. I have always loved the blues and wanted to learn a lot about it. I have a blues guitar theory book by Ken Chipkin that I am going to work my way through this summer as well. Too bad its strictly electric blues.. I feel like a lot of it will translate over to acoustic though.
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  #28  
Old 04-22-2012, 03:55 PM
Taylor814 Taylor814 is offline
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I strongly recommend Duck Baker's "Fingerstyle Blues Guitar 101". In addition to 11 other pieces that range from intermediate to somewhat difficult, it contains a very nice arrangement of Mississippi John Hurt's 'Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor' that is a lot of fun to play.
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  #29  
Old 04-22-2012, 04:15 PM
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Thanks for recommending the Duck Baker book, Taylor. It looks great and so I ordered it.
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  #30  
Old 04-22-2012, 04:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Funkstarfish View Post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-XG8...eature=related

Poor Black Maddie by RL Burnside.

This is the best tutorial for it, most true to the sound of his.
RL Burnside is changing my life
He did the same for me too.

http://www.littletobywalker.com/r-l-burnside.html
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