Blues Guitar Lessons http://ift.tt/1mqEs9D This clip opens with a famous song by Big Bill Broonzy, the Chicago Swing Blues King - I thought it would be fun to jam along with Bill and so I 'videoed' myself playing in the same key in black and white. It sounds an easy thing to do, to play blues guitar like Broonzy, but I learned a lot from setting up this clip. First of all, the speed has to be just right. One of my own particular weakness in finger picking guitar is that my timing can wander, often speeding up as the song progresses. Broonzy's timing is of course rock solid - he was an expert guitarist and a blues master. Next, I recorded myself playing the song and compared it to the original - no, just didn't sound right but why? How do we learn to play acoustic blues guitar like Broonzy, He uses a monotonic bass pattern for his thumb work, which isn't unusual. What is unusual is the way in which his special brand of blues music just swings along. It's almost supernatural, as his finger picking was extremely accurate as well. It's obvious that something else is going on here as well as his solid thumb strokes. Many people finger pick Broonzy style wih a couple of fingers, or even three, but you'll notice that he uses just one. This is a feature of many of the master blues guitarists, such as Gary Davis, Doc Watson and Lightnin' Hopkins, to name just a few. The sound comes across as complex as his one finger moves around and fits in 'grace' notes between the main notes. When you listen very carefully, you can hear all the little added notes that make it swing -- my lessons show in detail how to do it right. Well, once we can play it, and we have the timing right, how does it compare now? Not bad, except that the old recording isn't such great quality, as the waveforms are a little 'clipped'. I edited the raw sound file a little, and came up with something that's pretty close -- it was a lot of fun anyway! Blues Guitar Lessons http://ift.tt/1mqEs9D http://ift.tt/1jQJ3oj
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