BEGINNING BLUES GUITAR:

An overview of basic finger-style blues guitar for people who have some familiarity with the instrument and can easily make and change chords on the first 3 or 4 frets.

We'll explore several blues forms, rhythms and styles, building up a repertoire of songs in different keys. Over the week we'll work on 8 and 12 bar blues which use a steady thumb bass (like Mance Lipscomb), a shuffle (like Jimmy reed), and Piedmont alternating bass (like John Jackson, John Cephas, John Hurt). We'll learn some useful "bluesy" chords, intros, turnarounds and endings, and go over some open tunings. We'll talk about ways to practice that are fun. Sometimes, for those who are so inclined, we might even sing. All along we'll listen to some examples from the originals, with a bit of blues history  thrown in.

There will be handouts, but recording devices are also very welcome and come in very handy.

INTRODUCTION TO PIEDMONT BLUES GUITAR (Intermediate)

At first it seems so hard to do, and somewhere along the way it becomes so easy that you want to play all night. There is a "breakthrough" point in learning to play Piedmont blues, and there are various ways to get there. It won't happen in a week, but once it does it's one of the most satisfying, fun and useful guitar styles to play.

In this class we'll go over some basic techniques for learning, practicing and playing Piedmont blues guitar, each day working with a song in a different key. We'll listen to some of the musicians who originally played this music, and find out some blues history along the way.