About Music Blog

Don’t panic – it’s not unusual for your learning curve to slow up now and again. Every musician, no matter what the style, knows the feeling. Suddenly you see that you’ve played the same song for a long time, and you’re not improving. To make it worse, you don’t try to learn other things. What’s going on here? You’ve hit a full stop, reached your plateau, you’re blocked, resigned never to get better and win your goal, to be hailed as the greatest guitar master that ever played.

Is there anything you can do?

Well, yes there is. That’s to say, let me confide in you some tips and approach that has an effect for me. As one might probably imagine, most of it is psychological, unless you are just practicing so much that you are actually sick of playing! Some blues guitar masters, such as BB King, don’t practice for hours, and just perform. Incidentally, he’s also confided that he’s afraid each time he plays, saying to himself that ‘this time it won’t work’ and ‘people will realize that I’m not very good’.

Attempt to and leave the guitar alone!

Of course this is a tough one for us guitarists. Most the very best players indicate that they played licks and pieces a hundred thousand times to be the best (and I’m sure it’s true), so we need to practice until we are exhausted, right? yes and no.

It’s true that we are improving and training the motor skills by putting our hands on the right strings again and again, but if these actions are mechanical, with no passion, then we won’t progress. Get the thoughts trained – why are you learning guitar? You play because it’s your passion.

Stay idle for a while. Ignore that complicated passage you’ve been working on. After a week or more not playing, you’ll possibly find that it just appears in due course.

Let’s go back to the first steps

Inevitably, when we improve in our playing, more basic things that we do can be sometimes taken for granted as we improve our skills. As we progress, we can become a little loose in the basic techniques, which have a beauty all of their own. Go back to these techniques and learn them again. Explore the music of the old guitar legends and hear again how their playing styles were grounded on solid foundations.

Practice only easy stuff for a week or so, but play it with feeling and give attention to every small detail.

Get Content Playing Your Playing.

If you are at ease with the music, then it flows and appears naturally. Every one can improve, but its true that every one has their limit of capability. Recognition of this and assimilating it, will help you relax. Say this to “perhaps I won’t progress anymore – I’ll make sure that the the music I do play as good as I can make it.” If you achieve this state of mind, you will improve! It’s like magic!

There are many levels of playing guitar, and we can’t all be the best. Someone once said “if only the brightest sang in the forest, it would be a be very quiet place indeed”. Accept your level and be at ease with it. Every one is unique and will create unique music. Eric Clapton is revered as a fantastic blues guitarist, but when playing the acoustic guitar, Tommy Emmanuel makes him appear just competent.

Of Course, It’s All In The Mind.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this advice, but let me tell you a little tale. When I was a young man, I played guitar with a friend of mine, who was not quite as good as I was. It was because I played much more than he did back then. I loved ‘Police Dog Blues’ by Arthur Blake but I always found it was too difficult to tackle.

My friend moved away and about a year later, while chatting over the phone, he casually told me that he had learned ‘Police Dog’. The idea that a ‘lesser’ guitar player had taught himself this song was more than I could bare. I grabbed my guitar and taught myself the song in about three days. This isn’t a testimony to my prowess on the guitar, but rather more a comment on my faulty way of thinking. Most musicians have quite a lot of of arrogance, and quite a large ego.

This needs to be taken on board, controlled and used for good!

Play With Other Musicians – One Of The Most Important Blues Guitar Lessons!

It’s uplifting to play with other guitarists from several of points of view. First of all, it’s enjoyable. There aren’t many things more enjoyable than like jamming along with other guitar players, even when it brings along a feeling of competitiveness. This competition urge you to get better. Even while playing together, musicians become aware of the other guy’s capabilities. All of us have our strong and weak points, and the the best kind of musician augments your strength with his own. He may also attempt to hide your own weakness, and the resulting sound can be a good example of synergy – which signifies that the end result is greater than all it’s parts added together.

When the musicians are more experienced than you, then this will gently stretch you, giving you new ideas and helping you to improve.

Move Away Your Normal Way Of Playing.

I go for this one, because it’s great fun. If your normal style is blues, then teach yourself some folk. If you are a picker, then become a temporary strummer. I think you know what I mean. Sometimes we become fixed in one track and say that we are this or that kind of guitarist. We just pluck the guitar and teaching ourselves a variety of musical styles can just help us to produce higher standard.

Time To Be Zen.

Let go. It’s not that important. You can’t play great guitar if you are too tense or too serious. Many present day blues men can be a tad intense and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because we would like to be like the classic blues players and the serious, intense point if view goes with the style. Don’t bother with those thought patterns. You will never be be that old blues man, because the way we live is radically different. Be who you are, that’s all that has to be done – the rest will follow.

It’s easy easy to imagine that great blues players put out a memorable show off the cuff, or just by chance, as it were. Without a doubt, for the most part this is just not the case. First off, bear in mind that they are unconsciously tapping many years of real experience that is constantly adapting the music you see and hear. A successful professional performing artist analyzes his musical performance and impact after an appearance, noting which songs were successful and which flopped. Perhaps a certain kind of singing suits his way of playing, so more of these could be included. Rather than filling the set with complete show stoppers, which would be too much, the whole performance needs to have a form itself, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. The very well received songs should be analyzed. When you find out why they are so strong, that feature can be sharpened and enhanced to make the songs even more appealing. What are the main characteristics of an outstanding acoustic blues guitar performance?

Although it’s interesting now and again to experiment with musical style, people go for a cliche. They know where they are, and it’s comfortable to hear. Don’t overdo that popular riff, but include it anyway. A great guitar picking style, even if it’s been ‘done before’, played with sincerity and style, will succeed every time. Don’t try to be ‘showy’ and impress everyone with your amazing finger picking skills. Sure, if you’ve got this talent, show it now and again, but if you are not very first-class then better to focus on other aspects of your playing. One of the biggest blues guitar lessons to take on board is to play well within your limits. Listeners would far sooner hear a guitarist play a song very capably than hear some missed notes, or see the player struggling to finish the song. The majority of guitarists play to approximately 75% of their real technical skill on stage – it’s comfortable for all concerned!

Many years ago, when backing Johnny de Silvo in St Martins in The Fields in London, I asked for a few tips on performing on stage. Johnny had been playing for many years on stage and on TV. “Well”, he said, “get the audience to like you, really like you. If you can do that, it won’t matter too much how you play – they’ll forgive you!” That might be going a little over the top, but he certainly did impress the people that night, playing the same old songs in the same old way. He played in an average kind of way, well within his boundaries and he had a good time, and by the way taking the people along at the same time.

The proper utilization of guitar notation is a wonderful help for learning songs of all forms on guitar, but in particular when finger picking blues guitar. Most pro performers relate that it’s achievable to learn new material much faster than when only learning by listening, and experimentation. Of course, it likewise is dependent upon the quality of the tablature, which covers how accurate it is and how easy to use. For example, when we employ tablature to practice old blues guitar, then it would be nice if that tablature accurately reflected just what the old blues masters were playing. All too often this is just not the case, and is perhaps the greatest complaint aimed at musicians selling blues guitar lessons. It is extremely annoying to carefully start to learn the guitar tab and realize that the guy teaching you is not playing the music that the notation shows. Even worse, you have the suspicion that maybe he can’t even play the music like the old classic blues men.

The other question of quality concerns the style of the tab. All finger picking structures, regardless of how complex they may seem, are basically quite elementary. Three things can happen when a guitar is picked – either the thumb strikes the string, a finger strikes the string or they pick two strings in unison – that’s all! Naturally, it’s the way in which the performer does it that gives the music it’s form and flavor. Acoustic blues guitar finger picking patterns can be very simple, and also very effective in describing the blues, and sometimes the way in which a guitarist does this isn’t apparent. Several guitar tablature methodologies employ a great many extra symbols that are supposed to aid the student understand precisely what’s happening. There could be symbols to represent slides, bends, vibrato, palm damping, timing, slaps, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and in small numbers these are normally welcome. However, if you try to utilize notation by itself to learn any kind of tune or song, you presently come unstuck. It just isn’t regular musical notation, but just a fast way of demonstrating where the fingers should go.

Fundamentally, all that is required is the network representing the 6 strings of the guitar, the digits that show the frets to focus on, and an up or down stroke which indicates that the finger or thumb is to be employed for the finger picking strike. All else is by and large superfluous. Many of the subtle timings and effects utilized by the classic blues men cannot be taught with tablature alone. Get yourself some accurate tablature and listen to the old guys again and again, until you can live and breathe what these guys were all about.

Most guitar players have a kind of a running battle with the strings they use, apart from the normal problems relating to tuning. The questions are abundant for the new guitarist. It’s not enough that we need to learn this intricate stuff, but in addition, our fingers are bruised and we aren’t sure if we are using the right strings for our style! What kind of strings are good for playing acoustic blues guitar, for example. If you are lucky enough (and rich enough) to have secured a personal teacher, then it’s all plain sailing. Just take his counsel and depend on his years of experience. However, if you purchase blues guitar lessons from the net, or on a video disk, you are more often than not left to your own inquiries, relying on word of mouth from friends, or basic trial and error.

First of all, it depends on what variety of acoustic guitar you wish to learn. Blue grass players go for a medium gauge string, which run from 0.054 inch to 0.013 inch. Thicker strings are ideal for striking with a plectrum gripped loosely between the thumb and forefinger, and don’t oscillate overly when struck. This is important if you have a well set up guitar with a low action. A string vibrating too much can touch the frets, causing a ugly buzzing noise. Also, they can be little tough on the ends of the fingers. Of course, we have to build up that toughened skin, but heavier strings take a little more finger pressure to hold them firmly on the frets.

When choosing acoustic blues guitar, many players opt for light gauge, which run from 0.054 up to 0.011 inch. There may not seem a lot of difference between medium and light gauge, but believe me – you can feel it! This difference becomes obvious when one tries to bend one of the strings across to raise the note a little and produce that lovely sorrowful blues sound. It seems genuinely hard – you just cannot bend it far enough, easily enough. By contrast, most guitarists find extra lights a little too skinny (0.052 to 0.010). They just move around a little too much, and easily catch the frets if played a little hard. Having said that, several superb foremost guitarists use light gauge strings, as it all depends on your finger control.

The quality of the strings is not such an issue with modern strings and production processes. Basic 80/20 bronze wound sets can be bought relatively inexpensively, but it’s a good idea spending a little more and buying phosphor bronze, which have a nicer tone and are longer lasting. Martin make a set called SP, which is hard wearing and great for that one off studio session, or public appearance. However, if you play on the street, don’t bother with the top quality – pick them hard and replace them often.

Usually it’s the small things that guitarists include which create all the difference. A lot of of us have played Candy Man by Gary Davis, for a long time, with various degrees of success. I’ve performed it for years, and then I decided to take a closer look to find out what’s happening in the picking patterns.

Naturally, we understand that the Reverend applied simply one finger and his thumb for his right hand picking, but that’s just the start of his mastery for blues music. Loosen up those fingers and let’s go … One Of The Final Stellar Blues Guitar Masters

Reverend Gary Davis was uncommon in quite a few respects. The intricacy and musical richness of his music is legendary, and we may think ourselves to be quite lucky that his talents remained undiminished in his later on in years. As opposed to quite a few blues men, who stopped performing and restarted once they had been ‘found’ again, Gary Davis in no way stopped playing.

It was still his habit to play the blues in the streets around Harlem until he became in vogue once again, then started to make records and play live gigs once again. He was additionally very inclined to give blues guitar lessons to almost any person that inquired it of him, it seems, and so the abilities have been handed on to young guitarists like Stephan Grossman and many others.

First of all, Davis used the thumb and fore finger of his picking hand to generate all of those incredibly complicated sounds. Of course, his finger may move quickly and seemed to move separately from his thumb. He also utilized picks, sometimes can help to be more accurate.

He was really proficient in any key, both major or minor, but it wasn’t that fact that exemplified his technique (for me.) The timing of his thumb beats were rock solid, as you would expect, and he may break out of the alternating bass pattern at will, either to double time and develop syncopated rhythms, or to create lightning fast solitary string runs. For the second option, he would pick a string alternately with his thumb and finger, as though he had been using a plectrum. This was extraordinary enough, but he typically sang at the same time which is a great trick – have a go sometime!

His thumb could additionally jump across to the high strings if needed, to finish a run or a phrase, giving the impression of more than one finger being applied. The outcome was a distinctive experience of ragtime guitar playing that has never ever been equaled.

My preferred classic blues guitar men are mostly obscure musicians having their origins in Carolina – Floyd Council, Pink Anderson ( Pink Floyd took their names for their rock group in the sixties ) and Scrapper Blackwell.

Floyd Council didn’t record a lot as a performing artist in his own right, but sometimes played in studio recording sessions backing ‘stars’ such as Blind Boy Fuller, another South Carolina leading light . Pink Anderson played ragtime guitar and performed in itinerant shows selling medicines.

Scrapper Blackwell was an highly wide-ranging guitarist who wrote many unforgettable songs, like Blues Before Sunrise and Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.

Floyd Council (Born September 2, 1911 and died May 9th , 1976) was a well-known entertainer of Piedmont ragtime blues sound, which was well liked throughout the south eastern states of America in the 1930s . He began his career in the nineteen twenties, performing with two brothers, Leo and Thomas Strowd and they called themselves “The Chapel Hillbillies”. He also performed in some sessions with Blind Fuller in the 30s . His muscles were partly paralyzed after suffering a stroke in the nineteen sixties, however, his mind was still sharp. All the same , he was never able to recover his playing ability. Council passed away in nineteen seventy six after a heart attack, after moving to live in Sanford, NC.

Pink Anderson

Pink’s birth place was in Greenville South Carolina. Having learned numerous instruments, he started to perform for Dr. Frank Kerr, who had a business known as the Indian Remedy Company in 1914 to play for the public while the doctor sold his magical ‘ elixir ‘.

In the town of Spartanburg, Anderson encountered Simeon “Blind Simmie” Dooley in 1916, who showed him how to play blues guitar – Pink previously had some experience of performing in string bands. When he was not working in Dr Kerr’s medicine show , Dooley and Pink would entertain at small gatherings . Health problems eventually made Anderson to retire from traveling in 1957 . He had a stroke in nineteen fifty four, which forced him to well-nigh stop playing guitar, and he would never again play with his old flair. He passed on October 1974, after a heart attack at the age of seventy four. He is interred in Spartanburg.

Scrapper Blackwell

Born in Syracuse, Carolina, Scrapper Blackwell was one of sixteen children. Half Cherokee Indian, he was raised up and lived the biggest part of his life in Indianapolis. He was christened , “Scrapper”, by his gran , because of his prickly nature. His father played the violin, but Scrapper taught himself how to play the guitar. Even when he was a teenager , Scrapper worked as a part-time musician, traveling as far away as Chicago. He was a sullen man, generally keeping to himself and hard to relate to. Nonetheless, Blackwell established a duo with musician Leroy Carr, whom he ran across in Indiana in the nineteen twenties, which was a lucrative working relationship. Blackwell additioanlly made records of his own, including “Kokomo Blues” which became “Old Kokomo Blues” (Kokomo Arnold) before it was transformed again into “Sweet Home Chicago” by Robert Johnson.

They played everywhere throughout the mid-west states and through the South from 1928 to 1935 – they were the early stars of the blues scene, recording in excess of 100 tracks. After Carr died, Blackwell returned to performing in the late nineteen fifties and was recorded again in June 1958 by Colin C. Pomroy. He was just about to restart his blues career when he was shot and killed during a robbery in an Indianapolis alley. He was fifty nine years old .

With its solid spruce top and eco-conscious nato neck, the Vintage V300 acoustic parlor guitar represents an ideal introduction to playing full size acoustic guitars. Its straightforward no-frills performance and traditional looks have a lot to offer guitarists of all skill levels.

The V300 Parlor from Vintage was recently voted “The Best Guitar Under £1000″ by Acoustic Guitar Magazine and it really lives up to the hype. For an inexpensive guitar, it’s got an amazingly good tone, with a mature sound. The wood is excellent. It has a spuce sound board and a nato wood neck which is fast to play. The bridge is rosewood and it has twenty frets but 14 accessible frets.

The action needed some adjustment as I found it too high but this was not such a big deal. It was delivered in a card board box, and was well protected. My initial impression was that it is well made and looked quite pretty (I went for the cherry sunburst model). I also opted for the VE300, which has Fishman electronics and a nice little tuner on board, which is an essential for me. This is a great little blues guitar.

The sound is amazing. It seemed to me that the treble strings are more dominant, which is great for cutting through noise if you’re playing acoustically, but I prefer more bass. Still, for this price tag the guitar more than satifsfies. I play blues guitar, and this guitar finger sounds good when finger picked. It’s loud enough and sustains well. The tone is very rich for this amount of money. It shouldn’t be criticized really. Plugged in, it projects a solid sound with bags of breeding.

This guitar doesn’t seem to scratch easily if banged – an inescapable side effect for the working guitarist, and it keeps in tune very well. The tuners are Grover clones and appear to be high quality. This is the sort of thing that becomes apparent after some years.

The V300 shouldn’t exactly be compared to an expensive Taylor or Martin. Guitarists with one of these will hear immediately that the Vintage is lacking in the bass register, but of course you would pay twenty times more for one of these classy guitars. The question is – is the difference worth the extra money? As usual, it depends on your needs and what you can afford. In my opinion, this is a great instrument for around £180, a price tag that I still find incredible. If you want a blues guitar, or prefer folk or jazz, you really can’t go wrong.

The Martin 000X1 is offered as a starter in the prestigious Martin range and gives quite a punch for an instrument this size. Comparable instruments of these dimensions are theTaylor: 110 Larrivée: OM-03 SP and Blueridge BR-43. You’ll read some great reviews of the 000X1 on the internet, and you can take them at their word. A purist might say that it can’t be any good, because the back, side and neck are artificial, but don’t don’t let that put you off track!

First of all, this guitar has literally no extras. There are side markers to denote fret positions, for example, but no dots on the fret board. The bridge and fret board are made from Morado. The neck is stratabond, a bit like a plywood, but very solid feel. There is no binding, and the solid spruce sound board is finished in satin. It doesn’t have an inlaid rosette, but sports a tasteful decal. I like the basi look of this Martin guitar, but then I’m more interested in playability. This instrument is very comfy to hold partly because of it’s small body, and I just love playing it.

The neck is thin and slick, and the body is not too light. I don’t like the feel of a guitar that’s too light. The Martin 000X1 is manufactured in Mexico with the right attitude to craftsmanship we associate with the brand. The width at the nut 1-11/16″, but seems somehow wider. Obviously, Martin have the expertise to make efficient use of the width available. There’s enough room to clear the strings with fat fingers, but the strings are close enough to allow rapid finger movements. The top is braced in the celebrated Martin X-series manner.

The instrument has great overall tone, but it’s the basses that really impress – as you would think with an instrument from the Martin range. The E and A strings exhibit a depth not found in most other makers guitars. The bass could be called a bit ‘raunchy’, which is wonderful if you like to play the blues. The dirty sound is according to preference, but it works for me. I chose the 000X1AE, which has a bug under the saddle, and a volume plus tone control cleverly fitted just inside the body near the sound hole.

A Great Starter Blues Guitar

The guitar starts to shine when finger picking the blues, in fact. Heavy picking doesn’t bother this instrument. The strings might buzz some, but hey, it’s blues! The overall volume is not the loudest, as as you would think from an small body size, but there’s plenty of sustain. I picked the bass E and found that it was still ringing a long time after. This can produce really nice effects, like bending the treble strings lightly over that droning bass sound.

I hope you find this short review helpful, particularly if you were thinking of purchasing this instrument. If I try hard, there are negative aspects I could think of. For example, the spruce top has a thin veneer of satin finish and can be prone to bangs and scratches. That said, the back and sides are probably indestructable. I’ve given mine several pretty heavy bangs with no apparent marks. Another bit of advice I could give – the appearance of the back and sides can vary substantially from guitar to guitar, and some of them aren’t so attractive, so take the trouble to go and choose one at your friendly musical instrument store instead of placing an order from a distance.

My conclusion: The Martin 000X1 is possibly the best little blues guitar you can buy in the low budget category.

By Jim Bruce

It’s always common for people to say that the make of guitar a performer uses to play blues music is really vital to the sound. Whenever I’ve performed well in front of an audience, or upload a video to my Youtube Channel, I often have questions of the nature “nice performance – what kind of box do you play?”

This raises the pertinent inquiry – how important is the guitar to a professional’s performance? Of course, the make of guitar isn’t the most important component, but represents an important part. When inquired what make of guitar he best performed with, Muddy Waters answered “It doesn’t really matter – just hand me a guitar and I’ll have you weeping!”

One can find great film clips on Youtube featuring classic blues men giving astonishing renditions using just run of the mill instruments, for example, Mance Lipscomb playing a cheap Eko guitar. In fact, when the master blues men were beginning to play,there wasn’t much money to invest on a great guitar, and they possible used a cheap Stellar,purchased from Sears (like Elizabeth Cotton) or a used instrument shop. My own favorite instrument when I began to play for people was a 000 body size Yamaha acoustic manufactured from laminated wood. It was loud and efficient, which was just what I needed.

But of course the price of the guitar has an impact?

Of course it does, and you must evaluate the effect of this difference in your personal case. The variance in sound quality between a $200 instrument and another costing $1000 isn’t too big nowadays, bearing in mind the low priced, good quality instruments created in China. Apart from the difference in the quality of sound, the most important difference is ease of playing.The big ticket hand-crafted modes are great to play. A Guitar player can do the same music using the inexpensive guitar, but it takes more application. Additionally, in general the sustain and harmonics of the notes using the less expensive instruments is not as satisfying. Gently strike a bass string on a high end Martin to hear what I’m talking about. It appears to go on indefinitely!

Which Guitar To Choose?

Of course, some kinds are better suited for different types of playing, in concert with action adjustment and string choice. A dreadnought body Gibson has profound bass notes and projects the sound far and wide – fantastic for finger picking using plastic and steel picks, strumming or using a plectrum. Ragtime style players tended to play guitars with small bodies, such as the Stellar or Gibson parlor model.

Parlor guitars are starting to be produced again and are increasingly sought after. While not strictly parlor size, the body size designated 000 is becoming a style of standard kit for playing blues on an acoustic guitar, like the 000 28EC produced by Martin Guitars.

Depends On How You Play.

Do you play softly or with a stronger approach? This can also be an important factor in your choice of guitar. Some instruments don’t don’t really like being hit hard, while others love it! In the best instance, the very best guitars(which are usually the high cost items) will play happily with both treatments. My advice for guitar searchers is ‘go and play some!’

Don’t think that the most expensive is naturally best either. Some years ago, Gretsch created a range of guitars named the ‘Americana’ Series which cost around $95 when brand new. The four guitars in the range were in garish shades and were covered in pictures, like as cowboys, cows and UFOs! Although manufactured to be a novelty instrument, these small guitars turned out to be really good (they were constructed by Gretsch after all) with solid wood structure and quality top. These guitars are not made today, and it’s almost impossible to get hold of one – just another example of inexpensive being excellent value.

Jim Bruce is a working blues man making a living playing blues guitar. His acoustic lessons are fast becoming the standard to reach for acoustic blues guitar picking lessons.

Main site: www.play-blues-guitar.eu
Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/acoustictravellersl

There can’t be many folks who watch a blues man perform a tear jerking riff on the guitar and not wish it that it were him playing that cool stuff. There’s something very cool about it that is more than the actual movements. music doesn’t have to be super complicated or showy – Lightnin’ Hopkins would often play a simple bass pattern that could give you goose bumps. One of the first things we need to do is figure out what genre of blues guitar we would like to learn. This is crucial – there is a lot of practice ahead of you, so you should enthusiastic about the music.

When you mention ‘ blues guitar ‘, different ideas will spring to mind for a wide variety of people, depending on their generation and character. For some, the blues guitar of Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan is the goal. Other people search for the truth of the classic acoustic blues. For the purposes of this discussion, I’ll group all the electric styles together and simply name it ‘ electric ‘ , as I’m more interested in the foundation of all electric blues music, acoustic blues guitar. What are the different styles of acoustic blues and how could we identify? We might do this according to technique, sound or location. In truth, location appears to have had quite an impact on the regional styles, possibley because guitar players exchanged ideas from each other. In this way, regional styles developed.

Blues Guitar From The Delta

It’s supposed that this is the place where the blues began, although it’s more likely that it began in several areas round about the same time. Certainly, quite a few talented blues men moved to the North to perform in cities like Chicago or Detroit when they realized that they could make a living playing blues guitar without laboring sixteen hours every in the fields.

The early acoustic work by Muddy Waters (Walkin’ Blues) is a fine example of this authentic delta style. Incidentally, Waters insisted that his version of Walkin pre-dated that of Robert Johnson.

The delta blues sound could be described as quite simple, often basic and deeply emotional. The slide style of playing guitar was ideal for the delta. The weather was often hot with high humidity, which played havoc with the tuning of a wooden guitar. Slide songs performed in open G or D were easier to keep in tune, and additionally it was easy to compensate for tuning errors by adjusting the slide movement.

Songs from mississippi delta performed in standard tuning were predominantly in the Keys of A and E, and employed a monotonic bass pattern. The picking patterns were often simple but powerful. Artists to research are Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters and Fred McDowell.

And Now To Texas

The lone star state has always produced a continuous stream of blues men. In the days of the classic blues, some notable blues men born in Texas created a hallmark sound. A legendary singer, Lightnin’ Hopkins, played most often, using a monotic bass pattern. However, his picking thumb could move quickly and he was more diverse than the players from the Mississppi. Hopkins wrote many slow temp blues pieces in E, but could easily raise the beat for an audience that liked to dance a while. In his hay day, he could easily fill the local halls and made some records. However, after being ripped off by a recording manager, he forever after insisted on being paid before every gig. Listen to the music of Mance Lipscomb, another legend from the area.

Carolina Style

It’s strange how certain regions had a plethora of impressive guitarists, and this was the case in the state of South Carolina. A lot of the music seems to be a crossover between Texas blues and complicated ragtime styles, but this description is a bit too simple. Some players like Pink Anderson and Wille Walker were confident in playing the real alternating bass line normally associated with ragtime blues, but some players, like Floyd Council, could break out of the pattern whenever he wanted to accentuate some musical phrases in his songs. It’s clear that these musicians learned from each other, as we can hear identical patterns in the music of Blind Boy Fuller, Floyd and Gary Davis. All of these musicians moved in the same circles. Scrapper Blackwell wrote some fine examples of amazing acousic blues with clever patterns and attractive lyrics.

Ragtime Blues Guitar

Possibly the most complicated style of them all, the top peformers were true masters of the technique. Ragtime guitar songs normally employ chord structures around the keys of G and C, and featuring six or seven chords in place of the 3 or 4 associated with Mississippi or Texas pieces in E or A. (There are always the exceptions to the rule!) Other characteristics are a distinctive bass pattern alternating between two or three strings, a melody picked simultaneously on the higher strings and often lyrics punctuated by single string runs picked with thumb and finger. Possibly the two grand masters of ragtime blues were Arthur Blake and Reverend Gary Davis. Blind Blake’s bass picking was particulary slick, sometimes doubling up on the tempo and slipping his thumb between two strings, producing a highly syncopated sound. Reverend could really play all styles – blues, gospel and ragtime blues.

Some performers, such as Big Bill Broonzy, employed a monotic bass style, but was much more diverse than the majority of the Mississippi blues men. He might play Tin Pan Alley standards, ballads, and often move over towards jazz and ragtime in his approach. Broonzy created a style we might call Chicago swing.