Short version: I am looking for some online resources to teach myself acoustic delta blues style guitar. I have tried working from books a (very) little bit, but I feel like resources with some kind of video component are going to help me more. Looking online there seem to be thousands of videos, but I don’t know how to tell the good from the bad. I would also prefer something that is a structured lesson so I can work on specific techniques in a scaffolded way rather than just learning an individual song.
Longer version in case context is helpful:
I have been playing guitar for many years now. Played in bands the whole nine. I have always thought of myself as a blues guitar player, in the vein of Muddy Waters, BB King etc. Kind of a non guitar god Eric Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughn in my guitar styling.
But, I haven’t played in a band in years and have little interest in Electric Guitar playing anymore. For the last several years I have messed around with other guitar styles (ukulele too) but I’m always on the lookout for new projects an I realized that my acoustic blues stlyings are seriously lacking. I can play basic stuff, but when you get into counterpoint bass lines and open tunings etc, I get lost quickly. I play modern electric blues on an acoustic guitar if you get my meaning. Most of my learning for the last decade or so has been through books, but once I get bast beginner proficiency I tend to plateau, well I’m starting off at that plateau right now so I’m hoping for something a little more interactive without me having to actually track down a blues guitar teacher to work with me one on one. Free is best, but I can probably justify a small expense.
Hey, wish I could help more and provide an answer with structure but all I have are my own idiosyncratic experiences. I made the same shift from electric/band to acoustic fingerstyle over the past couple of years. I’m back playing some electric - picked, fingerstyle and slide - now, so it comes back around.
I started working on right hand technique. I targeted being able to play with 2-3 fingers and independent thumb, even if I didn’t exactly target playing “acoustic blues”. I didn’t want to render Mississippi John Hurt or Blind Lemon Jefferson note for note - I just wanted to play using my fingers. Kinda Knopfler-y even though I don’t play his stuff.
Anyway, in hindsight I did it in steps. I started playing hybrid, e.g., playing the riff from Spirit in the Sky with pick and fingers. Over time, I transitioned a few other riffs to that hybrid style. Then I put down the pick and targeted playing TRex’s Get it On, popping the high strings in beat with the boogie groove, independent thumb and fingers. I’ve branched out from there.
Online, I picked songs I wanted to learned and checked YouTube, never loyal to any one “teacher.” I did find the video of Big Bill Broonzy playing Hey Hey, and then various How To’s that broke it down. His big thumb banging out bass notes is a great exercise.
What kind of acoustic? The more comfortable you feel the neck is the better. Remind me, do you lik full shaped necks? You might try one for fingerstyle. More to stabilize your fretting hand with.
Also - if you don’t already hang out at the Acoustic Guitar Forum messageboards, you might. You can get a bit more steeped in this type of discussion as other folks post relevant questions about their own learning. Good stuff.
And yeah, Hey Hey is the type of thing I was trying to play. I can do some basic folk music style finger picking, but again, moving past beginner is where I get stuck.
I was listening to Keb Mo and started thinking “I should be able to play that, but I’m pretty sure I’m missing some skills. I have no clue where to start.”
I have seen a couple of learn at home" courses " but I’m hesitant to shell out cash without a recommendation.
I started with How To’s for songs like Hey Hey. When the teacher played a lick I didn’t have, I stopped and made up grooves that featured that lick. Jam on that until I got comfortable. I would come back to Hey Hey, pick up the next lick and go from there. Pretty soon, I had it through.
Technique question: do you have thumb independence? Can you play individual lines with thumb + a couple of fingers?
If not, that’s your near-term goal. I’d Google Youtube lessons focused on that and search in AGR threads and see how it’s discussed (many threads on best Fingerstyle Video Series) and which videos appeal to you.
I started with baby steps, via hybrid picking. That Spirit in the Sky lick played Hybrid got my muscles aware of thumb and fingers moving independently. Make sense?
Also, as a Rock guy, I made up grooves around rock riffs. I do a version of AC/DC’s Gone Shootin’ where I play a steady drone of open A like Cliff William’s bassline while I use my fingers to pop the riff with the drone going. Sounds pretty damn cool, if you ask me ;). I play it on my crunchy electric with a drummer and it fills in the space nicely. And I have a jacked-up right thumb muscle now
Ish. I can finger pick in patterns. For example I can play Dear Prudence, Blackbird, Stairway, Hotel California etc etc. I can also play some classical. But anything with serious counterpoint or the bass line operating separately from the melody line, particularly if my left hand has to start doing anything tricky or if the bass line is playing steady quarter notes whole the melody plays faster, and I start to lose it quickly.
I’ll pop over to to the message boards and see what I can find.
Yeah, I checked the AGF (sorry for the typo above) and searched on thumb independence and it came back with over 100 threads.
Good luck. I would really pick grooves that add a simple move and drill them into tour muscle memory. I musta jammed on Spirit in the Sky and Get it On for man-days.
You never said: what acoustic? How wide is the nut?
An AGF thread on an interesting fingerstyle approach. Basically a form of clawhammer, like for banjo, transitioned to guitar. This guy calls it Pluck and Chuck.
I don’t do all of this, but do include a lot of rhythmic stuff while other fingers play melodic stuff. He’s using fingerpicks, which I can’t abide, personally.
That’s neat. I am liking that forum in general. They have some cool stuff going on.
I also hate finger picks. I stopped playing with a pick at all when I was about 18. Decided I wanted to be like Mark Knopfler or Jeff Beck. But I didn’t really learn finger picking per se, I just developed a pickless style.
Thumb independence seems to be what I’m looking for. I also think I may have a hole in my music theory after reading stuff. I may want to look at some Jazz guitar to get to where I am looking to go.
Pretty much how I have approached it. Really enjoyed what I can do so far.
Jazz guitar: maybe, if you are already fluent in jazz chords and progressions, and adding a “comping” fingerstyle approach where you downstroke the thumb bassline while pluck-popping tight clustered chords. Otherwise, you’ll be trying to learn chords and progressions and fingerstyle thumb independence and your brain will melt.
I would stick with blues and rock riffs and chords that are already burned into your skull and can be transitioned to a thumb-independent approach. That’s how I ended up with Get it On.
You can PM me with specific questions if you’d like. You seem to be on a similar path.
I watched a show on Robert Johnson and was intrigued by his turnarounds (among other things), so I googled Robert Johnson turnarounds and got a bunch of hits. There isn’t much guitar that doesn’t have a ton of online instruction, except for some African styles.
i signed up for Guitar Tricks because I wanted more of a step-by-step method for learning guitar instead of all the jumping around I’ve been doing over the years. I’ve been happy with it. Their song lessons are pretty detailed.
Stefan Grossman’s been teaching fingerstyle blues for decades and probably has enough materials to fill a small library.
My own way into fingerstyle was through John Fahey’s book The Best of John Fahey, 1959-1977 and Bert Jansch and John Renbourn tapes I recorded from an old roommate. I drove from Colorado to Virginia listening non-stop and by the time I arrived I just HAD to play this stuff even though I was a rank beginner guitarist. Funny thing is I was a drummer coming back east to take some classes in NYC. The Fahey book, which a guitar player I grew up playing in bands with gave to me, was like a bible. I still have it even though it’s pretty much fallen apart. There’s also a printing error where they mixed up some pages of a couple songs.
I feel like something with a video instructor is what I need rather than self study with a book. At least to get me over the hump or off the plateau or whatever your metaphor of choice is. I have been doing self study for 7 or 8 years, I need to push myself a bit. I have seen mention of the Stefan Grossman stuff before, as well as Homespun courses. I was looking at a Mississippi John Hurt course this morning that seemed interesting.
I’ll take a look at guitar tricks too. Playing around with some stuff online I am in better technical shape than I expected, but I need to rewire how I think about things a bit. There is a course called fingerstyle Freedom that also seems interesting that I’m thinking about which might help with that. I’ll keep this thread updated as I find stuff.
