Born in Clarkdale, Mississippi, Willie Brown (not to be confused with William Brown from Arkansas) was among the earliest blues musicians, a talented guitarist and singer whose playing had a tremendous influence on the development of Delta Blues.
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Lesson 13 – A Few Chords and How They Work (Part Two)
The following chart shows five common positions for the 7th chord, the root is noted with a diamond (note: the numbers 1-5 across the top are there to identify these forms for our purposes, they aren’t the proper names).
Lesson 12 – A Few Chords and How They Work (Part One)
The list of chords, their positions and inversions is pretty exhaustive and seemingly endless. Instead of writing a huge chart for you to try and memorize, we’re going to save a little time and space
Freight Train Derailed
The song is still incredibly popular and has become a standard amongst fingerstyle guitarists. In fact, any picker worth their salt has an interpretation. It’s become the Stairway to Heaven of the acoustic guitar.
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Mississippi Fred McDowell’s music is urgent and commanding. His playing is hugely rhythmic and dynamic, sparse and overflowing, passionate and heartfelt.
Lesson 11 – Finger Patterns (Part Two)
Make sure you’re comfortable playing the previous patterns before continuing. Good, now it’s starting to get interesting. This next pattern is a variation on the first; you’ll notice there are a couple extra notes. We’ll continue to call the patterns E & A for now. Follow the procedure you used in part one to learn these.
Blind Blake
Arthur Blake, a.k.a. Blind Blake, was a prolific and talented guitarist who is often referred to as ‘King of the Ragtime Guitar.’ His complex and intricate fingerstyle techniques and diverse repertoire have influenced and inspired generations of players, including Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Willie McTell.
Lesson 10 – Finger Patterns (Part One)
This first pattern is demonstrated on the E major and A major chords, but as you’ll see it can be used over any chord combinations.
Lesson 9 – Demystifying Tablature
When you first look at a piece of tablature, especially for fingerstyle, at first glance it looks like an impossible number of random notes that you somehow have to figure out a way to memorize.
Lesson 8 – The Main Elements of Picking
Fingerpicking is not easy, it takes time and work to establish a solid technique. With that said, it’s also not as mystifying as it might first appear
