Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a solo composition of the classic “St. James Infirmary”. You’ll be able to play this on your own (with a pick). No accompaniment required! In addition to showing you how to play everything, I’ll explain where the notes come from and my thought process for creating a composition like this so that you can start to do this for your favorite songs.
Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson
Part 2 - For Premium Members
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Slow Walk-Through
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Video Tablature Breakdown
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winner!!!!!! haunting new orleans pirates alley sound.
agreed, love this one!
Just what I need to break in on my new old peavy patriot . Great old classic song.
A very positive suprise & welcomed change…!
Thank you Brian for the fine arrangement.
Regards.
Brian,
Aha now this is a great tune and a departure from the regular. A few of these ‘so well known songs’ sprinkled in every so often will attract a wide blues audience and will go down as a real bonus for members. Cant help but think this will be a winning strategy for all. Great Job.
Perhaps we could have a contest for vocals!!
Count me out or you’d die laughing!!
All the best
JohnStrat
I could not agree more with both Mehmet Erol G and JohnStrat!! A very nice departure from the norm and something to look forward to. If you follow through with frequent arrangements of well-known tunes, I’ll probably stay past my initial yearly subscription. Anyway, nice change and very well done!!
Fan bloody tastic Brian
Amazing Grace is on the back burner. I have a new project for the summer months.
Love it
Thanks Brian
Aaah, brilliant, love it! I love stand-alone (classic) blues compositions arranged, explained, and taught by Brian! It’s made my day and it’s going to the top of my to-do-list now. And oh, yes – it’s nice to see the good old Alvarez dusted off, too 🙂
Thank you, Brian, for another shiny gem!
Very nice. Thanks Brian. Can’t wait to learn it. But, hey you didn’t mention Arlo’s version – my fave. He plays it in Am as well but capo’s on the 2nd fret, taking it to Bm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3-FgHhcjZE
I’m sure your instruction will help me try to figure out his break as well.
Thanks for all your efforts and fine instruction.
P.S. Arlo is returning for a second time to our MusicFest in Courtenay here on Vancouver Island (British Columbia, Canada) next month. Perhaps a request . . .
Thanks Brian. I’ve always wanted to learn this one
for the aussies…sound familiar?? mossy and chisel
https://youtu.be/rgK5RhN1Kns
spot on, thought of chisel when I was playing it and didn’t know why, now I do, cheers
Great choice! Feel free to play any other pre-1923 public domain song that catches your ear! 😉
Brian … yeah baby .. this is fantasic !!!!
I think Brian is taking a well-deserved summer vacation. These past two videos seem older. Still great though.
Best,
Michael
..and the background has faded to black over the last few weeks 🙂
Thanks Brian, this one is superb, I can’t wait to get my teeth into this lesson. I hope this might be a bit of a breakthrough, that is, teaching a traditional blues tune which is outside of copyright. More please Brian …….
Richard
Magic Brian pure class a few more oldies like this lesson would be great cheers mate
Merci beaucoup Brian pour ce classique revisité avec classe, fantastique…
Great lesson Brian. Fun to listen to and fun to play.
Thanks
Ray P
Love it Brian Love it more of the same please
Love it any classic like this would be a great help. love the alvaris I had to buy one just like yours. starting to make progress after a year-and-half playing. thank you
great stuff brian
this is one of my favourite songs of all time
great arrangement
I love your arrangements of traditional songs! Just what I need!
Brilliant lesson Brian! Soon as I heard the sample this was a ‘must do now’!
Great tune to pick and excellent instruction as always.
Really like hearing your thoughts on how to arrange songs for the guitar. Definitely something I want to aspire to.
This is beautiful! Thanks, Brian!
How do you “loop” a section?
Another nice version is by Allen Toussaint.
Hi, Can anyone out there tell me what the X’s mean in the tablature and how to or not to play them. I can’t find any explanation of the x’s in the lesson on tablature.
Thanks, Alan
Yes they are percussive or muted strums. so play them but mute the strings with your frstboard hand so that they do not ring out any notes.
thanks, are you supposed to fret the strings while you play them muted?
Yes broadly speaking its an approximate thing but damp or omit from the strum any open strings.
cool stuff, enjoyed listening to your description introduction too..ty much Brian!
I love the lesson. . its a common comment here….whats it mean ??????????????????????
Rev I think it may be a broswer setting as I dont get any showing on my android. it could be html showing through. beyond that i cant help.
Nice-but I am only seeing a slow version mp3……..where is the normal tempo one?
I agree, the normal tempo mp3 is missing. Any chance to have that uploaded, Brian?
Just joined the site and this tune is awesome. Just what I needed to start picking up lead ideas.
More of similar please. This is a great supplement to EP146 (“Play something on the guitar then”)
One more reason why I love your instruction!!! This is such an enjoyable lesson.
Do you work in a music store? Seems like you have some nice. new guitars often. What is this one?
Enjoyed this lesson and style.
Hi Tom,
The guitar is ‘Brian’s Alvarez MPA 70. He first used id at AM somewhere around EP047 April 14. Yes lots of us have noted what a great sounding little guitar it is. Several members have bough into Alvarez as a result. The MPA70 seems to be hard to find these days too.
Regards JohnStrat
Thanks for the info.
I don’t work in a music store, but probably should – I’m in them enough 🙂
Brian, what happened to the white background?
This is great, I want more old songs like this. How about the old Charlie Patten song, Big Jim Lee? This was covered recently by Samantha Fish, and her version is fantastic.
Thanks for this lesson Brian. More like this. I love these old jazz standards and this lesson really helped me and inspired me. Thanks
Love this one – going to be a challenge but this one I’m going to learn from beginning to end.
Would love to see more of these – is “”Summertime” in the public domain?
Enjoying this greatly!
Great lesson. Love breaking into that natural minor scale.
Really cool groove Brian just what I needed reminds me of a lovely French waitress I used to know
Great lesson. One observation- at about 4:19 of Part 2, Brain says you slide down on the 1st string to the 9th fret. Actually you slide down to the 7th fret.
Hmmm….just luv this Gitano – Gypsy – Manouche style jazzy progressions! More, more !
Love the Public Domain Songs Brian style! I can hear a Brian version of “Danny Boy” in my head. Just a hint… maybe 🙂
Outstanding, as always. It’s a simple lesson that makes us sound like guitar players. That’s the goal.
Thanks Brian …. love it!
Brian, Nice job on this old time standard. I learned from watching.
Wonderful song to learn, thank you Brian. I’ve looked at lots of versions, some of which are easier to learn – some harder (finger style playing), but this is by far the most rewarding and well worth the effort to learn for slow learners like me.
Others members have said how quickly my playing will improved when i first joined the Active Melody community – little did I know how right they would be (after all these years of struggling to get nowhere fast). My sincere thanks to you Brian and all my fellow guitarists in arms.
This is why I chose A M rather than “the bouncy ball approach” I love dabbling with different styles. Keep up the good work Brian..
Great song. It is easier for me to learn songs that I already have the basic tune in my head. Your original compositions are very good but it would be good for some people if there were familiar songs sprinkled in.
Thank you Brian for all your work,you are amazing teacher and player ,your passion is contagious.The fact you teaching all your own material makes my memory working harder,what is really good part of your teaching as well./What strings this MPA Alvarez likes?/
Great , I love this stuff . I think it’s got that Django Reinhardt style , that is really cool!!!
I want more, Thanks
I love going back into the vault to revisit treasures like this!
Just found your ‘St James Infirmary’ lesson and it’s enough to get me to join up. Your composition is really attractive, well taught, and this old classic is easy to learn. Thanks Brian, and I hope you find the time to prepare another classic soon.
Really, really nice arrangement. I’ve played this finger style in that key forever but my melody was never as strong. Love the slide up to the unison E lick, that’s perfection to my ear, grabs you right from the get-go.
I’ll be incorporating many of the ideas in Brian’s version into mine (a.k.a. the ‘folk process’), since I have some cool stuff in mine I don’t want to throw out. I’ll try playing it with a pick also, that had never occurred to me. Fingerpicking everything can become a bit of a crutch, in my case.