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I continue to get lots of requests for more acoustic blues lessons. It seems there are more of these requests than for any other type of lesson, and they’re incredibly easy for me as I’ve spent countless hours and years sitting around picking this stuff on the couch at home. The sad thing is that it never really made it any farther than my living.. and along comes YouTube, and the rest is history. This is something I pulled together rather quickly, just a combination of licks from various artists like Lightin’ Hopkins, Howlin’ Wolf, and John Lee Hooker to name a few. I was recording a bunch of little riffs like this on my iPhone and went back to listen the other night and heard this and thought it sounded kind of cool. It sounded much cooler than when I was originally messing with it anyway. So hopefully this is something you blues enthusiasts will enjoy. It’s probably geared more towards intermediate / advanced players, but as always, I encourage beginners to try it. Even if there are just a few licks you can pull out of it!
Acoustic Delta Blues Guitar Lesson
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Love these acoustic blues lessons! It would be great to see something in a country blues style ala Furry Lewis, Mississippi John Hurt, etc. Or a slide lesson. I can actually learn these with your teaching. Enjoying the guitar mutch more since I discovered your site.
Thank you
It’s such a raw, soulful form of blues, with gritty open string licks and walking bass lines—all on a simple guitar. I think Muddy, Lightnin’, and John Lee were the ones who really gave it the gritty ingredients needed to make it more edgy. They took the sounds of loneliness of the our personal journey through the cycle of life and injected them with some fight and bite—attitude. John Lee Hooker has to be my personal favorite.
That’s my take on its popularity. Just watched your demo of this lesson and can’t wait to sink my fingers into it. Thanks Bri. Master teacher.
This one really wants to take me back to the Mississippi River with my fishing pole and go catfish fishing with my cassettes and cassette player and with my 6 stringer. Thanks Brian.
Lots of lovely touches here Brian..many thanks yet again. Think this style is your forte. Went out and bought an Alvarez
Parlour after seeing your earlier lesson..you should be on commission! In the UK they only sell the plain finish but what a
sweet little instrument..had it slightly modified so can use it for slide also which is quite good..keep up your marvellous work
Very fun to play and well done, thanks Brian
I am so glad that many people are requesting these fingerstyle acoustic blues lessons, after all it’s where it all started.This in particular is an extremely satisfyingly fun lesson!Thank you so much for all your work. You’ve made learning much easier for me and I am sure many others
Peace, Josh.
Hello Brian
On lesson ep0013 the delta one is that e box 1&2 you mention the first
string 3rd fret is that not going out of the scale
Regards Gerard
Brian, I cant tell you how much I love learning this and playing it and how it makes me feel. Thanks
hey …. ijust submitted payment and i get one sheet of tab …. basically , the opening measures only .then to add insult to injury my printer isnt getting it . prior to this episode my printer was fine .
@daddy goo goo - there is only one sheet of tab for this lesson so that’s correct. Can’t help with your printer unfortunately.
Hello Brian again
What i meant to ask yesterday was is this being played in the key of E in box 1 and 2 you mention the third string first fret. I am confused with this, is not going out of the scale(minor pentatonic)
Regards Wiemeraner
Brian,
This is the good stuff!. I enjoy all of your lessons. This acoustic blues is very realxing to play.
Thanks again, Fresnojohns
Hi Wiemaraner
Our Brian is a very busy guy! The 3rd string 1st fret is G# which is part of the E major scale and the E major chord. Much of this lesson is built around E major and of course, as ever, the E minor pentatonic fits over this but there is no reason not to include some of the major scale..indeed mixing up the scales is where the fun starts!and is at the heart of so much blues. Hope you and Brian don’t mind me butting in!
Cheers
Paul
Well said Paul! 🙂
THANK YOU brian for todays lessons just like arrny I WILL BE BACK thankyou from colin
Thanx for the lesson, Brian! I’m using this one to “get started” with finger style Blues. The head/tummy analogy is dead-on and what I’m having the most trouble with at the moment, but thanx to your explanation, I’m not worried…just practicing more waiting for the “click”. :-)
Thanx again for the awesome teaching method and the variety of content!
@ibrewalot - awesome name btw. Just keep at it man - I’m telling you it’s muscle memory, all of the sudden you’ll just do it and you’ll wonder why it was difficult. Some people can do that stuff faster than others.. and if it makes you feel any better, I"m a SUPER slow learner - but very persistant 🙂
This is a very catchy rhythm and i’m having much fun playing around with it and different variants of it.
cheers Brian.
Great lesson Brian - REALLY great. I’ve been learning this piece - not only slowly, but in small ‘bite size’ parcels which will hopefully glue themselves together eventually. I thought I had finally nailed the thumb working independently, but when I listened to a recording of myself, I realized that there was a degree of hesitation, or syncopation going on there. Still, it sounded pretty good overall, but will persist in trying to train my thumb to behave itself.
Pete.
Pete, sounds like you’re doing it the right way. Just learning pieces and then eventually you can put those pieces together. I’m going to be releasing a Jam Track of this lesson this week that will include a full band! So you can play along to it in tempo. I think I’ll do a few versions at different speeds so that beginners like yourself won’t feel too rushed.
Brian, I’m finding it helpful to develop the thumb independence by using a metronome (free app on my smartphone). The 4/4 “tick” on the beat reminds me where the bass note should fall in relation to what my left hand is doing. Started out at about 40-50 bpm and am increasing from there. Thanks for a great lesson!
Where do i find the backing track after i download it on my iphone
Love playing around with this piece, I have got so much out of it, also adding my own bits, which I think is what it is all about really. I have just purchased an Alvarez AP70, don’t want to put it down, great little blues guitar.
Cheers again Brian.
thanks for sharing your knowledge Brian..you are a wonderful teacher..may god bless you!!!
Great lesson Brian!!! THNX!
You should make some Premium Acoustic Blues lessons!
What style is that guitar?
Matt
Great piece and fun to learn. Lots of soul. However there are some errors in the tab. It would be tremendous help to me if the tab was correct- especially measure 12. That is a great lick but it would help me GREATLY is the rhythm was correctly noted. Thanks
Great lesson, really enjoyed mastering this one. Took me a while but worth it. Thanks for all these acoustic blues pieces.
I just signed up for this and am super stoked to begin my slow learning process. Have others found that the video lesson doesn’t match up the tab that can be downloaded on the same page? When I started I was trying to play and watch the first time through and I was lost.
I watch the video through without playing and there seem to be inconsistencies in the tab. I don’t want to sound like I am complaining but I am just trying to get a good base of understanding before I move on.
Thanks for any input.
one difference I noticed in the tab was the transition to the B7 chord is a strait walk-up to the B in the bass…whereas Brian played it the same way he played the transition to the A….meaning, bouncing off the open D note and doing the chromatic walk-up to the B
I think this blues is lovely.
My first Lesson 🙂
Gracias!
Thank you!
As I did not join ActiveMelody until late 2014 its nice to have a look at old lessons from time to time. This one is very useful to get control of all fingers and everything
;))
Thanks Brian
Hi guys ,my name is laurant i’m 13 and i do not know how to pay to get this tablature EP013 ,can anyone please send me this tablature to my email eurlcuisineart@gmail.com
This is my second lesson I’m working through with you. Your site is great, along with your teaching! I’m focusing most of my intention on the acoustic blues and delta blues stuff. What might be some of your favorite acoustic blues lessons? Thanks!
man, love these acoustic finger style blues jams! MORE PLEASE
I don’t think I’ve told you this Brian, but this is my absolute favorite tune of all of your own compositions.
I love hearing you play it, and I love playing it myself. This is the lesson the one that:
#1. Got me to pick up my guitar again
#2. Got me to subscribe to AM.
Now I must admit I am still a lot better when I’m using my pick, but the Delta Fingestyle lessons really challenges my timing, and that’s something I enjoy very much!
My thumb is starting to go autonomous now after almost 7 months of practice. That’s how long it has taken to convert a serial picker!
Anyhow what I wanted to say was that this piece is just wonderful. You could do loads more lessons using this as a spinoff base!
(Or record it and hit the charts)
Cheers!
Amazing original lesson , nice delta finger style alterations ..Will certainly practice and learn this note for note straight bass low E thumping instead of the alternating E/D string bass thing.. Really cool , think today it is time to get back on my acoustics! Appreciate this excellent lesson much, ty again Brian!
For years I dreamed of learning to play delta blues guitar, now it’s becoming a reality. Thank you!
I’m really loving all the fingerstyle blues lessons Brian – I know you mention on one video that some people don’t like the fingerstyle stuff, but please keep them coming. I’m not a great blues listener but it’s so fun to play and forms the basis of so much else.
I was looking at older lessons and stumbled on this one. I love it. Love the fingerpicking. Hoping for more in this style.
Comparing Brians style of teaching then and now puts a smile on my face. It was good then, even better now.
This is beautiful thank you lots xx
I picked this one up pretty quick because I’ve focused on finger picking more than anything else! I love Mississippi John Hurt, Merle Travis, Thom Bresh and Elizabeth Cotton! I’m having lots of fun with this one and will be seeking out out more like this from Brian! I love how diverse he is and how patient he is. I’m trying to teach my 7yo the basics and I really struggle with the patient element! takes him half an hour to find fret 8 haha. He’s doing well though!