Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a fingerstyle Blues composition by yourself on acoustic guitar. You’ll also learn where each of the licks come from so that you can use these ideas when you improvise or compose.
Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson
Part 2 - For Premium Members
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Slow Walkthrough
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Video Tablature Breakdown
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Right on Brian, can’t wait to get into this. Been waiting for a nice long juicy piece like this! As usual you continue to deliver innovative variety.
excellent lesson-like always….greetings from Austria !
Been working on Fingerstyle lately, this will fit in nicely
Great lesson sounds fun been playin for yrs never finger picked in my life ill have to pass on this one
With perseverance and much practice, it is doable.
John in Australia, Melbourne Victoria
I love fingerstyle. I’m better at Travis picking but fingerstyle seems to take more coordination and concentration for me. Great lesson!
Great lesson.
Thanks Brian
Wow, thanks Brian, my kinda lesson. Can’t wait to get stuck into this.
Guess I know what I’m doing this weekend. Appreciated the description of the Martin, and the shoutout for Bob.
Love the solo fingerpickin’ lessons!
Perfect for Back Porch Picking.
I love this lesson Brian. Thank you for coming back to fingerstyle blues ! A new gem on ActiveMelody 🙂
Thanks. this will keep me busy for the week
Please put on the Soundslice print option
added
I like it !!
Thanks
Another great lesson Brian. The finger style lessons are always the most challenging for me but they sure sound and feel great to play. Really like the B run out of that B minor, stair case shape.
Really enjoyed this lesson, do you have a Delta Blues example using upper triads?
Hi Brian.
Your fingerstyle compositions are not so easy but often affordable, and sound always good.
It’s been a long time since you last did it.
Thank you very much for going back to that style for this one.
Have a nice week
Great lesson and great guitar.
I’ll try to do my best with a pick cause have a problem with my right hand….lawnmotor effect when I was a child. There are so many good licks to learn that i can’t miss it.
What string gauge do you use for so old guitar??
11 gauge (keep the tension light for that one)
Thankyou for a good acoustic fingerstyle piece Brian. This one will definitely be on my playlist.
Time start developing finger style since it is not in my skill set, but dang this hard!!
I am trying to dig in and work through this song, but …
Anybody know an easier / shorter lesson in AM that might be useful to help develop some basic skill at finger picking?
Maybe give this a try…LEG031. Chet Atkins style with just one pattern to learn and it’s a cool progression.
I love fingerstyle lessons.
Hi, Brian,
Thanks for the fingersyle lesson! Great tune. I’m happy to take in anything that goes with an acoustic.
Thanks Brian.. love fingerstyle compositions. This will keep me busy all week.!
And, I never thought of the Bob Dylan connection either..
Very nicely explained and on my little 12 fret acoustic it will be a pleasure to work at.
I always appreciate the solo acoustic guitar lessons you provide.
Much food for thought for us guitar players hungry for ideas .
I like this kind of finger style lesson.
Thanks Brian for this lesson; those 00-28s project beautifully picked or strummed! Your BD reference reminds me of his 64 Newport performance;
…and, but for the sky, there are no fences facing…
Love it !
This stand alone blues lesson is a gem! I picked up so many ideas and started mixing them with other pieces that I play every day.
Brian, you have a clever way of bringing life to a guitar lesson. We are all so fortunate !
For those that pass on the finger-style lessons….. Learn a simple phrase and play it every day for a few minutes. In a couple of months you will definitely get the the hang of it. You will be glad you did.
I love these style of lessons. I think more than other styles, finger style can be the most challenging. I’ve been doing it for years and still have to work on it. I will say though, play a finger style tune around most other players and they will be impressed. It takes years but worth the journey.
Great lesson! I’m a fifth year (I think) Premium Member and it’s been a great experience for me in my journey to improving my playing and continuous learning. As long as you keep doing this, I’ll be along for the ride.
Great lesson, Brian. i really appreciated your explanation of how the fingerings play partial chords or derive from the pentatonic sales.
I have an idea for an add on: what if you added an additional lesson or segment of what this would sound like as played by two people? Either call and response, or merely adding some tinsel in the right parts. You could record the piece without the additional part and let the student play in that white space.
Just a thought. And thanks for the great teaching!
Thanks Brian. Love fingerstyle and your arrangements are great. Challenging but worth the effort.
Your timing couldn’t be better from a genre standpoint. I just came home with a gently used Huss and Dalton Crossroads guitar. It was made for this style. Ever played one?
How spoilt we are to have you as our teacher and mentor.
Really nice licks and some fresh ideas to add to your great E blues collection. You can never have enough E blues.
Great lesson, fingerstyle opens up that rhythmic bass, have to keep practicing that. Your point about keeping things simple, those contraints like the blues form enable creativity, too much choice makes it impossible to create anything. You haven’t done a drop D in a while 😎 would like to see a Drop D fingerstyle like this lesson. or perhaps Neil Young style, that lower D can sound real strong.
Hey Brain
I play finger style 75% of the time and I would say your style is not simple..(your words ), just refreshingly different. Wonderfully I learn something new from you each lesson, the Dylan walk down and the lick to the B7 cord are great.
Thanks for teaching and playing they way you do!!
Good lesson Brian. Thank you,
This is hard. Good. This thumb independence thing is a nemesis. Thanks.
The more I hear it, the more I want to learn it. That guitar is really nice!!
This is a great fingerstyle Blues lesson. I always enjoy the fingerstyle lessons and although I use picks often whenever I can I’ll use my thumb and 3 fingers instead. It just seems easier. Thanks again for this fingerstyle lesson
G’day Brian,
To paraphrase De Niro, “You! You’re good you!”
M.J., Oz.
Great lesson Brian…thanks for the Martin information..
Hey Brian … Can you do some lesson playing same as Leonard Griffy (thankyou) 😀
Very Cool! More please!!
Love this lesson Brian, but oddly I find the first bar the hardest part of all. Does nobody else have problems sounding all the strings under a full bar at the 7th fret? In particular, the G string is problematic when also fretting the bottom E and top E – my finger simply has too many bumps and indentations to get a clear sound. I need some advice as to whether a specific technique will work, or I need to do a workaround of some sort.
Yep
This is exactly the kind of music I want to learn to play! Thanks Brian – all I need to do is make my fingers do that….
Your MARTIN D25 really softly screaming penetrating
Would be easier to learn if you gave us a print sheet of the actual chords in progression. Takes a long time for me to figure out what they are. Would that be possible?
i always put the chords in the TAB
A good way to learn a fingerstyle composotion like this is 1. Isolate the bass…. get it down pat… then 2. Isolate the melody… (separate from bass) and get that down pat.. then 3. Put them back together lining up the pinches on thumb and fingers. Neat ‘stop time’ run in bar 13.
I must disclose, …This is not my original idea on how to learn a fingerstyle tune. But it works.
This is a great composition to work on…
Thanks Brian
Might have to have a meeting down at the crossroads to play this one.
Great stuff Brian, but I’m having a really hard time holding the bar and hammering onto the major third on the opening B chord.
Brian – I really like this piece & in particular the intro.
However, my now 70 yo fingers are struggling & I cannot make the 7th fret barre so as to hit clean notes. Any suggestions to overcome – finger exercises /strengthening?
By the way since you mentioned him, as a young 20+ yo living in Melbourne Australia, my wife & i saw a young Tommy Emmanuel at the start of his career; everyone knew even then, he would be a super star . He played in a number of bands & would tour with his older brother Phil, who sadly passed away several years ago. Phil was a really good guitar player too, but different stylist from Tommy.
Tommy guested with Joe Bonamassa some time ago & Joe is recorded as saying that Tommy played more chords in just one song than he [Bonamassa] knew in total!