The Blues Guitar

One of the most famous and recognisable blues songs is Dust My Broom by Elmore James. The song was written and initally released by Robert Johnson in 1936 and was titled 'I Believe I'll Dust My Broom'. However, the most famous and well known version of this song is by Elmore James, and was released in 1951. In this post and video I will look at the Elmore James version.  In the video, I have shown a lead guitar section and also a rhythm guitar section accompany it. The song is in 4/4 time and played in the Key of D. The lead guitar section is played using a slide on a guitar tuned to Open D. The rhythm guitar section does not require a slide and is played on a guitar tuned to either Open D or Dropped D, either tuning will do as you are only using the bottom 3 strings of the guitar. Here is the downloadable tab for the song below Dust my Broom - Lead Tab -           Power Tab - PDF - TXT Dust my Broom - Rhythm Tab -     Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Playing Advice S

  The F Chord is probably one of the most problematic of the major chords to play. Many beginners struggle with this chord mostly because it usually requires some barring of the strings. It is also a commonly used chord because it it part of the 3 chord triad in the Key of C, along with C and G, so you often have to play this chord in many pieces of music. However, there are many different ways this chord can be made on the guitar, and each different form has its own advantages and disadvantages depending on your playing style and the piece of music you are playing. Below, and in the video, I will look at different ways to play this chord and the upsides and downsides of each. All the shapes shown are for a guitar in standard tuning. Full Barre   The first shape involves putting a full barre across fret 1 and then forming the rest of the chord with the middle, ring and pinky fingers. This is one of the most commonly used forms of this chord and you will often see it written like this.