The Blues Guitar

  This is my fingerstyle blues version of the classic Xmas song Blue Christmas. The song was made famous by Elvis Presley and eventhough it's title might suggest otherwise, it is not a piece of blues music but a piece of country music. In the video, I will play through the music, then have a look at the structure of the music. I will also give some playing tips on some of the trickier sections of music which might trip you up when playing. Lastly, I will play through the music slower and put the tab on screen. The music is in 4/4 time, it is in the Key of D and is played on a guitar in Dropped D tuning. Below are some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab. Blue Christmas Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Early Chord Changes - To make this piece of music have more of a blues feel, I have taken some of the melody notes off the beat of the bar and played them early. Because of this, it is beneficial if you make the chord changes at the...

In this video I will show you a new piece of blues music that I have written called Coast Road Blues. I got the name Coast Road Blues because when I was out driving along a coastal road, the idea for the music came to me. It is a fingerstyle guitar piece where you play the bass notes on the lower strings with your thumb and the melody notes on the higher strings with your other fingers. It is played on a guitar in standard tuning, is mostly in 4/4 time (but there is a 2/4 bar which also repeats), and is in the key of E. At its core, it has an eight bar structure that repeats with variations, but this 8 bar structure is very similar to a 12 bar structure just shorter, so it should sound quite familiar. Although it is a relatively straightforward piece of music, it does have quite a fast tempo, and there is also quite a lot of variation in the bass picking pattern, which can make it a bit trickier to play. The structure of the music is: Intro - 8 Bar (Section 1) - 8 Bar (Section 2) -...

  In this video I want to play through a version of St Louis Blues based on John Fahey's version. St Louis Blues is a famous jazz piece in the blues style and has been covered numerous times. John Fahey's version is a fingerstyle guitar version and the version I play here is close to Fahey's recording. In the video, I will play through the music, then have a look at the structure of the music. I will also give some playing tips on some of the trickier sections of music which might trip you up when playing. Lastly, I will play through the music slower and put the tab on screen. The music is mostly is in 4/4 time, it is in the Key of D and is played on a guitar in Dropped D tuning. Below are some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab. St Louis Blues Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Varying the Travis Picking Pattern - The song mostly has a standard Travis picking pattern through it. This is usually played across the 6th and 4th s...

  In this video I want to have a look at the blues song 'Blues in the Bottle' by Lightnin' Hopkins. This is a less well known blues song but is a good fingerstyle guitar piece. The song is a 12 bar blues and the 12 bar blues sequence repeats throughout the song. In my version I have structured it slightly different to lightning Hopkins original version. What I have done is put the intro then the 12 bar blues section as it's played on his first solo break. Then the second solo break and then another 12 bar section which is stripped back a bit and this is similar to what he would have played when he was singing over it. The reason I have done this structure is because I feel it's better for solo guitarist who isn't singing, and by putting the the stripped down verse last, it incorporates the outro section better. The structure of the song in my version is: Intro - Verse (1st Solo Break) - Verse (2nd Solo Break) - Verse (Sing Over) - Outro The music is mostly in 4...

  This is my version of Tom Petty's famous song I Won't Back Down. The song was originally realesed by Petty in 1989 as part of his first solo album Full Moon Fever. It was written By Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne and I believe the original recording also featured George Harrison, which are three of the five that made up The Travelling Wilburys. The song went on to become one of Petty's biggest hits.  This is my fingerstyle blues version of the song. I have played it with a slightly more laid back and bluesy feel to it which I think suits the song. The music comprises 3 sections - and intro, a verse and a chorus which I play through once. However, these sections can be repeated as necessary.  It is played on a guitar in standard tuning, is in 4/4 time and is in the Key of G. Below are some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab. Love in Vain Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Finding the Fingerings - Although fretting seems qu...

  I want to have a look at the classic blues song Love in Vain by Robert Johnson. The song was written by Robert Johnson and was originally called Love in Vain Blues. It now is usually just called 'Love in Vain'. The song has been covered many times by numerous different artists. The most famous versions of these are probably by The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. Robert Johnson did slightly different versions too. This is close to his original recording of 'Love in Vain'.  The guitar part is fairly easy to play and uses extensive palm muting on the lower strings to subdue the bass notes. The music is in 4/4 time, is played on a guitar in Standard Tuning, and is a fingerstyle piece. Below are some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab. Love in Vain Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Palm Muting - The guitar part makes extensive use of plam muting during the song. This is common in Johnson's music and by subduing the bass notes o...

  I want to have a look at the blues standard Rollin' an Tumblin'. The original version of this song was written in 1929 by Hambone Willie Newbern and was titled ' Roll and Tumble Blues' and since then has been covered by many different artists and has adopted the more common title 'Rollin' and Tumblin'. The song can now be considered a blues standard and is one of the most famous and instantly recognizable blues songs there is.  In this video I will have a look at the structure of the music and then have a playthrough of the guitar part which includes an intro, main section and outro. Since there are so many versions of the song out there, the structure and music can vary. However, in this video I want to do a version very close to the Muddy Waters version, which is one of the most famous versions of this song. In addition, I will show you two variations on the main riff. The first is a crunchier, rockier version. The second is similar to the r...

  In this post I want to have a look at the famous piece of Classical music Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel and put a blues twist on it. Canon in D is one of the most instantly recognisable pieces of music and dates back to 1680. It actually has a fairly simple structure underlying it which comprises a repeating 8 bar sequence using 5 different chords.  I want to have a look at this 8 bar - 5 chord sequence and then I want to do a blues version of Canon where I loosely follow the melody line of the original. I have split this into 4 sections: Intro, Verse, Chorus and Outro, and these sections can be repeated as you feel necessary.  In a future video, I will take this chord sequence and write a whole new piece of blues music which diverges from the melody line of the original.  The music is in 4/4 time and is played on a guitar in Open D tuning and it is in the Key of D. It is a fingerstyle piece and is best suited to being played on an acoustic guitar. Belo...

  This is my version of The White Stripes version of the classic blues song Stop Breaking Down originally by Robert Johnson, with his original being titled Stop Breakin' Down Blues. This song has since been covered by many, many artists including The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and The Jeff Healey Band. In this video I want to have a look at The White Stripes version as one follower requested it (apologies for taking so long to get it uploaded). This is a slightly heavier, rockier version of the song, typical of The White Stripes musical style. In future videos I may have a look at the other versions of it.  In the video, I stick quite closely to the recorded version with only a few minor changes in the phrasing. I haven't included the solo because it has quite a loose impromptu feel to it and a bespoke solo can be improvised over the three main chords of the song (A, E and D) if required. Apart from that, the main body of the song just repeats throughout. The so...

This is the classic Mississippi John Hurt song Stack O'Lee Blues. The song is about the murder of Billy Lyons by "Stag" Lee Shelton in St. Louis, in 1895. There are many different songs about this, with some having the name Stagger Lee or other variants. I may have a look at some of the other versions in later videos. The Mississippi John Hurt version has been covered many times by various artists but I try to keep as close to his original version as possible. The music is very repetitive with there only really being one main section which is played over and over throughout the song. In this video, I play through it twice. The music is in 4/4 time, is played on a guitar in Standard Tuning, and is a fingerstyle piece. Below are some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab. Stack O'Lee Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Hammering On - The music uses hammer-ons on the highest string in the first 3 bars. The notes are played ...

  This is my version of the traditional song 'When You and I Were Young, Maggie', or often just called 'Maggie'. The original folk song dates back as far as the mid 1800's and there have been umpteem versions of it made since then. The music is in 4/4 time, is played on a guitar in Open D Tuning, and is a fingerstyle piece. Below are some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab. Maggie Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Travis Picking - The music follows a standard travis picking pattern for most of it. The only exception is bar 23. In this bar you need to access an underlying E chord for the bass notes. The most efficient way to do this (and have access to the melody notes) is to play it on the 5th string 7th Fret. Thus, the travis picking pattern is replaced in this bar with the bass notes on a single string. Just be mindful of this change to the picking pattern because if you continue to play the travis picking pattern here...

  This is my version of the Peter Lang tune RC Rag. It is an instrumental piece and is very repetitive, having only one real main section that is just repeated. In diffferent versions, Lang puts in variations but I have just included the main section and played it twice. Like most ragtime music, this has a very fast tempo so you have to have nimble fingers to play it at the correct speed.  It is in 4/4 time and it is played on a guitar in standard tuning but this is tuned down 3 half steps - (C# F# B E G# C#) You don't have to tune your guitar down but I think it gives it a better sound and it also reduces the tension on the strings making it easier to play at speed. Below are some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab. RC Rag Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Quick Tempo - The music has a very quick tempo (over 200bpm) which is very common in rag music. It is really easy to lose the tempo and rhythm on this piece and to get ...

  This is my version of Seasick Steve's song Burnin' Up. Not to be confused with songs with similar titles by Judas Priest or Jessie J, which are totally different. The guitar part is played on an electric guitar in standard tuning, is in the Key of E, and is in 4/4 time. The guitar part is quite repetitive and I have included the main guitar section played through the song and also the break, which he plays on the lower strings of the guitar. Below are some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab.  Burnin' Up Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Quick Tempo - The music has a fairly quick tempo which isnt very evident when listening to the song. In this piece, the thumb plays the bass notes on the lowest string whilst the melody is played on the higher strings. Because of the fast tempo the thumb has to play the bass notes on every beat of the bar quite quickly, and its easy to lose this regular rhythm. Because of this I would recomm...

  This is my version of Leo Kottke's version of the traditional song Poor Boy. The music is played at a very fast tempo in this piece and requires a slide to be used across all 6 strings, which is quite common in Kottke's music. It is an instrumental piece and all the parts of the music are included here but I don't play all of the repeats. If you listen to the original, you will hear which sections are repeated for the full music. It is in 4/4 time and it is played on a guitar in Open D tuning, however in Kottke's recorded version he tunes this down a futher 3 half steps. It also requires a full length slide to play it. Below are some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab. Poor Boy Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Sliding Over 6 Strings - This music requires you to use a slide across all six strings of the guitar whilst playing a travis picking pattern at a fast tempo. Because of this, when using the slide you must make sure a...