Not much
sweeter to the ear or more pleasing to play than fingerstyle blues
guitar. Pick up your box, play a few bars of a Muddy Waters
tune and watch faces light up immediately. As popular music is rooted to
the blues, blues is rooted to the original fingerstyle techniques of
pioneers Robert Johnson, Big Bill, Leadbelly, Lightning Hopkins, Blind
Lemon and many others. Contemporaries Ry Cooder, John Hammond, Leo Kotke,
Chet Atkins and and a truckload of others keep this rare art form alive
and very well.
 Less
is certainly more when it comes to fingerstyle blues. No brain-twisting
theory and techniques to master. Just a few basic chords, couple of open
tunings and a handful of simple picks to learn. So why such a mystery for
so many players? Because effective fingerstyle blues instruction is real
scarce -- our inspiration to produce the 60-Day Fingerstyle Blues
Camp 10-CD Video Course. But first we had to find the best fingerstyle
blues instruction on the planet ...
Sourcing top fingerstyle blues instruction was slam-dunk easy. Acoustic
Guitar Workshop! We've been working with them for quite a few years
now and their individual lessons are always in TrueFire's top rankings.
Rick Payne and Steve Elliot formed a magical symbiosis known the world
over as The Acoustic
Guitar Workshop, a world-class acoustic guitar web site based in England.
Rick's waters run deep -- brilliant
composer/performer, world renown master of the fingerstyle blues form,
with an uncanny ability to breakdown and communicate the essential
elements of the style. Steve Elliot, founder of the Acoustic Guitar
Workshop and recently hailed as a "British Master of The Blues", is also a
successful songwriter and instructor. Together they've authored three highly praised fingerstyle blues
courses and five CDs worth of classic and original fingerstyle blues
tunes.
This 10-CD course features all
three interactive Video CD courses on 5 CDs plus all five audio
CDs.
This study program is straightforward and very
effective. Work through each of the three
courses sequentially: Fingerstyle Blues Guitar I, Fingerstyle Blues Guitar
II and then Acoustic Slide Guitar. Take on one chapter at a time for at
least an hour a day. You'll quickly learn to master the tunings,
fingerpicking styles and techniques of fingerstyle blues and acoustic
slide guitar. Along the way, you'll add a set's worth of solo fingerstyle
tunes to perk up your repertoire.
But here's the trick - give your
regular play list a break and keep the five audio CDs cranked and playing
in your car, walkman, PC and home stereo until you hear the material in
your sleep. This will bring the style to life on your fingertips as you
apply what you hear to how you play.
The
course is presented in an interactive PDF manual with 185 video lessons
(Windows Media and Quicktime), 200 audio elements (MP3), text, tab, charts
and Power Tab, which allows you to "see" and "hear" tab played out at any
tempo in perfect pitch.
If you've got desire, intermediate
skills and are willing to devote 60 days learning and listening to
this course -- you'll be well on your way to becoming a monster
fingerstyle blues player.
Rick Payne shares a few words
...
"As an eager student of the acoustic
guitar, I have always been interested in discovering the mechanics of
playing different styles. I had been through loads of normal books on
fingerstyle but couldn't find the essence of simplicity that the playing
of Muddy Waters or Big Bill Broonzy conjured up. It was frustrating. I
found I could play all kinds of bluesy instrumentals but lacked what I
felt was real blues.
As all good things come to pass, I
finally had my eureka a few years down the line. I was listening to an
album by Lightening Hopkins and was amazed that all I was hearing was a
four beat boom on the bass strings and an occasional ting on the top. Of
course, there were other things happening - a pick here and a pick there -
but the essence was there in that rhythmic, 'boom, boom, boom, boom'. From
then on, I could hear the same in all the great players - Broonzy,
Johnson, etc. etc. I started from that four beat pattern and took it from
there. It's all a simple thing really. The hardest part is to train
yourself to be simple and clear about the bottom line. All the other
elements in the playing will fit together easily.
So, these sessions that I share with
you, are part of my own journey of discovery in the blues. Hopefully
they'll become part of yours too."
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