BDHerndon
Verified buyer
01/08/25
Talented teacher. Superb content. Very enjoyable
Mike Zito is a talented player who does a great job of teaching the skills presented in this course. Highly recommended.
Blues Americana
Insight and creative approaches for Americana blues soloing.
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Mike Zito
Educator
Genres
About this course
Eating homemade apple pie at your grandmother's house. Watching baseball with your kid in the cheap seats. Running Route 66 in a souped-up ’69 Chevy Camaro. Hot dogs smothered with relish and mustard. Coca-Cola, salted fries, and ketchup. Rock and Roll, blues, jazz and country music. Mike Zito and Blues Americana.
Chicago Blues, Texas Blues, Delta Blues, Swing Blues, Jazz Blues, British Blues, West Coast Blues, Country Blues, Jump Blues and the list goes on. All historically rooted to a region or an era or a specific group of players. All of them popular in their own right. But there’s another kid on the blues block, which Mike Zito calls Blues Americana.
Blues Americana is a melting pot of all the aforementioned genres of the blues, with equal respect paid to the rock, country and jazz music that has also tickled our ears over the past several decades. While still rootsy to its core, Blues Americana represents a modern evolution of the blues.
No one is better suited to guide your Blues Americana learning experience than Mike Zito. Mike’s take on Blues Americana stems from his own experiences practicing, playing, touring and recording since he was 16 years old. While Mike’s pedigree, credits, and accolades are all pretty impressive, it's his very special and genuine teaching skills that make this course a must-have for any guitar player.
Mike organized Blues Americana into 2 sections. In the first section, Mike covers 17 key concepts and techniques that you’ll put to good work, and get plenty of mileage out of, in your own Blues Americana: Influences and Technique, Alternate Picking, Hybrid Picking, Finger & Thumb Style, Combining Techniques, Bending & Vibrato, Half-Step Bends, Slurring & Half Step Slides, Double Stops, Thumb & Fingerstyle Licks, Hybrid Rolling Licks, Phrasing & Melodic Approach, Tone and Feel, Building a Solo and THE Ultimate Rolling Lick (might be worth the price of admission alone!).
In the second section, Mike guides you through 8 performance studies where you’ll apply all of the key learnings from the first section over rhythm tracks for musical context. You’ll play your way through a variety of feels and tempos: Natural Born Lover, Change My Ways, Dirty Blonde, Slow Blues, Rhumba Feel, Classic Rock 'n' Roll, Don’t Break a Leg and Subtraction Blues.
Mike first performs the study over the rhythm track and then breaks it down for you in detail, demonstrating many additional concepts and techniques along the way. Everything is tabbed and notated and you’ll get all of the rhythm tracks to practice with on your own.
Now go have a hot dog or two and a slice of apple pie. You’re gonna need the nutrition because you won’t come out of the shed once you start digging into Blues Americana.
Chicago Blues, Texas Blues, Delta Blues, Swing Blues, Jazz Blues, British Blues, West Coast Blues, Country Blues, Jump Blues and the list goes on. All historically rooted to a region or an era or a specific group of players. All of them popular in their own right. But there’s another kid on the blues block, which Mike Zito calls Blues Americana.
Blues Americana is a melting pot of all the aforementioned genres of the blues, with equal respect paid to the rock, country and jazz music that has also tickled our ears over the past several decades. While still rootsy to its core, Blues Americana represents a modern evolution of the blues.
No one is better suited to guide your Blues Americana learning experience than Mike Zito. Mike’s take on Blues Americana stems from his own experiences practicing, playing, touring and recording since he was 16 years old. While Mike’s pedigree, credits, and accolades are all pretty impressive, it's his very special and genuine teaching skills that make this course a must-have for any guitar player.
Mike organized Blues Americana into 2 sections. In the first section, Mike covers 17 key concepts and techniques that you’ll put to good work, and get plenty of mileage out of, in your own Blues Americana: Influences and Technique, Alternate Picking, Hybrid Picking, Finger & Thumb Style, Combining Techniques, Bending & Vibrato, Half-Step Bends, Slurring & Half Step Slides, Double Stops, Thumb & Fingerstyle Licks, Hybrid Rolling Licks, Phrasing & Melodic Approach, Tone and Feel, Building a Solo and THE Ultimate Rolling Lick (might be worth the price of admission alone!).
In the second section, Mike guides you through 8 performance studies where you’ll apply all of the key learnings from the first section over rhythm tracks for musical context. You’ll play your way through a variety of feels and tempos: Natural Born Lover, Change My Ways, Dirty Blonde, Slow Blues, Rhumba Feel, Classic Rock 'n' Roll, Don’t Break a Leg and Subtraction Blues.
Mike first performs the study over the rhythm track and then breaks it down for you in detail, demonstrating many additional concepts and techniques along the way. Everything is tabbed and notated and you’ll get all of the rhythm tracks to practice with on your own.
Now go have a hot dog or two and a slice of apple pie. You’re gonna need the nutrition because you won’t come out of the shed once you start digging into Blues Americana.
What you'll learn
- How to create percussive dynamics in solos using hybrid picking rolls
- How to construct a complete rock and roll solo using classic techniques
- How to manipulate phrasing by swinging licks over a straight beat
- Learn to integrate multiple techniques within a single solo
- Develop ability to play against the rhythm for musical interest
Release date: 07/23/2014 • 2h 37m runtime
Sample lessons
Finger & Thumb Style
Concept 4
Double Stops
Concept 9
Natural Born Lover
Overview
Natural Born Lover
Performance
What's included
45 lessons • 18 charts • 14 Jam Tracks
Blues Americana
Welcome to Blues Americana. That's an interesting name we came up with to kind of describe my styles of playing guitar. I love blues and will forever be a student of the art form. I also love old country and jazz. I grew up listening to rock, so of course I love rock n roll as well. I just never really considered separating these styles of American music. They have a lot in common and make things even more interesting when we mix it all up. I grew up in St. Louis, MO and was lucky enough to work at a local music shop right out of high school. All of the great players and working musicians came into that store. Great blues artists, jazz and country guitar players, and rock players. I found so much I enjoyed from each one of them. Over the years I have tried to incorporate these styles and techniques into my music. I hope that these ideas and concepts can help you improve your playing and enjoy a broader palate of music.
SECTION 1: Key Concepts
In this first section we'll take a look at 17 key concepts that I believe make up my style of guitar playing. Everything from right hand techniques - alternate picking, hybrid picking, fingerstyle. Left hand techniques - slurring, sliding, phrasing and some of my favorite wacky guitar licks!
Influences and Technique
Here is my basic style of playing guitar. Techniques I have learned that have become a part of my style and sound. I love rock players like Eddie Van Halen, jazz players like John Scofield. Their left hands are very relaxed and loose. The right hand is very strong and dominant. Rather than choking the notes or strings, you get a more fluid, sustained note. Using a lazy left hand approach and dominant right hand techniques, I get my twangy, horn-like sound.
Right Hand Techniques
Alternate picking, hybrid picking and thumb and fingerstyle are a big part of my style of playing. I love the variety of right hand techniques. It gives me a lot of dynamics and tones and feels, without altering my actual sound. I can do it all with my right hand. If I want a more traditional sound, I will use my pick and alternate picking. If I want a warmer, softer attack, I'll use my fingers and thumb. Of course, combining the two are the best of both worlds for me.
Hybrid Picking
I learned from the Albert Lee instructional video years ago how to hybrid pick. I was never fast enough with alternate picking using just the pick. Hybrid picking allows for string skipping and quick alternate picking and adds the country sound I love so much.
Finger & Thumb Style
The sound of skin on the strings brings out so much tone. From Wes Montgomery style thumb picking to Albert Collins to the Carter Family, I have tried to learn all of these styles of finger and thumb picking. I can use my thumb and forefinger as a pick for strumming and rhythm, and the claw of thumb and first two fingers for single note picking.
Combining Techniques
The idea ultimately is to play the notes and go for the music. I use these techniques or picking and right hand in many combinations to achieve the tone and/or feel I am trying to achieve. The more useful techniques I have in my playing, the more expressive and flexible I can be.
+ 38 more lessons
Reviews
17 results
kyushukev1
Verified buyer
07/21/23
Slide Storyteller
He really gets into the nuts and bolts here. Too many slide videos start with the very basics, and it ends up taking a good chunk of time.If you need it fine, but not every lesson. This here is serious slide. I love slide but had plateaued out, and this looks great. I never had played slide in standard tuning. I may have to get his Jump Start video, too.
smarago
Verified buyer
06/10/22
Lets go hybrid
Good teacher for intermediate to advanced players. I can recommend the course for guitarists who want to learn or improve their hybrid picking. The shown riffs sound more complex than they are. If there would be some explanation about the theory behind the tutorials I had given 5 ⭐️.
Uschmed
Verified buyer
12/01/21
Blues Americana
A course by another master of the blues. Valuable material presented in an easy-going, completely unconceited style. Recommended.
Greenwave
Verified buyer
11/30/21
Fusion blues opportunities
I am hungry for and learning blues (though closer to the start of my journey). Loving Mike's easy going style and how he brings a variety a musical influences into play!
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