Nanneella
Verified buyer
05/11/26
Fingerstyle Blues Roots
Good content and exercises
Fingerstyle Blues Roots
Essential Concepts, Techniques, & Repertoire for Solo Fingerstyle Blues
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About this course
Legendary players like Blind Blake, Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson pioneered fingerstyle blues guitar by playing bass lines, chords, and melody simultaneously as a solo performer. Learning fingerstyle can be challenging but if you break down the fundamentals into bite-size chunks, you can get your fingerstyle technique up to speed fairly quickly. And that’s exactly how and what John Hatcher’s Fingerstyle Blues Roots will do for you.
John Hatcher is a very popular and highly successful online guitar educator. TrueFire students voted him TrueFire's Next Top Guitar Instructor out of a field of hundreds of applicants. We’re very proud to welcome John to the family with his first TrueFire course, Fingerstyle Blues Roots.
”I have a bit of an obsession with acoustic blues players like Etta Baker, Keb Mo and Blind Blake. I can trace this obsession back to one song: Eric Clapton's version of "Hey, Hey" by Big Bill Broonzy. I spent months trying to get my rock and roll fingers to play that tune. But eventually, I nailed it. I believe that good guitar playing comes from starting small and simple. Over time, all the small things will add up to something big. With Fingerstyle Blues Roots, we'll focus on those small things and brick-by-brick, build a solid fingerstyle blues foundation.”
John organized the course into three sections. In the first section, John guides you through 10 key fingerstyle concepts and techniques: Dead Bass Thumb-picking, Alternating Bass Thumb-picking, Brush Up, String Snaps, Common Country Blues Chords, Common Country Blues Forms, Blues Turnarounds, Using ii V I in Blues, Shuffle Rhythm, and Triplets.
In the second section, you’ll work through a series of four finger picking workouts that’ll help you build thumb control, finger independence, and picking coordination: Picking Workout: Level 1, Picking Workout: Level 2, Picking Workout: Level 3, and Picking Workout: Level 4.
In the third and final section, you’ll dive deep into 4 rootsy fingerstyle blues performance studies. John will first perform the arrangement study and then break it down measure-by-measure, explaining the underlying techniques and harmonic approach.
All of the key examples and performance studies are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop and/or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons.
Grab your guitar and let’s play some fingerstyle blues with John Hatcher!
John Hatcher is a very popular and highly successful online guitar educator. TrueFire students voted him TrueFire's Next Top Guitar Instructor out of a field of hundreds of applicants. We’re very proud to welcome John to the family with his first TrueFire course, Fingerstyle Blues Roots.
”I have a bit of an obsession with acoustic blues players like Etta Baker, Keb Mo and Blind Blake. I can trace this obsession back to one song: Eric Clapton's version of "Hey, Hey" by Big Bill Broonzy. I spent months trying to get my rock and roll fingers to play that tune. But eventually, I nailed it. I believe that good guitar playing comes from starting small and simple. Over time, all the small things will add up to something big. With Fingerstyle Blues Roots, we'll focus on those small things and brick-by-brick, build a solid fingerstyle blues foundation.”
John organized the course into three sections. In the first section, John guides you through 10 key fingerstyle concepts and techniques: Dead Bass Thumb-picking, Alternating Bass Thumb-picking, Brush Up, String Snaps, Common Country Blues Chords, Common Country Blues Forms, Blues Turnarounds, Using ii V I in Blues, Shuffle Rhythm, and Triplets.
In the second section, you’ll work through a series of four finger picking workouts that’ll help you build thumb control, finger independence, and picking coordination: Picking Workout: Level 1, Picking Workout: Level 2, Picking Workout: Level 3, and Picking Workout: Level 4.
In the third and final section, you’ll dive deep into 4 rootsy fingerstyle blues performance studies. John will first perform the arrangement study and then break it down measure-by-measure, explaining the underlying techniques and harmonic approach.
All of the key examples and performance studies are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop and/or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons.
Grab your guitar and let’s play some fingerstyle blues with John Hatcher!
What you'll learn
- Master key fingerstyle blues techniques including dead bass, alternating bass, brushes, and string snaps
- Play four complete fingerstyle blues arrangements in different keys and styles
- Coordinate independent bass and melody lines simultaneously
- Build finger independence for more complex fingerpicking patterns
- Understand the fundamentals of fingerstyle blues guitar in the tradition of Blind Blake, Charlie Patton, and Robert Johnson
Release date: 12/18/2017 • 1h 42m runtime
Sample lessons
Alternating Bass Thumbpicking
Concept 2
Common Country Blues Chords
Concept 5
Blues Turnarounds
Concept 7
Picking Workout: Level 3
Demonstration
What's included
31 lessons • 18 charts
Fingerstyle Blues Roots
Hi I'm John Hatcher. Welcome to Fingerstyle Blues Roots! Legendary players like Blind Blake, Charlie Patton, and Robert Johnson pioneered fingerstyle blues guitar by playing bass lines, chords, and melody simultaneously as a solo performer.
Learning fingerstyle can be challenging, but if you break down the fundamentals into bite-size chunks, you can get your fingerstyle technique up to speed fairly quickly. And that’s what Fingerstyle Blues Roots is all about.
I've organized the course into three sections. In the first section, we'll work through 10 key concepts and techniques including things like dead bass, alternating bass, commonly used blues chords and forms, brushes, string snaps and a lot more.
In the second section, we’re going to work through a series of finger picking workouts that'll help you build thumb control, finger independence, and picking coordination.
In the third section, we'll dive deep into four rootsy fingerstyle blues arrangements. I'll break down each performance note for note, you'll get tab and notation for each, AND you can slow down and loop any section of the performances, so you can work with the material at your own pace. So, grab your guitar and let’s get started!
Learning fingerstyle can be challenging, but if you break down the fundamentals into bite-size chunks, you can get your fingerstyle technique up to speed fairly quickly. And that’s what Fingerstyle Blues Roots is all about.
I've organized the course into three sections. In the first section, we'll work through 10 key concepts and techniques including things like dead bass, alternating bass, commonly used blues chords and forms, brushes, string snaps and a lot more.
In the second section, we’re going to work through a series of finger picking workouts that'll help you build thumb control, finger independence, and picking coordination.
In the third section, we'll dive deep into four rootsy fingerstyle blues arrangements. I'll break down each performance note for note, you'll get tab and notation for each, AND you can slow down and loop any section of the performances, so you can work with the material at your own pace. So, grab your guitar and let’s get started!
SECTION 1: Essential Concepts
In this section, we'll cover the concepts and techniques you need to know in order to tackle the arrangements. We'll cover picking techniques, like dead bass and alternating bass along with the rhythmic snaps, pops, and brush-ups.
We'll also cover a few common chord shapes and song forms you'll encounter throughout fingerstyle blues. We'll also toss in couple of cool chord substitutions to keep things interesting.
Finally, we'll tackle a few common blues rhythms. Let's get started.
We'll also cover a few common chord shapes and song forms you'll encounter throughout fingerstyle blues. We'll also toss in couple of cool chord substitutions to keep things interesting.
Finally, we'll tackle a few common blues rhythms. Let's get started.
Dead Bass Thumbpicking
Fingerstyle blues can be plucked out with bare fingers, thumbpicks, or fingerpicks. You'll find just about any combination of these picking styles throughout fingerstyle blues. I'll use my bare fingers throughout this course, but whatever you choose to pluck out your notes, one thing is common: your thumb is responsible for thumping out the bass line.
In this course, we'll cover two main bass picking techniques: deadbass and alternating bass. Let's start with dead bass.
Dead bass, sometimes called steady bass, is that driving bass thump that happens on the beat and it's typically played with a palm mute to get nice dull thud sound going.
This technique is foundational to fingerstyle blues and I strongly encourage you to spend some time working with a metronome to make sure you can keep a solid beat while playing dead bass.
In this course, we'll cover two main bass picking techniques: deadbass and alternating bass. Let's start with dead bass.
Dead bass, sometimes called steady bass, is that driving bass thump that happens on the beat and it's typically played with a palm mute to get nice dull thud sound going.
This technique is foundational to fingerstyle blues and I strongly encourage you to spend some time working with a metronome to make sure you can keep a solid beat while playing dead bass.
Alternating Bass Thumbpicking
In contrast to dead bass, which is monotonic, alternating bass shifts the bass notes between two tones (sometimes three). You can hear this at work in songs like "Freight Train" by Elizabeth Cotten, "Carolina Breakdown" by Etta Baker and just about anything by Mississippi John Hurt.
In this lesson, we'll cover exercises to help you nail this technique.
In this lesson, we'll cover exercises to help you nail this technique.
Brush Up
Brush-ups are a rhythm technique that emulate strumming sounds of using a flat pick. Use your index finger to pull through the strings with an upstroke. This produces a fluid strumming sound that you just can't get with a plucking technique. You can hear this technique in action in the guitar break of "Love in Vain" by Robert Johnson.
In this lesson, I'll demonstrate the cool sounds that you can get using the brush up technique.
In this lesson, I'll demonstrate the cool sounds that you can get using the brush up technique.
String Snaps
Fingerstyle blues guitar is frequently played with no accompaniment. One picker and one guitar, that's it. Because of this, the guitarist has to keep the melodic content and the rhythmic content interesting. One cool and easy way to add a ton of rhythmic punch and dynamics to your fingerstyle blues is by using string snaps.
To snap a string, pick from under the string and pluck with a sharp but controlled outward movement. The resulting sound reminds me of the "crack" of a snare drum and it sounds great when you use this as a way to accentuate certain beats in the groove.
To snap a string, pick from under the string and pluck with a sharp but controlled outward movement. The resulting sound reminds me of the "crack" of a snare drum and it sounds great when you use this as a way to accentuate certain beats in the groove.
Common Country Blues Chords
Nothing quite defines the blues sound like dominant 7th chords, or 7th chords for short. This particular chord quality adds a little mystery to the standard cowboy chords.
The cool thing is that there are only five 7th chord shapes that you need to know. In this lesson, we'll cover the shapes and then we'll really get cooking by taking a look at the moveable shapes derived from them.
The cool thing is that there are only five 7th chord shapes that you need to know. In this lesson, we'll cover the shapes and then we'll really get cooking by taking a look at the moveable shapes derived from them.
+ 24 more lessons
Reviews
15 results
rick56
Verified buyer
09/06/25
Fingerstyle Blues Roots Review.
I consider myself advanced, BUT, the instructions in this set of lessons taught me so much. Some quite basic ( which is good). That will help me on my path. John Hatcher is great instructor. Very Thorough. I wish he had more titles on this platform.
Wolf
06/17/23
Great, but Section 3 too hard
Really enjoyed this course, but I found section 3 to be much, much harder than the first 2. I wished he'd kept the pieces simpler
Dave58
Verified buyer
04/17/23
Great!
Fun to learn to play, brushed up sweet-voiced prewar blues in nice arrangements. Great guitarist and good teacher. This takes its time to master this style. Recommended course in the fingerstyle repertoire.
bncsh75mhh
Verified buyer
10/14/22
Great course
John teaches in a straightforward manner, carrying the learner through the basic fundamentals of blues fingerpicking. This course is the perfect starting point for getting back to the basics in blues guitar.
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