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Blues Guitar Heroes

Learn Signature Techniques of Blues Guitar Legends Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Chuck Berry, Peter Green, Junior Watson and Otis Rush

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Blues Guitar Heroes
Kid Andersen

Kid Andersen

Educator

blues, blues-rock

Genres

About this course

Every musician has a long list of other musicians, past and present, that have inspired, influenced and helped shape their own sound and musicality. It's the natural evolution of music. We asked Kid Andersen to pass on to you some of the key learnings that his Guitar Heroes passed on to him.

”Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Chuck Berry, Peter Green, Junior Watson and Otis Rush have all greatly influenced my own sound as I’m sure they’ve influenced many other players. In this course, I’ll show you a few of the techniques and approaches that I picked up from each one of them.

We’ll look at Freddie King, a giant of a man who applied his brute strength to coax maximum emotion out of his guitar lines. Buddy Guy, a true master of micro tones and macro dynamics. Chuck Berry is a well established pillar of rock and roll guitar, but he had much more bubbling under the surface.

We’ll take a look at Peter Green, whose unique tone and harrowing intensity made even the masters give it up for him. My friend, Junior Watson, whose left field, oddball, quirky style has spawned legions of imitators all over the world. And in the final study, we’ll look at Otis Rush, who to me and many others, represents the Mount Everest of blues guitar intensity!”

In this course, Kid will first introduce his heroes to you and describe why he found them so influential. After each discussion, Kid will then present a performance study illustrating those influences in a musical context, over a backing track. A breakdown follows every performance and Kid will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches in play.

You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own as well.

Grab your guitar and let’s dig in with Kid Andersen!

What you'll learn

  • Master the technique of playing softly while maintaining intensity
  • Learn to use whole tone scales over the IV chord
  • Understand Peter Green's unique approach to blues guitar and his cultural significance
  • Understand how to create visual and emotional connection with audience through technique
  • Develop the ability to maintain intensity even during quiet passages
Release date: 12/21/2020 • 2h 44m runtime
intermediatelate intermediateguitarelectric guitartechniquesoloing
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Sample lessons
Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
My Guitar Heroes: 2
Otis Rush
Otis Rush
My Guitar Heroes: 6
Blues Intensity
Blues Intensity
Overview
Blues Intensity
Blues Intensity
Performance

What's included

26 lessons • 12 charts • 6 Jam Tracks

My Guitar Heroes: Kid Andersen
Every musician has a long list of other musicians, past and present, that have inspired, influenced and helped shape their own sound and musicality. It's the natural evolution of music.

We asked some of our Guitar Heroes to pass on to you some of the key learnings that their Guitar Heroes passed on to them...

Hey, I’m Kid Andersen, and welcome to My Guitar Heroes.

Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Chuck Berry, Peter Green, Junior Watson and Otis Rush have all greatly influenced my own sound as I’m sure they’ve influenced many other players. In this course, I’ll show you a few of the techniques and approaches that I picked up from each one of them.

All of the performances are transcribed and you’ll be able to sync the tab and notation to the video using TrueFire’s learning tools. You can also loop or slow down the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own.

Ready to get started? Grab your guitar, and let’s go!
Freddie King
When I was young learning guitar in Norway, my guitar teacher would always send me home with a stack of records. Some of them resonated with me more than others, but a guy that I immediately fascinated with was Freddie King.

The way Freddie dug into the guitar and got a real crunchy sound grabbed me right away. How he attacked the guitar has stayed with me my whole life and inspired me. It's almost like he was angry at the guitar - he had this menacing way about him that set him apart.

If you aren't familiar with him, you pretty much can't go wrong with any Freddie King recording, but I particularly like the early stuff he did for King and Federal Records, and his later 70's records are great, too!

Now, we're going to play something in his spirit, and look at how I've taken his approach and incorporated it into my own thing. Let's get to it.
Santa Clara Blues
Alright, now we're playing in the spirit of Freddie King's record "San Jose". It's in the key of C, basically a 12-bar blues, with some verses that stay on the I for 8 bars instead of 4 bars. Besides that, it's a standard I-IV-V with a turnaround.

I've put a few of his Freddie King-isms in here, as well as some of my own stuff to show you how he's influenced how I play.
Santa Clara Blues
Alright, now we're playing in the spirit of Freddie King's record "San Jose". It's in the key of C, basically a 12-bar blues, with some verses that stay on the I for 8 bars instead of 4 bars. Besides that, it's a standard I-IV-V with a turnaround.

I've put a few of his Freddie King-isms in here, as well as some of my own stuff to show you how he's influenced how I play.
Santa Clara Blues
Alright, now we're playing in the spirit of Freddie King's record "San Jose". It's in the key of C, basically a 12-bar blues, with some verses that stay on the I for 8 bars instead of 4 bars. Besides that, it's a standard I-IV-V with a turnaround.

I've put a few of his Freddie King-isms in here, as well as some of my own stuff to show you how he's influenced how I play.
Buddy Guy
It's great to see that Buddy Guy is highly regarded these days. He's considered one of the newer generation of Chicago bluesman, coming after guys like Muddy Waters. He's one of the pioneers of electric blues that came out of Chicago in the 60's, alongside Magic Sam and Otis Rush. He took the genre to a new place, later influencing the British blues guys who made the genre what it is today.
,br/>My favorite era of his playing is from the early 60's heading into the late/early 70's, the first album I heard from him being Hold That Plane! released in '72. I was immediately hooked, and loved his explosive, unpredictable style. He defies a lot of conventions of guitar playing, and music in general, in his approach to the instrument.
Rural Accomodations
Alright, so this one is over a Buddy Guy inspired track in G minor. We've got several Buddy Guy ideas on display here, worked into my own style.

+ 19 more lessons

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Reviews

6 results

brosblues

Verified buyer

08/31/25

An enjoyable trip through blues-rock guitar history!

I enjoyed Kid Andersen's cool tributes to his guitar heroes featuring great guitar playing and understated humor. Also, his heroes coincided with many of mine, like Freddie King, Otis Rush, and Chuck Berry.

tamazcalo

Verified buyer

06/05/23

Wonderful instructor

Psychobilly666

Verified buyer

02/08/22

Kid Andersen is a cool Player. He nailed the natural Bluessound on the Point.

Osokin

Verified buyer

09/18/21

Super Heroes!

Kid Andersen and TrueFire really deliver the goods here. It is always interesting to hear great guitar players talk about their influences - but this course takes it to the next level, with Kid Andersen playing solos in the style of his heroes and 'fleshing out' the elements and characteristics that he is attracted to. Very inspiring, and lots of tasty licks to master.

Jackson P.

08/28/21

Hell Yeah!!

Kid has always been one of the best imitators going. He can morph into other guitar players better than anybody - Not to mention having his own voice as a guitar player. To put Jr. watson ( who is one of my favorites) in here was sheer genius. And Peter green! We know freddie, Chuck, Buddy and the greats would be here, but to put Junior in there (who kid plays with) was fantastic. It's only a matter of time before truefire gets junior to come do a course. wink wink.

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