Improvers Blues

Overview

We’ll look at the basics: 12 bar format(s) of major and minor Blues, use of dominant 7 chords, shuffle and straight rhythm patterns, strumming and finger picking, maybe some slide, fills, intermediate chord progressions (touching on a jazzy feel), looking at different genres of the Blues (country, classic, rock, fok, etc).

The song list isn’t defined yet but it’ll probably include the likes of: Sweet Home Chicago (with intro and turnaround). Hoochie Coochie Man (classic riff) and Stormy Monday.

It’s important to emphasise that a lot of the skills learned can be transferred to other songs. One area of theory will be defining what the major and minor pentatonic scales are and how they can be mixed.

Course suitability
If you can play a Blues in Bb then you’ll be fine. If you can play most open chords and can attempt basic barre chords then you’ll be fine. There’s something for everyone in all our courses and the follow-on materials should really help. Acoustic and electric guitar players are welcome; bassists are similarly welcome but should contact us beforehand.

Materials

Prep sheets are available on request.

Hand-outs will be provided as we go through weekend and after the course we’ll make available any supplementary PDFs, audio or video recordings that were made, backing tracks used, photos taken of the group and any useful flip chart diagrams.

Call us for a chat

If you’d like to know more, contact us and we can set up a call to go through:

• the course content and how our weekend courses work
• your playing level and any expectations you might have of the course

These courses

• Are a bit of a guitar-fest. We cover a lot of subjects on them but we always try to adapt and pace them to suit the group. Where appropriate we’ll go off-piste to explore something peripheral that the group is interested in.
• Are about learning and playing but they’re also about having fun along the way.
• Have limited class size numbers – don’t miss out.