We’re still mapping out this session but we’ll be building on our Introduction to fingerpicking the Blues tune that we looked at a few weeks ago; it was a brilliant self-contained Blues (based on ‘Before you accuse me’) in E major using open chords. This time we’ll be moving towards a John Mayer/Gravity feel and transpose things to another key. The aim is to provide a self-contained tune to learn at your own pace and have as a performance piece:
- Using open chords (suitable for Beginner+)
- As barre chords enabling total freedom to then work in any key (more suitable for intermediate players).
As we did in our earlier session, we’ll build the piece using Blues elements with a full tTAB transcript to learn afterwards over the winter months. A full playthrough will be done as well as the elements with access to the lesson recording for reference purposes.
We’ll take the concepts further when we come back after the Christmas break when we might delve a little into structured approaches to transposing; maybe going into a little detail on how to use ‘systems’ such as CAGED, Circle of 5ths, I – IV – V and maybe a few other diatonic, and out-of-key, chords. More detail on this session in the December Newsletter.
Buying options available (PDFs and a recording of the live lessons):
- This session – a Gravity-esque Blues in a new major key (probably G).
- Previous session – the Blues in E major. The materials to Introduction to fingerpicking the Blues in E (great prep for the upcoming session!)
Course suitabilty: Beginner+ to Intermediate.
We’ll kick off with a review of basic fingerpicking technique but the primary focus is having the fundamentals of the Blues under your fingers e.g. 12 bar form, the shuffle rhythm feel, nice intros, turnarounds and endings, useful voicing of dominant chords and little licks to intersperse into the 12 bar.
The lesson is not about teaching a specific song per se but we’ll undoubtedly re-purpose staple riffs, licks and chord progressions from the ‘greats’. It is more about giving you interchangeable musical components that your can bolt together yourself and play a self-contained Blues tune.
Materials
Detailed PDFs for all aspects covered and access to a Zoom recording of the live session.
