Not much sweeter to the ear or more pleasing to play than fingerstyle blues guitar. Pick up your box, play a few bars of a Muddy Waters tune and watch faces light up immediately. As popular music is rooted to the blues, blues is rooted to the original fingerstyle techniques of pioneers Robert Johnson, Big Bill, Leadbelly, Lightning Hopkins, Blind Lemon and many others. Contemporaries Ry Cooder, John Hammond, Leo Kotke, Chet Atkins and and a truckload of others keep this rare art form alive and very well.
Less is certainly
more when it comes to fingerstyle blues. No brain-twisting theory and
techniques to master. Just a few basic chords, couple of open tunings
and a handful of simple picks to learn. So why such a mystery for so many
players? Because effective fingerstyle blues instruction is real scarce
-- our inspiration to produce the 60-Day Fingerstyle Blues Camp
5-CD Video Course. But first we had to find the best fingerstyle blues
instruction on the planet ...
Rick Payne and Steve Elliot formed a magical symbiosis known the
world over as The Acoustic
Guitar Workshop, a world-class acoustic guitar web site based in England.
Rick's waters run deep -- brilliant composer/performer, world renown master of the fingerstyle blues form, with an uncanny ability to breakdown and communicate the essential elements of the style. Steve Elliot, founder of the Acoustic Guitar Workshop and recently hailed as a "British Master of The Blues", is also a successful songwriter and instructor. Together they've authored three highly praised fingerstyle blues courses and five CDs worth of classic and original fingerstyle blues tunes.
This 5-CD course features all three interactive Video CD courses on 5 CDs.
This study program is straightforward and very effective. Work
through each of the three courses sequentially: Fingerstyle Blues Guitar
I, Fingerstyle Blues Guitar II and then Acoustic Slide Guitar. Take on
one chapter at a time for at least an hour a day. You'll quickly learn
to master the tunings, fingerpicking styles and techniques of fingerstyle
blues and acoustic slide guitar. Along the way, you'll add a set's worth
of solo fingerstyle tunes to perk up your repertoire.
But here's the trick - give your regular play list a break and keep the five audio CDs cranked and playing in your car, walkman, PC and home stereo until you hear the material in your sleep. This will bring the style to life on your fingertips as you apply what you hear to how you play.
The course
is presented in an interactive PDF manual with 185 video lessons (Windows
Media and Quicktime), 200 audio elements (MP3), text, tab, charts and
Power Tab, which allows you to "see" and "hear" tab played out at any
tempo in perfect pitch.
If you've got desire, intermediate skills and are willing to devote 60 days learning and listening to this course -- you'll be well on your way to becoming a monster fingerstyle blues player.
"Just
wanted to let you know the 60 Day Fingerstyle Blues Camp CD's are just
great. Doing the exercises has helped my finger independence beyond words.
The videos are of excellent quality even when I maximize them to see the
fingerings better. Keep up the good work and thank you."
Bob Anderson
Rick Payne shares a few words ...
"As an eager student of the acoustic guitar, I have always been interested in discovering the mechanics of playing different styles. I had been through loads of normal books on fingerstyle but couldn't find the essence of simplicity that the playing of Muddy Waters or Big Bill Broonzy conjured up. It was frustrating. I found I could play all kinds of bluesy instrumentals but lacked what I felt was real blues.
As all good things come to pass, I finally had my eureka a few years down the line. I was listening to an album by Lightening Hopkins and was amazed that all I was hearing was a four beat boom on the bass strings and an occasional ting on the top. Of course, there were other things happening - a pick here and a pick there - but the essence was there in that rhythmic, 'boom, boom, boom, boom'. From then on, I could hear the same in all the great players - Broonzy, Johnson, etc. etc. I started from that four beat pattern and took it from there. It's all a simple thing really. The hardest part is to train yourself to be simple and clear about the bottom line. All the other elements in the playing will fit together easily.
So, these sessions that I share with you, are part of my own journey of discovery in the blues. Hopefully they'll become part of yours too."
