Dear Guitar Player

As an eager student of the acoustic guitar, I have always been interested in discovering the mechanics of playing different styles. The blues and ragtime had me reeling to work out how something so simple as a few chords thrown together, could be so dammed difficult. 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 your self to be simple and be 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 just a small part of my own discovery, and hopefully part of yours too.

Cheers Rick Payne

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