Playing acoustic fingerpicking ragtime/ blues guitar is most likely the most gratifying of all guitar styles I have actually ever learnt how to play. The fullness of the sound seems like 2 guitars playing together and is something that's difficult to beat.
Ragtime and blues fingerstyle is first of all not as difficult to play as it sounds. A lot of the appeal of fingerstyle blues (particularly ragtime) can be more of an acoustic impression than actual notes being played - there's not as much going on as your ears would have you think!
The very best way to discover this playing technique is to simply leap right in and explore some tunes. This it not something for the total novice, but if you are at an intermediate phase of guitar playing then you ought to be more than capable of playing acoustic blues. As long as you can easily play typical chord shapes and rhythms fairly well, then that ought to be all you require, together with string the desire to practice and find out just how to do it right.
When I initially got into blues finger picking, there wasn't much readily available in terms of videos revealing these 'secrets'. I discovered the music by listening along with a couple of tabs from books. The most significant difficulty I had with this was (apart from being slower than tuition from video) where to put your fingers on the fretting hand.
The thing that grabbed my attention was that Jim's lessons looked like a real quality guitar course. This is something you hardly ever discover when stumbling throughout the typical costly downloadable offers for learning blues guitar, something of which there is no lack of regrettably! Unusually in the world of online guitar tutorials, you are really getting exactly what you pay for ... great one Jim!
The course includes 39 downloadable videos (good for Windows or Mac), every one revealing a complete fingerstyle tune separated and ordered into phrases revealing left and picking hand close ups. Jim likewise discusses how each tune is played in addition to pointers where extra detail is needed. Each video is accompanied by a dowbloadable pdf TAB file in addition to the chord shapes, and tabs are also being shown on screen in the video.
The tunes taught span the work of artists such as Robert Johnson to Blind Blake covering basic tunings, open G tunes and also open D (DADGAD). There's adequate coverage of the numerous blues techniques and styles from the bouncy ragtime feel of Blind Blake to the more standard blues work of Lightnin' Hopkins and Floyd Council.
In general, Jim's course is among the very best downloadable guitar - and I've been round the block a few times! Not just do you get many hours worth of videos revealing you the best ways to play all the tunes, but also high quality guitar tuition for a guitar style that's not that common at this quality. Many other downloadable courses are merely reworked material priced at 3 times their real worth.
Jim provides a no-questions fast refund if you aren't delighted with his blues lesson videos, personally I can't see that he gets lots of disappointed clients. As sales are managed through robust digital download providers, you can feel confident your infomation and payment details are protected and safe. Jim's course is going to be difficult to beat and I'm more than pleased to recommend it, if you want the best take on to take on fingerstyle blues guitar. Simply plain straight talking "how to play fingerstyle blues guitar".
Who is the best online guitar teacher? Well, in my book Jim is well in the running.