Acoustic Guitar Lessons - Playing The Blues


screen shot - acoustic blues guitar lessons pdfEssential  Components Of Acoustic Guitar Lessons
An internet search for acoustic blues guitar lessons with PDF in video format can be a thankless task, especially for the new guitarist with next to no experience. 

What are the essential features of the best tuition packages on offer? As you might imagine, we can identify some necessary components that will definitely help in choosing the right tuition.

Acoustic Guitar Lessons Should Be Systematic and Easy To Follow

It almost goes without saying, but all tuition for whatever subject needs to flow logically and be easy to assimilate. The primary steps need to be adequately described, and the building blocks used to progress into more advanced lessons. 

Of course, some theory is necessary, but the student acoustic guitar player is really eager to get playing and learning how to play acoustic guitar - he wants to get down to it! 

This then should be the fundamental requirement for presenting the basic steps that can be used immediately. It's very true that a thorough understanding of the basic building blocks will bring enormous benefits later on.

Music Notation or Acoustic Guitar Tabs?

Usually, guitar players of the classical style learn to read music notation and follow the written notes when playing or when creating new music. 

As we might think, this implies a rate of progress that is often thought of as as too laborious for out times. In the nineteen sixties, Stephan Grossman and some contemporaries presented acoustic guitar lessons, inventing a method of guitar notation that directly represents the frets and strings of an acoustic guitar. 

These shortened acoustic guitar tabs can be quickly learned and are a very useful tool for learning blues guitar, for instance. 

A grid of 6 strings is numbered from the  bass string (designated number 1) to the high E string (which is number 6) and a number marked over a string indicates which fret the finger needs to be placed on. 

A vertical line near the number gives an indication that the thumb or finger is used for that stroke.

PRESENTING ACOUSTIC GUITAR LESSONS - WHAT SHOULD WE SEE ON THE SCREEN?

There exist many variations on this theme, but we can generalize a little about the elements that greatly help acoustic guitar tuition. 

The new guitarist needs to be aware right at the start what the goal of that lesson is. If we are learning to play a whole song, then it should be performed in just the same as the detailed instruction shows in the later lesson. 

Before the main tuition, any difficult techniques can be demonstrated and useful advice given. Zoom shots of both hands are priceless,and are best shown one at a time.

Chord diagrams and guitar tabs can be overlaid on the screen, so that the new guitarist can follow the action in real time.

NICE TO HAVE FEATURES OF ACOUSTIC GUITAR LESSONS
When learning a song, it's very useful to have the lyrics and a brief discussion about singing with the music. You may have thought this is a bit obvious, but it's often it's quite difficult for a new player to synchronize them! 

The full tab files and lyrics could be provided as a PDF or Word file, which might be printed and used at their convenience.

Download Acoustic Blues Guitar Lesson Tab PDF & Learn To Play Livin' With The Blues by Brownie McGhee

Livin- With The Blues by Brownie McGhee Guitar Lesson.mp3

While it's true that you can't play blues guitar without that particular feeling, and no amount of lessons will give it to you, it's really useful when starting out to have some guidelines. 

Although many people get into the traditional style of reading music, some of us just aren't made like that - we just want to play - and quick!

Acoustic guitar tablature is a great way to get a good grasp of what's going on without over-burdening ourselves with technicality and theory. 

After all, the old blues men had nothing but their innate ability and desire. We should be able to patiently work out their finger movements, commit them to guitar tabs and learn how to play in the same way. This is a great way to pay homage to the blues legends, and it's amazing fun.

A lot of people think that it's a great guitar that makes the guitar player, or those fantastic strings, and of course they play a part, but for me it's not that at all. 

A great guitar is just easier to play in general, although a really bad guitar doesn't have the tone, and can buzz, etc, etc - but of it's reasonable quality, you can make great music with it - period!

My favorite guitars have mostly been Fender electro-acoustic cutaways. They are robust, take some harsh treatment and they don't cost the earth. 

For example, I bought a Fender CD60AE for 200 Euros as a second guitar and sometimes I prefer to play it more than my Martin 000X1AE, it depends what I'm playing, but you get the idea.

Youtube is awash with videos of old blues guys playing up a storm on Eko guitars, Epiphone guitars and other 'lower' quality brands, and the sound is fantastic. the player makes the guitar sound great, not the other way round.

Acoustic Blues For Beginners - Where To Start?

'Start at the beginning' the wise old man once said, and that's exactly right with blues guitar for a couple of reasons. Firstly, going right back to the roots gets us back to some of the simplest but most powerful blues music you"ll ever find, so it won't be too taxing technically, but will give you that important feeling that we need to express in our blues picking.

Secondly, you'll learn the basic fingerpicking patterns that you'll use again and again throughout your guitar picking career.

Author: Jim Bruce 

Date: 2013-10-01

Category: Music


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