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by Brother John  July 29, 2007 10:43 am
  1. Do not buy a Dreadnought. This type of acoustic guitar tends to produce a boomy bottom end but lacks volume and definition in the top end. The Dreadnought is a great strumming and flat picking guitar.
  2. Do buy an Auditorium, OM (orchestra model), triple O (OOO) or double O (OO) style guitar. These guitars produce an even or balanced response across all six strings. This is preferable for finger picking and slide playing. Obviously we would not want the bass part of the alternating or monotonic bass style to overshadow and drown out the melody part on the treble strings. The dreadnought would have a bass response that would need serious attenuation by heavily muting with the heel of the right hand. The guitars used in all the videos on this site are triple O (OOO) style guitars made by Gerard Gilet at Gilet Guitars in Sydney Australia.
  3. The top of your new guitar must be made of solid timber, usually spruce. It must have grain lines that are tight and straight and run parallel to the strings.

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by Brother John  July 22, 2007 11:15 am

Brother John Morris presents the monotonic bass style of fingerpicking as used by Mance Lipscomb, Lightning Hopkins and Big Bill Broonzy.

by Brother John   11:01 am

Baby please don’t go by Lightning Hopkins. Beginners level Arrangement by Brother John Morris.

by Brother John   10:51 am

Brother John presents a classic blues in A based on the playing of Robert Johnson.
This arrangement is in the monotonic bass style. It also has some syncopated and walking bass notes.

by Brother John  July 15, 2007 10:41 am

An introduction to slide guitar by Brother John explaining 2 ways of playing bottleneck slide guitar.
1. Single note style with right hand muting.
2. Used in conjuction with the alternating bass style where the slide plays mainly on the first string.
A simple version of Blind Willie Johnson’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine is used to demonstrate this approach.

by Brother John  July 14, 2007 1:25 am

The Blues Preachers new CD “Next Stop Beulah Land” featuring Brother John Morris on fingerstyle guitar, slide guitar and vocals with Doug Bluetongue Lyons on harmonica and vocals is available for purchase now.
“The new album (Next Stop Beulah Land) is a beautiful example of acoustic blues with tasteful harmonica, classic slide playing & sweet harmonies
… this is bound to do well”.
Scott Levi ABC Central Coast Radio.
Click the pic to the right under fingerstyle community links to be taken to the download page. Clicking on Buy Now will take you to PayPal’s secure server.

by Brother John  July 13, 2007 9:32 am

An introduction to the Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar studio by Brother John Morris. Today we are looking at the alternating bass style as played by Mississippi John Hurt and featured in his song Louis Collins.

by Brother John  July 12, 2007 6:29 am

A tuition video featuring Pay Day by Mississippi John Hurt and played by Brother John Morris. It is in the alternating bass fingerpicking style. Pay Day is in open D tuning (DADF#AD). The bass in this song alternates constantly between the 6th and the 4th strings. There are no chord changes. This piece is a good example of the power and beauty in the simplicity of a melody supported by a D drone.

by Brother John  April 26, 2007 8:31 am

If you are interested in Flatpicking and you are a beginner, try these patterns.

Pattern 1 (clip1)

—–0———-0——0———–0——0——0——————-
—–1———-1——1———–1——1——1——————-
—–0———-0——0———–0——0——0——————-
—–2———-2————————–2—————————
—–3———-3————————–3—————————
————————————————————————-


Pattern 2 (clip2)

——————–0——-0———————–0——-0———
——————–1——-1———————–1——-1———
——————–0——-0———————–0——-0———
——————–2—————-0-H->-2 —–2——————
——3—————————————————————–
————————————————————————-


Pattern 3
(clip3)

————————–0——-0——–0——-0—————–
————————–1——-1——–1——-1—————–
————————–0——-0——–0——-0—————–
————————–2—————–2————————-
————3———————————————————–
———————————————————————–

by Brother John   8:23 am

Here are some basic fingerpicking patterns in the alternating bass style designed to provide the ground work to be able to play like Mississippi John Hurt.

Pattern 1 (Clip1) C

———–0———————————–0————————-
—————————–1————————————-1—–
————————————————————————–
———————2———————————2—————–
—–3——————————–2———————————-
————————————————————————–

Pattern 2 (clip2) C

——0——————————————0———————–
———————————1—————————————-
————————————————————————–
———————–2———————————–2————-
——3——————————————————————-
—————————————–3——————————–

Pattern 3 (clip3) E

————————-0————————0————————
————–0———————0——————————-0—–
—————————————————————————-
————————-2———————————2—————
—————————————————————————-
——0————————————0——————————-

Click here for more finger picking patterns for beginners.