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Jul 22

Blues In E Monotonic Bass Style

Posted on Sunday, July 22, 2007 in All Posts, Video Tuition

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

Jul 22

Baby Please Don’t Go

Posted on Sunday, July 22, 2007 in All Posts, Video Tuition

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

Jul 22

Robert Johnson Blues In A

Posted on Sunday, July 22, 2007 in All Posts, Video Tuition

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.

Jul 15

Slide Workshop

Posted on Sunday, July 15, 2007 in All Posts, Slide Guitar, Video Tuition

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.

Jul 14

Next Stop Beulah Land

Posted on Saturday, July 14, 2007 in All Posts

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.

Jul 13

The Alternating Bass Style of Mississippi John Hurt: Louis Collins

Posted on Friday, July 13, 2007 in All Posts, Video Tuition

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.

Jul 12

Pay Day by Mississippi John Hurt

Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2007 in All Posts, Video Tuition

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.

Apr 26

Flat Picking Techniques

Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2007 in All Posts, Flatpicking

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—————————
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Pattern 2 (clip2)

——————–0——-0———————–0——-0———
——————–1——-1———————–1——-1———
——————–0——-0———————–0——-0———
——————–2—————-0—h–>2 —2——————
——3—————————————————————–
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Pattern 3
(clip3)

————————–0——-0——–0——-0—————–
————————–1——-1——–1——-1—————–
————————–0——-0——–0——-0—————–
————————–2—————–2————————-
————3———————————————————–
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Apr 26

Alternating Bass Fingerpicking Exercises

Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2007 in All Posts, Fingerpicking

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

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—————————–1————————————-1—–
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———————2———————————2—————–
—–3——————————–2———————————-
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Pattern 2 (clip2) C

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

Pattern 3 (clip3) E

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

Click here for more finger picking patterns for beginners.

 

 

Apr 13

Slide Right Hand Muting Techniques (standard tuning)

Posted on Friday, April 13, 2007 in All Posts, Slide Guitar

These basic slide guitar exercises will introduce you to the right hand muting style which is necessary for improvising using single notes across all six strings as used by of Duane Allman, Ry Cooder, Warren Haynes and many others.

Exercise 1 Left hand video Right hand video

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————————-8————————-8————————–
———-9—————————————————–9————-
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Exercise 2 Left hand video Right hand video

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——-10—>—8——————10—>—12—————————
—————————-9————————————————-
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Exercise 3 Left hand video Right hand video

E pentatonic minor with diminished 5th.

——-12——–10———————————————————-
—————————–12——-11——–10———8—————
————————————————————————–9—-
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Click the youtube link below.
This clip includes information about 2 ways of playing bottleneck slide guitar.
1. Single note style with right hand muting as discussed in the above exercises.
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.


Nobody’s Fault But Mine TAB