Acoustic Blues Guitar

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Acoustic Blues Guitar was brought to the world by the likes of by Robert Johnson, Bill Broonzy, and Rev. Gary Davis. Fingerpicking acoustic blues uses your thumb to play the bass notes while the first and second fingers play the melody. Bear in mind that the thumb is responsible for keeping time, so it will take some time getting your fingers to work independently but it will be worth it. Rev. Gary Davis was an acoustic blues player who used his thumb to strumb the chords and only his index finger to play the melody. This video shows him playing on a TV show hosted in an entirely down-home fashion by Pete Seeger.

Listening to the music of Mississippi John Hurt is a good way to get started on acoustic blues. Here he is on video with Pete Seeger again talking about his beginning in the recording business.

The secret to playing lots of acoustic blues songs is in learning a basic chord sequence. A one, four, five progression – for example C, F and G or G, C and D usually make an acoustic blues guitar chord sequence. As an easy way to get started playing blues, try using the minor pentatonic scale (1 b3 4 5 b7 1) over a I IV V chord progression in a major key and also in the same minor key.

Here is a Google Video featuring Dan Denley giving some tips on how to play acoustic blues guitar.

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