Fingerpicking Country Blues Gospel Guitar DVD

Music from the church always featured in the repertoires of Country Blues Guitarists. In this lesson we explore several styles of fingerpicking gospel tunes. We start with playing in the key of C and two well known songs played in the style of Mississippi John Hurt and Elizabeth Cotten. We then tackle I'll Fly Away which introduces a new right hand technique that combines fingerstyle with strumming. This technique will add a different texture to your playing. We then begin to explore playing in open tunings and Just a Closer Walk with Thee played in an Open G Tuning. We then go to an Open D tuning to learn Death Come Creeping and Will the Circle BeUnbroken.Two bonus sections are included. The first demonstrates how to change your Guitar strings so that they will not slip. The second is an audio section that features recordings showing variations and other approaches to the tunes taught.A detailed tab/music booklet is included as a PDF file on the DVD. Each tune is taught phrase by phrase and played slowly on a split-screen.Titles include: I Am A Pilgrim What a Friend We Have In Jesus I'll Fly Away Just A Closer Walk With Thee Death Come Creeping and Will The Circle Be Unbroken.

Rev. Gary Davis is the real thing. The authentic blind-seer. He is a genius with a brightly burning spirit enormous musical intelligence technical brilliance an encyclopedic memory driving passion deep faith araunchy and gracious sense of humor. A mystic. He is an icon of the style of Guitar he was born into known today as the Piedmont blues. Through players of the first half of the twentieth century like Alfred Shultz Mose Ranger Merle Travis and Chet Atkins this is the signature American fingerpicking style that would so deeply inform the country folk blues and even rock and roll of our day.Rev. Davis (1896-1972) was born black indeep poverty in South Carolina blind from an early age. He overcame these longest of odds to become world famous a giant of American music. He brought together black and white styles country gospel folk themes blues jazz ragtime minstrel songs dance tunes and popular song. He developed his own brilliant fingerpicking style that was deep economical and adaptable enough to easily cover all these genres. Supporting all his creativity was anunshakable faith that pulled him through the obscurity the bitter hard times and crushing poverty he would endure until the folk music awakening of the fifties and sixties caught up to him.Ernie Hawkins has transcribed 13of Rev. Davis' best known blues and ragtime arrangements. Tunes such as Candyman Cocaine Blues Hesitation Blues Baby Let Me Lay It on You Spoonful and Delia are included alongside the ragtimeinstrumental tour de forces of Slow Drag (Cincinnati Flow Rag) and Make Believe Stunt (Maple Leaf Rag).The playing of Rev. Davis has influenced generations of Guitar players from Blind Boy Fullerto Dave Van Ronk Bob Dylan David Bromberg Ry Cooder Jorma Kaukonen Bob Weir Stefan Grossman and Woody Mann. His tunes have been recorded by a host of today's finest rock musicians: The Grateful Dead Hot Tuna Bob Dylan

Techniques Arrangements and Improvisation-The sensational Kelly Joe Phelps guides you through his country blues and gospel guitar playing style in this fascinating DVD. Phelps plays the instrument Dobro style with a unique bar and alternate-thumb fingerpicking technique which allows for unusually free improvisation. In this video he demonstrates aspects of his musical craft - covering bar technique string muting use of the capo fingerpicking style and how to find scale and chord patterns in open D tuning. His exploration of improvised solos using these ideas will help you create expressive melody lines and evocative harmonies turning your songs into vehicles through which you can express your ideas and emotions.