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A little Fingerstyle blues
The thing that excites me most about guitar is old acoustic blues. Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, my favorite: Mississippi John Hurt. The most melodic and gentle of them all, but such passion, the Bobb Ross of the Blues, in the best way. That’s what I love, that’s what I long to play. It is not easy to play. It is so dependent on a masterful sense of rhythm, the thing that comes hardest to me, my white whale. That’s not an unfortunate irony, that is the hand of God charging me to forge that weakness into a strength in the nuclear fire of joyful, musical repetition. To paraphrase that earstwhile prophet, Elwood Blues, I’m on a mission from God. In the course of that holy pursuit, I have been working through a book by Steve James, and was looking at the about the author. He lived right here in Austin Texas. When I looked him up, I found that he had passed. This man who brought joy and beauty to my life was gone. I resolved to really learn the piece I had been practicing minutes before. A little piece in the style of Lightning Hopkins called “Slow as Lightnin’” If I could play that beautifully, in my voice, maybe elaborate on it, I could do something to show gratitude to this man I would never know, who had opened this door to me with his book. This is my first take. It’s not great, probably about two-thirds as good as my best playthrough but an honest snapshot of most of my playthroughs. I’m going to pick a couple weak measures to focus on over the next week and I’ll check back in here. Maybe after that I’ll focus on my weakest transitions between measures or the techniques that are giving me the most trouble. I’d love to hear your ideas about how to focus my refinement. Thank you for watching and I am open to feedback and advice.
Bill Callahan
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7 Replies
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I can hear those blues notes coming out of your guitar. Nice! I look forward to hearing it a little down the road. Thanks!
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Thank you for listening, Philb! Appreciate it!
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Here is my latest playthrough! Not a lot of audible improvement, but it will come!
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LOL! The Blues Brothers is one of my favorite movies from the SNL pipeline. Right behind 1941.
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Latest playthrough of this piece, there were a few slowdowns but there were a couple bars that sounded better than ever!
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Hey Bill, how long have you been playing? When did you start finger picking?
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I’ve been playing since December. I think I started getting into fingerstyle in late march or so, once strumming chords started to click. I’m loving it, but it is a challenge!
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