Course Description

Acoustic blues guitar lessons cover many genres inside the genre. Blues can be sad in the Delta style, or happy in the Piedmont ragtime guitar style of playing. Between the two there are a group of acoustic blues guitar players who played a style with a definite swing - Big Bill Broonzy and Brownie McGhee are two great examples of blues men who excelled at this kind of technique. The five lessons in this course take a look at just one of McGhee's songs - Livin With The Blues, and four of Broonzy's. If you can play one of Brownie's songs, you can just about play them all!

What You Will Learn:

  1. How to finger pick the guitar in the distinctive swing style.
  2. Palm damping techniques to ensure that the sound is 'tight'!
  3. The chord structure of swing blues in the keys of E, A and C
  4. How to reproduce that elusive 'old blues guitar' feeling.

Broonzy's style was much broader and we take a look at several of his songs in some detail.

Both men use a thumb style called 'monotonic bass', which means that the thumb strikes just one bass guitar string every beat, instead of alternating between two or three strings.

It's less complicated than the alternating bass style, but that's not to say the guitar sound produced isn't as rich or musical. Both men were very inventive in their treatment of the blues, and the bass action helped drive the music forward in a very definite and unique way.

Each lesson is between 20 mins and 30 mins long and provides everything you need to play the songs presented, including slow close up demos of both hands, tips on singing and printable guitar tab files. Learning acoustic blues guitar in the swing style just got easy!

Acoustic Blues Guitar Instructor

Jim Bruce

Acoustic blues guitarist Jim Bruce was voted Number 2 top guitar instructor on Truefire in 2013 (Number 1 for acoustic blues). Jim still plays blues guitar on the street in Europe and also gives concerts - plus teaching old style finger picking wherever he goes! Now online students can benefit from over 40 years of real experience playing blues guitar in the authentic way. If you want to play real blues guitar just like the old blues men, then is where you come to find out how. Keep it real with Jim Bruce and play blues guitar like it was originally played. A word from Jim - " My playing career goes way back, to the folk clubs on the UK in the sixties, clubs pubs and bars in six countries, and on the city streets of Europe. This is how I learned my trade. One day someone asked me to slow down a lick to show them exactly what I was doing with my hands. As I tried to do this, I found that I was doing much, much more than I realized. It was these tiny hand movements that make acoustic blues so exciting when it's performed properly. This is the main focus of my lessons - to show students exactly how to play the blues in great detail. " Peace, Jim Bruce (Jim's guitar lessons follow a well proven and award-winning formula guaranteed to have you playing the blues in the shortest time possible.)

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Big Bill Broonzy

    • Hey Hey Lesson Introduction

    • VIDEO - Hey Hey

    • PDF - Hey Hey Tab

    • Glory of Love Lesson Introduction

    • VIDEO - Glory Of Love

    • PDF - Glory of Love TAB

    • Key To The Highway Lesson Introduction

    • VIDEO - Key To The Highway

    • PDF - Key To The Highway TAB

    • Worryin' You Off My Mind Lesson Introduction

    • VIDEO - Worryin' You Off My Mind

    • PDF - Worryin You Off My Mind TAB
  • 2

    Brownie McGhee

    • Livin' With The Blues Lesson Introduction

    • VIDEO - Livin' With The Blues

    • PDF - Livin with the Blues TAB