Want to know the secret to becoming a GREAT guitar player? Here it is…
Being a good guitar player is all about doing the little things and doing them well. Over time, they add up to something incredible. There is no special sauce, there is no ‘learn how to play guitar in a weekend’ DVD that will instantly make you a guitar guru.
It just doesn’t happen. BUT, practicing hard and smart WILL get you there.
Look at any of your favorite guitar players, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, BB King, Robert Johnson…you get the idea. Each of them started with the basics and put in a ton of hours to become the legends they are today.
What this video shows you is that ‘basic’ doesn’t mean ‘boring’. When I first began learning guitar, I hated practicing scales. I just wanted to play like my heroes. So I started strumming “Michael Row the Boat Ashore”….What the?? Um, thanks but no thanks Mel Bay!
Looking back, I can see so many ‘cool’ things that I could have started with instead of that song.
Whether you play with a flat pick or you’re wanting to get into fingerstyle acoustic blues guitar and play like Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt or Blind Boy Fuller, start with simple little licks like the one in the video. I call them MICRO LICKS.
They are tiny lick fragments that become great building blocks for longer licks. But for the budding finger picking blues player, they work just fine on their own.
There’s probably not a lick more recognizable that this ‘train whistle’ lick that works beautifully in E blues. If you want to play the blues, you have to know how make the train whistle sound. Period.
I mean, it’s the blues 🙂
Be sure to check out the website for the complete lesson:
http://www.bluesguitarinstitute.com/simple-acoustic-blues-lick
If you’re serious about improving your blues guitar skills, join the Blues Guitar Institute newsletter to get quick tips, licks and lessons:
http://www.bluesguitarinstitute.com/YT027
If you are new to fingerstyle blues and want to get started, check out this video:
http://www.bluesguitarinstitute.com/intro-fingerstyle-acoustic-blues
In this video, I’ll show you how to get started playing some sweet finger picked acoustic blues.
Play Hard!
-John
P.S. – If you liked this video, share it with your friends on Facebook:
