We will also play a 12 bar variation on that theme. You play the two notes in turn, or alternate between them in other words, hence the name of this style. Tritone blues part 1 part 2 part 3 tritone blues part 4 kansas city blues in d the basics. In april, 2010, i first got a chance to visit mississippi john hurts grave up in the hills at the eastern edge of the mississippi delta, in avalon, mississippi. Learn to play alternating bass modern guitar approach. Beginning fingerstyle blues guitar tommy emmanuel rocks.
Home chords alternate bass using alternate bass in guitar chords open slash chords chords are mostly played with the root in the bass, the lowest sounding note in the chord. The notes above are all natural however any of this notes can be raised or lowered a half. Nigel wheeler in this fingerstyle guitar lesson, you will learn 8 basic fingerpicking patterns that can be used with 6thstring root chords, with three added variations for 5 th and 4 thstring chord shapes at the end of the lesson for further study. Bass lessons beginners guide to walking bass lines bass tab standard string tuning g,d,a,e recommended 1. In music, alternate bass is a performance technique on many instruments where the bass alternates between two notes, most often the root and the fifth of a triad or chord. You want your picking hand where you can pull up on the 3rd, and 4th strings with the middle and ring finger. A lot of early fingerpicked blues use an alternating bass played between 2 or more strings, but many other grooves employ a single string or dead thumb bass. The great advantage of open tunings is that you can play chords and melodies high up on the neck and all the open strings fit in with your root chord. I suggest you try to learn both techniques, they will give you different sounds to use. Watch the alternating bass online guitar lesson by truefire from play acoustic guitar 2. The following are variations of the 12bar 12measure blues, a common progression. One popular guitar style i sometimes use on the uke is the alternatingthumb fingerpicking popularized by acoustic blues guitarists of the 1930s, like mississippi john hurt and blind blake. The image below is only one page, but the full version of this song is available in the pdf file for my subscribers.
Readers learn the applications of folk, blues, ragtime and new age styles to solo guitar while learning beautiful new chord voicings. It is the most popular fingerpicking style played and has been used by legendary guitarists. If the arrowhead is pointed down, the hand brushes up towards the sixth string. For example, c major will typically be played with c in the bass. In each pairing, the first chord is the tonic i with a 5th alternate bass, the second chord is the dominant. Gary davis use to tell his students that playing the guitar was easy. Beginners guide to walking bass lines bass tabs bass. Alternate descending chord turnaround 0 8fr a7 0 5 3 0 3 2 0 3 1 5fr a 0 2 0 7fr f7 4 2 3 6fr e7.
Acoustic blues fundamentals beginnng alternating bass youtube. Dec 16, 20 to get you started, have a look at a very typical piedmont blues progression. The basic c major chord in the first position is a great example of a fifth. Blues fingerpicking lesson this lesson is included in the book a guide to acoustic blues guitar. Lets start with a basic picking pattern on an open e chord example 1. Duck baker blues in e solo in the alternating bass. Make me a pallet on your floor alternating bass song lesson. Fingerstyle blues guitar sample lesson heavy time fingerpicking heavy time is a style of blues fingerpicking that is more driving and forceful than the somewhat bouncy feel of alternating bass fingerpicking. With the alternating bass fingerpicking technique the thumb of your fingerpicking hand is constantly alternating between two or more bass notes. Nothing too difficult, just make sure you are stamping your foot two times per second and that you are counting from 1 to 4 in time with your foot beat. Now instead of just staying on one note, you are alternating between notes. Dave teaches four variations on playing the chorus. The two dots on the right of the bass clef symbol surround the line on which f pitch is written.
In this one you move the index finger, to alternate the bass notes. Walking bass line theory basicspart 1by chris fitzgerald. It is played in the dropped d tuning and in the key of d. In the alternating bass style you play two different bass notes along with your chord strums. Blues mastery bundle coming soon playing the blues fingerstyle opens up a whole new world of expression, because think about it. May 31, 2016 exercise 1 builds your ability to nail solid bass notes while changing between chords with different root strings. Oct 24, 2018 walk the line is an exact transcription and uses a mix of moving bass lines and alternating bass. Playing and improvising acoustic blues doug young acoustic blues workshop notes q 96. The alternation between the root note and the fifth scale degree below it creates the characteristic sound of the alternate bass. Improve your alternating bass with a few exercises. Life is like a mountain railroad aka lifes railway to heaven for dobro.
Then we will add melody notes on the beat and between the beat. It features a strong alternating bass on c, g7, and f chords and a melody played on the treble strings. The book includes an interview, a discography, and the 11 tunes taught on the three cd s in standard notation and tablature. Good morning blues is a free lesson with a monotonic bass which will not only give you a lot of. Not only beginners but also intermediate level guitarists can find, especially in the second and third levels, exercises and songs useful to refine the technique of alternating bass. The result is that for instance you can play a steady bass or an alternating bass on the open strings at the same time. The latin bass book download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi.
One way gal is an easy lesson with an alternating bass. Quickstart for beginners one of the techniques associated with the iconic country music sound is alternating bass. Mississippi john hurt tab scott ainslie cattail music. Improve your alternating bass with a few exercises tb105. In this example, the bass line consists of simple arpeggiations of each chord, giving the overall effect of a simple blues bass line.
Sitting on top of the world country blues song for dobro. You get a very full and resonating sound with very little effort. Using alternate bass in guitar chords open slash chords. The part below is played four times before you go into the verse. These lessons are for the intermediate fingerstyle guitarist.
Songs using the alternating bass style or travis style picking. On the guitar and bass guitar this is accomplished with the right hand alternating between two or more strings, often the bottom two on the guitar. Alternating bass in four easy steps guitar alliance. Duck baker blues in e solo in the alternating bass style. In this lesson we will work through a 12 bar blues in e with a single string bass. The perfect fifth is often, but not always, played below the root, transposed down an octave creating a fourth interval. This lesson is in open g tuning gbdgbd and in the key of g. How to play fingerstyle blues with alternating bass and melody.
For chords with the root on the fifth string, alternating bass will typically be played between the fifth string and the fourth string. The suggested fingering for the scale is to the left of the diagram. And while you can certainly play some cool blues by strumming some chords, youve got to get your finger picking chops up for some stellar piedmont tunes. Alternating eighth notes with down beat accents beats 1 and 3. Green green rocky road, kansas city blues, stackerlee and saturday night. One of the bass notes will almost always be the root note of the chord. Guitarists refer to this as an alternating bass, and the resulting style is also sometimes and somewhat inaccurately referred to as travispicking after the legendary guitarist merle travis.
Play the 5th string in the 2nd fret with the pick, and play the double stop with your fingers. Popular 12bar blues songs are blues stay away progression 1, hound dog 2, johnny b. Scales and chords for the upright bass the following keys should be learned in the order presented. This dvd demonstrates the various techniques required to play fingerstyle blues, such as monotonic and alternating bass, slides, hammerons, pull offs, and more. Dobro lessons wildwood flower with alternating bass. John henry learn to play the traditional favorite john henry with a slide in opend tuning. R 3 5 6 7 walking bass line theory basics chris fitzgerald. Youll use your thumb to play the notes on the bottom three strings and your fingers to play the top strings. You can learn guitar from orville, and 30 other great teachers, at. There are also five instrumentals to learn, each based on a different style of blues, including. Some people call it travis picking, after the brilliant fingerpicking guitarist merle travis.
Alternating bass fingerpicking exercises by brother john april 26, 2007 8. Let the mermaids flirt with me mississippi john hurts let the mermaids flirt with me is a classic of fingerstyle blues guitar. The alternating bass technique is presented with four arrangements. In the following example in the c major chord c is located on the. The perceived motion is derived from the bouncy bass line that alternates between a and e.
I still enjoy playing all these types of music in various ways and in various places. Fingerpicking patterns make your chord progressions really come alive. Taught by orville johnson in fingerstyle blues series length. For the rest of the post im going to take a look at the fingerpicking techniques of two great blues men lightnin hopkins, who used the monotonic bass technique, and blind boy fuller, who was a piedmont ragtime guitar. Walk the line is an exact transcription and uses a mix of moving bass lines and alternating bass. Its a beautiful musical element that can give a song just what it needs. Jan 28, 2016 fingerpicking patterns make your chord progressions really come alive.
Fingerstyle blues guitar lessons learn fingerstyle blues. Our right hand thumb is one hand and plays the bass figures while our index finger is our second hand and plays the. The lesson i use begins with a simple open c chord. A slightly embellished version of this kind of line would also be typical of a basic boogie woogie type bass line, as in the following example. Print and download duck baker blues in e solo in the alternating bass style guitar tab. Exercise 1 builds your ability to nail solid bass notes while changing between chords with different root strings. This song and folsom prison blues use a capo on the 1st fret.
What we have at this point is the basic alternating bass strum pattern that can be used in a. Here are some tips to aid you in mastering these bass blues licks. Practice the scale until you can play it continuously and fluently. In the first section, well work through 10 key concepts and techniques including things like dead bass, alternating bass, commonly used blues chords and forms, brushes, string snaps and a lot more. In this introduction to finger style blues we will cover an alternating bass pattern over a 12 bar blues progression in e. Scales and chords for the upright bass desert bluegrass. Nigel wheeler in this fingerstyle guitar lesson, you will learn 8 basic fingerpicking patterns that can be used with 6thstring root chords, with three added variations for 5 th and 4 thstring chord shapes at the end of the lesson for further study for the sake of simplicity, you can think of these 6 thstring chords being open g or e chord shapes well use all open strings in the. While some knowledge of music theory is necessary, excellent bass lines can be. Click download or read online button to get the latin bass book book now. Reservation blues alexie sherman 1966 for diane for etta adams gods old lady, she sure is a big chick charles mingus i went to the crossroad fell down on my knees i went to the crossroad fell down on my knees robert johnson 1 reservation blues dancing all alone, feeling nothing good its been so long since someone understood.
This course will deal with alternating 1root5fifth bass parts. This twocourse set is for beginner and intermediate guitarists who want to start fingerpicking. This is a simple technique where you play a regular open chord, but rather than just strumming it, you pick a bass note between strums. This is also the same exercise, and were still alternating the bass notes. In them you will learn how to master the alternating bass style, which we sometimes jokingly refer to as bumchick. You will need to play with a capo on the first fret with this riff. However, in the long scales and chords for the upright bass.
Good morning blues is a free lesson with a monotonic bass which will not only give you a lot of pleasure to play but also some insights on how to improvise. Lessons guitar fingerstyle basics alternating bass tab. Strings are vertical while imaginary frets are shown horizontally. While i was in greenwood, ms as part of the celebrations of the centennial of robert johnsons birth true to form. The symbol of the bass clef is derived from the old german way of writing f. If pointed up, the hand brushes down towards the first string. Watch the alternating bass rhythm online guitar lesson by truefire from play country guitar 1.
You can play alternating bass using a pick or your thumb for the bass and fingers for the strums. For the rest of the post im going to take a look at the fingerpicking techniques of two great blues men lightnin hopkins, who used the monotonic bass technique, and blind boy fuller, who was a piedmont ragtime guitar player who used the alternating bass technique. Apr 26, 2007 alternating bass fingerpicking exercises by brother john april 26, 2007 8. He would say that a piano player has only two hands the left keeps an alternating bass while the right plays a melody but a guitarist has three hands. If you are just starting out you might want to check out the 16 legendary fingerpicking patterns first. How to play fingerstyle blues with alternating bass and. Master acoustic blues guitar fingerpicking and soloing. Rhythm fundamentals after you get a good grip on the steady bass technique, youre ready for the alternating bass technique. And, whatever style i play, i keep the fingers picking away at those steel strings. Alternating bass fingerpicking patterns part i guitarhabits. To get you started, have a look at a very typical piedmont blues progression.
Learn monotone bass, alternating bass, and boogiewoogie. Bass guitar lessons bass handbook a complete guide for mastering the bass guitar free download bass guitar 6nstring bass guitar learn bass guitar pdf bass guitar tutorial alternating bass guitar bass guitar for dummies bass guitar method bass guitar beginner book pdf hale leonard bass guitar beginners guide to playing bass guitar guitar. Dedicate at least 3060 minutes each day to playing the bass. The use of tablature will allow everyone to play the music and do the exercises very quickly. I recommend using a thumbpickit helps put more oomph in your oompah. Fingerstyle guitar lesson alternating bass youtube. In this lesson orville johnson demonstrates the alternating bass technique using a classic blues tune called railroad bill. In this lesson, orville introduces one of the basic fingerstyle techniques the alternating bass technique. Heres a few quick exercises to help you nail alternating.
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