Converting to that twiddly thing. How to start?

[ZMech]

So I have had a very strange and unfamiliar feeling. Having been listening to an excess of old school blues (Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson, John Lee Hooker etc), for the first time ever I've felt the urge to join the masses and play that little thing with six strings. It's a bizzare kind of stirring, but one I think I'll try and adress.

Conveniently I already have an emergency jamming guitar for visiting friends to play so I have something to strum, but I'm unsure as to how to go about learning. Am up for teaching myself with a little help from my friends, but I thought you guys might know of good resources and how to approach playing at the bluesey end of the spectrum.

[DorsetBlue]

justinguitar.com

[iamtheelvy]

Nothing beats a good tutor, but failing that, I always find the 'Dummies' guides are very good when starting something from scratch.

[skankdelvar]

Scrillions of general guitar vids on YouTube. As always, quality varies. Also plenty of conventional blues jam tracks in different keys and at different tempos.

Thing is, the music you're talking about is quite differently executed to modern music, even within the blues genre. These days most people play blues in standard tuning with a pick, derived from the Chicago stuff that was popularised here by Clapton and others.

But any number of the older guys, including John Lee Hooker, would play without a pick in so-called 'open' tunings. This is where the guitar is tuned to a chord typically (but not limited to) E, D, or G. As far as the right hand is concerned, the old boys usually avoided conventional flat picks, using either just their fingers or a thumb-pick plus fingers.

Sorry if all this is 'egg-sucking' stuff to you, but Delta blues is an offshoot that's a bit ignored these days. A good starting point would be Stefan Grossman's tutorial vids. Fred Sokolow's good, too.

As for the practicalities, fit some heavier gauge strings (11's for electric, 13's for acoustic, adjust to taste, ymmv). If you want to play slide, jack the action up a touch and let a little relief into the neck.

The money you save by not buying guitar picks can go towards a slide (£5-15) off ebay. My preference is for a heavy brass slide, snug fit for the pinky finger, but it's probably easier to start with a lighter steel or glass slide to avoid carpal tunnel ache. Metal slides give it that 'buzz', whereas glass is a little more polite.

Easy open D tuning:

Low E goes down to D
A = same
D= same
G goes down to F#
B goes down to A
High E goes down to D

Here's a blues played in open D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QgJQLSXzsI

And here's an open d slide lesson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ayBP6vLqYI

Some how to's:

http://www.guitarworld.com/deep-john-lee-hooker-and-lightnin-hopkins

http://www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/how-john-lee-hooker-developed.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcYBY016cls

Son House:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh3KJttVYxY

[ZMech]

Great stuff, cheers guys!

Skank, yes I've very much been delving in to the delta blues stuff. It sounded very different to the ear than the usual Chicago stuff so thank you for elaborating on how to get that different feel. Finger picking looks like it'll take a bit of getting used to, but I shall let you know how it goes!

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='ZMech' timestamp='1390641511' post='2347763']
Finger picking looks like it'll take a bit of getting used to, but I shall let you know how it goes!
[/quote]

It's possible to muddle by with thumb and forefinger or thumb and two fingers for a while, but in the end 'they' say it's best to try to use as many RH fingers as you've got.

It's swings and roundabouts, mind. For one thing you can skip learning all those basic standard tuning chords and changes (e.g. C to G) that tie your left hand up like spaghetti. Embellished one chord vamps ftw!

Let that Zmech boogie-woogie. It's in him - and it's [i]got[/i] to come out.