FINGER PICKING TUTORIAL

Transcription

1 Back Porch Blues FINGER PICKING TUTORIAL By Blues Guitar Institute

2 BLUES GUITAR INSTITUTE Welcome to Back Porch Blues! I want to personally thank you for trusting BGI to help you improve your guitar skills. I hope you enjoy the process of developing essential skills for finger picking some great acoustic blues. Course Overview In this course, you will learn a Bar Blues tune in E I ve written exclusively for this course. The tune, Back Porch Blues, will help you develop the essential skills of a great blues finger picker. The course materials include this guide, TABs and video files available online at Blues Guitar Institute. In learning the song, you will go through a few exercises designed to help you develop a great sense of timing and rhythm. Then, you'll progress through levels Back Porch Blues. Each level is designed to be increasingly challenging. But to help you work through the levels, I'll give you exercises, little bits of theory and helpful tips along the way. When you successfully complete the course, you should be able to: Play E7, A7 and B7 Chords in a Bar Blues Progression Practice with a Metronome and Begin to Develop Solid Timing Improve Finger Independence on Your Picking Hand Improve Fret-Hand Dexterity Play Several Staple Blues Licks and Turnarounds Let s get started! Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

3 How to Build Great Timing Blues is the groove. Sure, there are fancy licks in our favorite songs that dress things up, but at it's heart, blues is a driving rhythm. Developing a great sense of timing is a fundamental skill for an acoustic finger picker. Most of us pickers play without any accompaniment which means it is our job - and our job alone - to drive the beat. In this lesson, we'll begin to develop a great sense of timing and rhythm by isolating the bass. First, let's start by brushing up on some of the basics of music theory as it relates to rhythm. Time Signatures and Rhythm Time Signature: An indication of the rhythm of a piece of music expressed as a fraction. The numerator indicates how many beats are in each bar and the denominator indicates the note value (ie quarter notes). Back Porch Blues will be based on a / time signature. This means there are beats in a bar and each beat is a quarter note. You'll never have to count higher than four in this course , etc This basic concept of rhythm is incredibly important because it will help you understand rhythm on a deeper level and in turn, improve your timing. Take some time, read this again and let it really sink in. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

4 How to Build Great Timing, cont. Before we leave this topic, let me say that there is much more to be said about this and it is worth a study. But, for now, let's continue by putting this count business into practice. Example : Steady Bass with Palm Mute This example is simple, yet powerful. The goal is to sync your thumb with the four count. Your picking hand thumb is a critical digit when it comes to finger picking. You will use your thumb to strike the bass strings making it responsible for holding down that all-important groove. Our first exercise in this course is designed to isolate the thumb's movement. Exercise is simply to strike the open 6th string while counting out your quarter notes: - - -, etc. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

5 How to Build Great Timing, cont. If you're brand new at finger picking, I encourage you to spend more time than you think you should working on this very simple exercise. Don't think this is too basic and pass. When I first began exploring the world of finger picking, I would sit on the couch and thump this one string repeatedly. My goal was solid contact that was in time while counting aloud. Get your voice and thumb completely locked together and practice this over and over until you are bored to tears. Sometimes success isn't all that exciting. It seems simple, but if you're new to finger picking, you'll be surprised at just how much it takes to get your thumb to cooperate. Palm Mute If you simply strike the string with your thumb, the string will ring until you strike it again. We will employ a guitar technique called a palm mute to dampen the note and produce a much more bluesy thump or thud. To properly execute the palm mute technique, lay the heel of your picking hand gently over the 6th and 5th strings. Don't apply too much pressure, the goal is to dampen the note, not completely choke it out. You'll know that you have it down, when you can clearly make out the note, but it doesn't ring out like crazy. A good palm mute takes time to develop, but it's best to get started early. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

6 How to Build Great Timing, cont. Developing Good Timing The goal of this lesson is to get your thumb to sync up with the beat. Counting out loud is certainly a good start, but what if you're counting isn't evenly spaced? In that case, even syncing your voice and your thumb would not help you develop great timing. Instead, it would reinforce bad timing. This is where playing and counting along with a metronome comes in handy. Using a Metronome A metronome is a device that produces clicks at set intervals in time. You can set the tempo to how fast or slow you would like to hear the clicks and play along. The magic is that the metronome produces perfect timing. I strongly suggest practicing with a metronome. No other tactic will help you achieve better results than practicing to a metronome. There's just one problem You will hate it. If you're anything like I was, practicing to that incessant click will be torturous. The reason for the frustration hints to this little device's magic. When you play against a solid, perfect beat, you'll notice immediately where your problem spots are. You'll hear that what you thought was great timing, was really not-so-great. This little devil points out all of your timing mistakes. My best suggestion is to start slow by setting a slower beat per minute (bpm for short) and work your way up to a faster tempo. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

7 How to Build Great Timing, cont. Using a Metronome, cont. You'll find that some things you're able to play at bpm with no problem and others you'll struggle to pull off at 6 bpm. Use the metronome wisely to help you break through any of these rough spots. The trick is to always improve. Get Your Body Moving When you listen to a good tune, do you tap your foot to the beat? I do. However, I've had students in the past that refused to tap their foot when they play guitar. Tapping your foot or nodding your head along to the beat can be a powerful way to condition your entire body to lock into the beat. With the metronome clicking along, tap your foot to the beat. This one simple tip can do wonders for your sense of timing. The goal is to be able to play without a metronome, right? This tactic trains your body to rhythmically connect to the beat and over time, your internal clock will be able to guide to through a song with no metronome. In short, tap your foot and connect to the beat. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

8 How to Build Great Timing, cont. Importance of Fundamentals This lesson is all about building core rhythm fundamentals necessary to become a successful finger picker. I wasted several of my formative years thinking I was too cool to learn the basics. I found out later just how far behind I was, this is one of my biggest regrets about my early days with the instrument. The good news is that it's never too late to catch up. So, if you've never heard any of this before, spend some time on it. This is rooted in the core concepts that will help you build a solid foundation in blues. If you've ignored this stuff for years like I did, then today would be a great day to dive in and give care and attention to these basics. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

9 Developing Finger Independence (Picking Hand) After getting the basic counting and syncing up with a basic four count with your thumb, it's time to take things one step further. In this lesson, we'll work on picking a chord while keeping the steady bass going on the downbeats. The goal for this lesson is to build independence between your thumb and fingers on your picking hand. Exercise : Steady Bass Over E7 Chord In this exercise we will add picking the three higher strings of an E7 chord and the bass note simultaneously. Learn the E7 Chord and How to Read a Chord Grid Fret an E7 in this manner: Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

10 Developing Finger Independence (Picking Hand), cont. This little image is called a chord grid and we can learn a great deal about a chord by getting familiar with the grid. We'll use them heavily throughout this course and others. The grid looks like a fretboard held vertically. The 6th string (the fattest string) is on the left and the st string (the thinnest one) is on the right. The horizontal bars are the frets starting with the thick black line that is the nut. If a string has an "O" over it that means play the open string. If a string has an "X" above the nut, then you won't play that string at all. The black circles indicate where your fingers go on the fretboard and the numbers under the grid tell you which finger to use (index =, middle =, ring = and little finger =, thumb = T). Learning the Exercise On the first beat of the measure, you'll pick the top three strings under the E7 Chord along with the open 6th string. Repeat a total of measures. Then move to playing the chord tones only on beat of the measure, repeat times. You'll cycle through moving the chord to each of the beats. Use your index finger on your picking hand to pluck the third string, middle finger for the second string and ring finger for the first string. This will allow you to dedicate a finger to a string and you'll be able to pick these three at the same time. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

11 Developing Finger Independence (Picking Hand), cont. This approach to picking isn't % necessary, it's akin to classical finger picking. This is my general framework for fingerpicking and the real benefit of dedicating a particular finger to the top three strings is that you can play pieces like this where the notes need to sound simultaneously. Give this a try but don't get too hung up on using my approach. If you play this differently than me but you ultimately arrive at the same sound, then it's a win! Go with what works for you. Exercise. Guitar Techniques Used The main guitar technique used in this exercise is the palm mute on the 6th string. We covered this in the last lesson, but a quick recap of a how to play a palm mute is to place the heel of your hand over the bridge of the guitar deadening the sound from the string. You will hear a thump or thud sound versus a ringing note. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

12 Developing Finger Independence (Picking Hand), cont. Exercise : Playing in Between the Beat (8th Notes) This exercise will help you begin to separate the thumb's bass picking from the chord. For this exercise hold down the same E7 chord shape that was used in the previous exercise. The rhythm of the piece is where the exercise gets interesting. Remember how we divided a measure into four equal parts in the previous lesson, the count? In this exercise we'll take the same idea of moving the E7 chord through different beats of the measure, but we'll play in-between the beat each time. Effectively, we're now dividing the measure into 8 equal beats. A bar of eighth notes in / time is counted like this: & & & & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & The "&'s" are "in-between" the beat. For this exercise, we'll keep the bass going on the down beats and we'll cycle through the &'s with the chord similar to Exercise. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

13 Developing Finger Independence (Picking Hand), cont. Exercise : Playing in Between the Beat (8th Notes) Exercise. If you're a brand new finger picker, this may be your first real challenge. Make sure that you nail this. It's very important to have the ability to pluck the higher strings with your fingers while your thumb is keeping a separate beat. I can't stress this enough. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

14 Developing Finger Independence (Picking Hand), cont. Exercise : Playing in Between the Beats (Triplets) Ok, now we're cooking! Time to make this stuff sound a bit more bluesy though. Wouldn't you say? In Exercise, we'll use the same basic chord as before. We will make things a little bit more interesting by picking up your little finger on the nd string to cycle back and forth between an E7 and an E Major. This exercise changes the rhythm up yet again. Triplet Rhythm The triplet rhythm continues the subdivision of a beat concept. This time, we'll divide a quarter note by rather than as in Exercise. Each quarter note will have sub-beats. A bar of triplets in / time are counted like this: - trip - let - - trip - let - - trip - let - - trip - let You may have heard others count triplets like this ( ) That just seems confusing to me. I recommend getting used to counting them as " - trip - let" etc. as I do in the video. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

15 Developing Finger Independence (Picking Hand), cont. Exercise : Playing in Between the Beats (Triplets) For this exercise, continue picking the bass on the downbeat along with the top three strings of the E7 chord. Then we'll pluck the top three strings for the "trip" and the "let" of each beat. This can get a little crowded, so slow your metronome down when you run through this as I did in the video. Exercise. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

16 Developing Finger Independence (Picking Hand), cont. Exercise 5: Triplet Rhythm with Alternate E7 Shape In this exercise we'll change the chord that we're picking to something even more bluesy. The chord shape in this exercise is technically an E7 shape, just in a different spot on the fretboard. Note that for some of the beats in this exercise, we'll flatten the entire chord by moving each note back one fret. This chromatic movement keeps things interesting. I think when you hear this exercise, your ears will instantly recognize it as blues. This little move, in some variation, is done in countless blues songs. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

17 Developing Finger Independence (Picking Hand), cont. Exercise 5: Triplet Rhythm with Alternate E7 Shape We're keeping the triplet rhythm going for this exercise. Pick the bass on the downbeats along with the top three strings. Then the top three strings are plucked together on the "trip" and the "let" of each beat. Exercise 5. Lesson Summary Mastering these exercises will get you far down the road to great fingerpicking. Use the practice guide for this lesson and know that the more time you devote in this particular lesson, the better things will be later. It will benefit you every step down the road. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

18 Developing Finger Independence (Picking Hand), cont. Lesson Summary, cont. Use a metronome and go slowly. The goal is to play perfectly in time, not faster. That will come later with practice. You can increase your tempo on your metronome over time but only as you perfect the current tempo. Final Tip: Don't skip this stuff! It may seem a little too basic, possibly even boring, but this is where great pickers are made. Devote some time to these rhythm fundamentals as we build your ability to separate your thumb from your fingers on your picking hand. Good luck! Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

19 Back Porch Blues Exercises - 5 Blues Guitar Institute Standard tuning = 8 Exercise x x E-Gt x x x x Exercise 5 x 6 x x x 7 x 8 x x x Copyright 5 Flat Five, LLC All Rights Reserved - International Copyright Secured /

20 / 9 Exercise = 6 x Exercise 5 x

21 Level Instruction The first bars of Back Porch Blues is all about getting your thumb to stay locked in with the beat while getting the fingers on your picking hand to work together as a unit. Lesson Notes Here are a few helpful tips as you work your way through this bar progression. First, make sure you keep your palm mute down. We covered how to properly execute a palm mute in an earlier segment of this course. We are going to be very consistent with the palm mute to help make that a very comfortable guitar technique for you to execute. This bar portion of Back Porch Blues leverages the exercises that we covered earlier. The goal of those exercises and the major goal of this section of Back Porch Blues is to work your ability to use your picking hand fingers to play at your command. You will deepen the skills you learned in the exercises such as playing on beat, in between the beat and playing triplets. The A7 and B7 Chords In order to round out the progression, you will need to be very familiar with additional chord shapes. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

22 Level Instruction How to Play an A7 Chord The all-important A7 chord is used in a few bars of a typical E Blues progression such as this. There are many ways to play the A7, just as we've already covered a couple of ways to play the E7. Let's take a look at the chord grid for the version of A7 that we will be using in this lesson: The real key to playing the A7 sucessfully is to make sure you have a solid barre across the nd fret with your index finger. Barring across the top four strings with your first finger (index finger). If this chord is new to you, spend a great deal of time working on nailing the barre chord. You'll know that you're mastering the chord when you get a good clean note out of each string under the barre. You can test your barre as I demonstrate in the video by holding down the chord and picking each individual string. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

23 Level Instruction How to Play a B7 Chord This is probably my favorite chord. I've called it the bluesiest chord on the planet and I stand by that statement! Every time I hear this chord, my brain immediately thinks Blues. The B7 chord we cover in this section is definitely a staple in the Blues and is critical that you get this one down. Fretting it for the first time can seem challenging since it uses all four fingers and they are really crowded around the nd fret. As with the A7, make sure that you get a good clean tone from each note in the chord before trying to put it into the context of this song. For further practice, take some time and work on changing to and from each chord in this chord group (E7, A7 and B7). Changing fluidly will help you tremendously as you progress with acoustic blues. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

24 Level Instruction Tiny Licks Back Porch Blues sneaks in a couple of tiny licks or bass runs to keep things interesting. The licks themselves are not complicated, generally just being, or notes. But, the key is to develop the ability to move out of a chord sequence into a bass run and then back into a chord all while keeping your thumb rocking along to that metronome click. You are using a metronome, right? Go slowly with the entire piece until you nail the timing of each of these tiny licks. This is a fundamental skill of a finger picker and I can't stress enough the importance of being able to move in and out of these little licks. Take all the time you need to get this down. These runs are fairly basic but they require work. Work hard here and the rewards are sweet. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

25 Level Instruction The Turnaround Arguably the most exciting part of a blues song is the turnaround. A turnaround is a section at the end of a progression that leads back into the first part of the progression. In our bar blues example, the turnaround occurs in the last two bars. This particular turnaround is instant blues! I call this one the Classic Turnaround and I highly recommend this as your first turnaround. The tricky part about this turnaround is that for the first time in this course, you'll use each finger on your picking hand independently. The good news is the picking pattern rolls from the rd string to the nd then the st. I find that my fingers are generally more inclined to pick in that order. But, make sure to keep the even triplet rhythm while you're getting this turnaround down. Remember to use the techniques we covered earlier regarding good timing. Count the full triplet out loud ( - trip - let and so on). You are aiming for clean notes with even spacing in time to make this a successful turnaround for you. This particular turnaround is very versatile and can be used in just about any E Blues situation. So, if you're ever at a loss for an E Blues turnaround, throw this one in there. It always works. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

26 Level Instruction Wrapping Up This bar section is designed to get you playing some finger picking blues in E as fast as possible. We cover some fundamentals like picking chords on and in-between the beat while keeping the thumb bass pumping. Be sure to give some time to the tricky spots like those quick bass runs and the turnaround. If you have the entire bar section of Level down, take a second and celebrate that. That's no small accomplishment in my view. Good job! When you're ready, it's time to level up and start building a lick vocabulary in Back Porch Blues (Level ). But before we move on to the second bar sectin, let's spend some time looking at the scale that the licks are based on. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

27 Back Porch Blues Level Blues Guitar Institute Standard tuning = 8 Level E-Gt 5 6 Copyright 5 Flat Five, LLC All Rights Reserved - International Copyright Secured /

28 7 8 9 /

29 E Blues Scale Introduction In order to successfully tackle Level of Back Porch Blues, let's pause and talk about the scale the licks come from. That scale is...you guessed it, the E Blues Scale! Why Scales are Important I played guitar for more than a decade before I really learned my first scale. I thought I was too-cool-for-school when it came to learning all that nerdy music theory stuff. While I still favor the practical over the theoretical, learning scales is one of the major keys to unlocking the fretboard. Avoiding scales was not smart on my part and I hope this lesson makes it easy and enjoyable for you to get the E Blues Scale under your fingers. In this lesson, we'll talk about how the Blues Scale is constructed, where it lives on the neck and I'll set you up with a practice guide (at the end of this section) to really help you learn where and how to play this scale when you practice. This guide is just that, a guide. It s not meant to be a comprehensive scales course, but rather a entry point for you to practice the E Blues Scale in many (not all) positions on the neck. Constructing the Blues Scale All scales are made up of a pattern of intervals. Interval is a common music theory term for the distance between two notes. If you've studied scales, you may have noticed the Major Scale has a different sound than the Minor Pentatonic Scale. If you play the E Major Scale and then the D Major Scale you can hear that they sound similar. However, the Major Scale has a different vibe altogether when compared to the Minor Pentatonic Scale. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

30 E Blues Scale Introduction Constructing the Blues Scale, cont. The reason D Major and E Major scales sound similar is the pattern for all major scales is the same. The notes change, but not the pattern. However, if you move to a Minor Pentatonic Scale, the pattern changes giving you different sound entirely. Pattern of the Blues Scale The pattern of a scale is expressed in steps. How many steps up from the current note do we move to play the next note. Keep in mind that a whole step is up frets on the guitar and a half step, just one fret. The Blues Scale pattern can be written in a scale formula like this: R - W+H - W - H - H - W+H - W Starting from the root, in our case E, you'll move up / steps, then step, then /, another /, then another /, then finally a whole step. Typically, you play the scale from root to root so you'll land on the octave E. Remember that the pattern doesn't change. You can change the starting point from E to A and you'll have an A Blues Scale, but it will still be a Blues Scale. It will still have the sound that is characteristic of the Blues Scale. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

31 E Blues Scale Introduction Constructing the Blues Scale, cont. Applying the Pattern to the Guitar Now that we know where we're headed, let's put this formula to work for us on the fretboard and build the Blues Scale. Starting with the Open 6th string E note, we'll end up with this for our E Blues Scale: The notes are E - G - A - Bb - B - D - E If you are brand new to the E Blues Scale, I strongly recommend learning the scale on the low E string like I demonstrated in the video. I have found that learning the scale this way helps connect the intervals you're playing and hearing with what you are seeing. If you start playing across the fretboard in all the box patterns, etc you'll lose the visual aspect of the scale. That said, when you've learned the scale on one string and you're very comfortable with the notes of the E Blues Scale, then it's time to start playing the scale all over the neck. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

32 E Blues Scale Introduction Constructing the Blues Scale, cont. Applying the Pattern to the Guitar Here's an example of the exact same notes being played across the strings... Here's an example of the E Blues Scale being played in one octave higher than the previous two examples: In this practice guide, you'll be taken through several different spots on the neck to play the scale. I recommend running through the entire practice guide in one of your practice sessions. This will get your fingers comfortable playing in E around the neck. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

33 E Blues Scale Introduction Next Steps Once you've practiced the scale and are comfortable with where the notes are on the fretboard and the sound is stuck in your ear, then it's time to put the scale to work and learn a few licks straight out of the E Blues Scale. That's exactly what's waiting for you in the next lesson: Level Back Porch Blues. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

34 = Blues Scale (One String) E Blues Scale Practice Guide Blues Guitar Institute x x Blues Scale (Across Strings) x x Blues Scale (Higher Octave) x x Pattern 5 x x Copyright 5 Flat Five, LLC All Rights Reserved - International Copyright Secured /

35 Pattern x x Pattern x x Pattern x x /

36 Pattern x x /

37 Level Instruction In Back Porch Blues (Level ) we will work on your ability to play basic licks from the E Blues Scale while keeping the bass note pumping. Further Developing Finger Picking Independence Perhaps the biggest challenge for beginning finger pickers is gaining independence of each finger on your picking hand. While we worked previously in this course to separate the thumb from the fingers, we now need to focus heavily on making each finger on your picking hand independent. This section of Back Porch Blues is focused on playing melodically, meaning single notes versus chords. Because of this, you'll be calling on different fingers to pluck the strings. Go slowly with each bar and focus on keeping the bass going while nailing the lick. Exploring Guitar Techniques Now that we've moved into playing licks, we'll naturally throw in a few guitar techniques to really make the licks more expressive. For example, there's a slide right out of the gate in Bar of this section. Later in the progression, you will encounter pull offs and hammer ons. Pay close attention to the sound of these techniques in the video and mimic what you hear and see. A word about using these techniques: It's crucial that you make sure your pull offs, hammer ons and slides are in time. When I was beginning on the guitar, I had a tendency to rush the beat on a slide or hammer on/pull off. Keep in mind that clean playing is always in time. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

38 Level Instruction Call and Response There are many roots that run deep in the blues. For example, the concept of call and response runs rampant in the blues. Call and response is the idea that one lick asks a question and the second answers it. Musically, that means the two ideas (or licks) work together to complete one thought. We'll put this idea to work throughout this Level. For instance, the lick in bar can be viewed as an answer or response to the lick in bar one. Really listen to this two bar part to hear how they compliment each other. The more you have this ingrained in your ear, you will learn songs faster. Over time you will learn to anticipate the second lick after hearing the first. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

39 Level Instruction Tweaking the Classic Turnaround In this lesson, the turnaround is very similar to the turnaround covered in Level, but with two minor tweaks. First, the bass continues. In Level, we ignored the bass during most of the turnaround to focus on the more intricate picking required on the top three strings. In this lesson, it's time to turn up the skill level and keep that bass going. Make sure that the thumb strikes the bass string on each downbeat as shown in the video and the TAB. The second tweak to the classic turnaround is that we're departing from the strict triplet picking. Specifically, we're omitting the second sub-beat of the triplet, the 'trip' if you count it as I do. It's important to highlight that the rhythm is still there, we're just not picking the note. Leaving out that middle note gives the turnaround a slightly different vibe. It's subtle, but it should give you an idea of where you can go with the basic and that small tweaks here and there can really add some variety to your finger picking. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

40 Level Instruction Next Steps Once you can play these bars fluidly while nailing each lick in time, take a second and reflect on your accomplishment. You're now able to play some sweet blues licks in a bar blues while keeping the bass going. This is a tremendous accomplishment for the new fingerpicker and one you should be proud of. But of course, with guitar there's always more to learn, right? Now it's time to turn up the intensity a bit and get started mastering Back Porch Blues Level. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

41 Back Porch Blues Level Blues Guitar Institute Standard tuning = 8 Level E-Gt Copyright 5 Flat Five, LLC All Rights Reserved - International Copyright Secured /

42 9 /

43 Level Instruction Level of Back Porch Blues is the culmination of the concepts and skills that you've developed so far. Not only will be bring everything together into one cohesive little tune, we'll really focus on building out the licks covered in Level. Each lick will be more complicated than the corresponding lick in the previous Level. Also, the licks are occurring more rapidly in time. So the call and response idea for instance happens in bar rather than being stretched out over two full bars. This will challenge both hands. By now your thumb should be used to playing the driving beat and hopefully, you're thumb is getting closer to "auto-pilot." Next Steps The concepts we've explored here apply to many blues songs. This course, while being a cool little ditty in its own right, will serve as a jumping off point for tackling other tunes. Level takes you beyond the basics and arms you with some cool licks. If you nailed every note of this little ditty then it's safe to say you're playing at a solid intermediate level. Great work! If you haven't gotten every note perfect, I encourage you to keep at it. deliberate practice, you'll get it. With Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

44 Final Thoughts Congratulations on making it through the entire 6 Bar course taking you through Back Porch Blues. Let's recap what we've covered. Course Summary Early on, we covered three chords that are an absolute must for any blues picker, the E7, A7 and B7. We even took the E7 chord one step further by learning an alternate shape. We also covered quite a few guitar techniques that you'll find yourself using daily as an acoustic blues finger picker. Techniques like the palm mute, chromatic chord movements, hammer ons and pull offs were all utilized in this 6 bar tune. In Level and, we started to build your lick vocabulary by introducing several call and response licks taken from the E Blues Scale. Picking out these licks helped build finger independence while focusing on developing a melody. By level, we were really cookin' with some more challenging licks. Playing licks is great and certainly is a lot of fun, but let's not lose sight of keeping the driving beat going with your thumb. The ability to pump out a stead bass with the thumb is a constant in many types of finger picking blues. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

45 Back Porch Blues Level Blues Guitar Institute Standard tuning = 8 Level E-Gt ¼ 7 8 ¼ 5 6 ¼ 7 8 Copyright 5 Flat Five, LLC All Rights Reserved - International Copyright Secured /

46 9 ¼ 5 /

47 Final Thoughts BACK PORCH BLUES Next Steps Playing guitar is a long-term pursuit and the only way to fail is to quit. Keep working and you'll improve, I sure of it. If any part of this course is giving you trouble, be sure to go back to that particular lesson and spend as much time as you need to get it down. How fast or slow you learn a part doesn't matter. What matters is progress. What matters is growth. What matters is that you keep playing. Work Hard. Play On. Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

48 BLUES GUITAR INSTITUTE Thank You! I wanted to let the final word in this course be a heartfelt thank you from me to you. It s no small thing to me that you took the time out of your life to connect with me through Blues Guitar Institute. I truly hope that this course has helped you smooth out some trouble spots you may have had in your playing. Even more than that, I hope you thoroughly enjoyed learning this material. This course was a joy to put together and I want to encourage you to use it as a resource to better your playing but beyond that, use me personally as a resource. Your guitar coach. This site and these lessons are my passion and I m % committed to helping you achieve your goals on the guitar. I invite you to connect with me through the BGI Community Forums where we can continue the journey. To your success, John Hatcher Flat Five, LLC 5 - All Rights Reserved

49 //Work Hard. Play On.