Over the span of ten one-hour lessons, students will study the following:
- The five-note West African scale which, combined with Western musical concepts, defines the vocabulary of blues guitar. The 8, 12, and 16 bar blues forms.
- The earliest blues, based on a simple melody using that scale.
- The Delta Blues (what it is, where it’s at, and how to play it).
- East Coast, or Piedmont style blues.
- Texas Blues, lesson one. Henry Thomas, Lightnin’ Hopkins.
- The East Coast Blues move to Nashville. Merle Travis.
- West Coast Blues. Texas transplants T-Bone Walker , Charles Brown and PeeWee Crayton, Oklahoma transplant Lowell Fulson all move to California and develop a jazzy, sophisticated style which could still make the joint jump.
- Delta Blues goes to Chicago. Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and other Delta musicians migrate north and adapt their music to the city.
- Open Tunings and slide guitar techniques.
- Blues in the Sixties and beyond: Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder, Canned Heat, The Rolling Stones, SRV and more.
We will take one tune each week exemplifying the topic and learn it. There will be a simple tablature and audio sample available for each lesson.
Instructor
Tim Williams
Inspired by the Hillbilly and Western Swing music he heard as a child, Tim absorbed late Fifties Rhythm & Blues and Rock & Roll, Hawaiian and Mexican music, early Sixties Folk, and Bluegrass “like a sponge” before discovering a passion for traditional blues styles which was fueled by seing many first generation blues musicians live during the “Blues Boom” of the mid and late Sixties.
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The Academy
Opening January 2020, this new space will house all our classes and will feature an array of some of the best private lesson teachers in the city.