If you want to play like Stevie Ray or Freddie King,
you need to absorb the invisible presence buried
deep in every one of their guitar riffs...
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The true king of Texas Blues is Lightnin' Hopkins. You'll learn all the basics, and many of the secrets
and tricks of the acoustic Texas boogie guitar style.
Yes, you'll go right to the source of Texas blues and learn
(lick by lick) from the master who inspired generations of guitar heroes.
You'll learn some hot stuff like:
- Easy shuffle grooves that make you sound like a pro in no time...
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- Several cool turnaround variations that you can apply to almost any
blues... Yes, it is super-fun to enrich your "blues vocabulary"
with slick variations.
- And speaking of variations, you'll get a bunch of easy-to-apply
bass-note shuffle runs and guitar break riffs. Mix these up
and create your own blues guitar magic.
- The art of the slow blues... It's all about using these
tried and true shapes and voicings. Just follow along
with the tabs and its as simple as eating Grandma's apple pie.
Lightnin' Hopkins (1912 - 1982)
The true king of Texas Blues is Lightnin' Hopkins.
In fact, he's in the top 100 greatest guitarists of all time
according to Rolling Stone. His style was born from spending many hours playing
informally without a backing band, and his distinctive fingerstyle playing
often included playing bass, rhythm, lead, percussion, and
vocals, all at the same time. It has been estimated that he
recorded between 800 and 1000 songs during his career.
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For each song, you'll get several useful variations for the verse,
the turnaround, and different guitar break ideas. These
are powerful plug-and-play ideas that you can use immediately.
Add some sweet blues tunes to your repertoire including:
Pull a Party, Goin' Down Slow, Shining Moon, Baby Please Don't Go, and Take Me Back.
And that's just on DVD 1. Onto the next legend:
One of the all-time great Delta bluesmen...Mississippi John Hurt was famous for his fingerpicking style.
You'll learn cool stuff like:
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How to play beautiful blues guitar using the alternating bass technique.
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Make masterful sounds using only a few basic chords. The magic is in the right hand! Again, the tabs make it straightforward to learn.
- Discover a treasure chest of blues, including 8 bar, 10 bar, and 12 bar arrangements
in many different keys.
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Mississippi John Hurt (1893 - 1966)
Mississippi John Hurt had a universal appeal as
a guitarist, and was one of the most influential
country blues musicians. He played with fast, syncopated fingerpicking
style that he taught himself. He recorded in the 1920s,
but his rediscovery in the 1960s helped further the American folk music revival,
which had led to the discovery of many other bluesmen of the era.
Songs recorded by Hurt have been covered by Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia,
Beck, Doc Watson, and other household names.
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Soulful melodies and syncopated runs are the hallmark of this
blues style, which you'll learn how to master in record time.
Learn more great blues tunes like Spike Driver Blues, My Creole Belle,
Monday Morning Blues, Slidin' Delta, See See Rider, Louis Collins, and Frankie.
We're just getting warmed up. Remember, this package is all
about multiple styles of mastery. Here's the next one for you:
Furry Lewis was a superb guitar player with a rhythmic strength and fluency
that was all his own. He was one of the greatest blues improvisers of all time.
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- Learn his trademark "double up" beats that gets any crowd excited and riled up.
- You'll get both some impressively complex arrangements and also
some really simple ones that you can use instantly. Pick and choose which pieces to learn,
including some of the greatest country blues pieces ever.
- Discover tons of special techniques to make your bass runs strong,
your thumbwork solid, and your fingerpicking flow.
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Furry Lewis (1893 - 1981)
Furry Lewis was a songwriter and blues guitarist from Memphis, Tennessee,
where he lived and performed for much of his life.
Lewis was a stellar showman with a gift for superb guitar playing, improvisation,
and storytelling. He sometimes fingerpicked, and sometimes played with a slide, and he recorded for
several prominent lablels in the 20s. Later, the folk blues revival brought
Furry out of retirement, and he went on to record more tracks
in the 1960s. Before he died, Lewis opened twice for the Rolling Stones,
and played on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show.
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- BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA! Cool broken chord riffs that create killer textures.
- Load up your arsenal with a large repertoire of legendary blues riffs.
Plus, learn some
epic blues songs, including:
Dryland Blues, Mistreating Mama Blues, Billy Lyons and Stack O'Lee, I
Will Turn Your Money Green, Kassie Jones, and Rock Island Blues.
What's next? I'll tell you what's next:
Blind Boy Fuller had a unique brand of country blues playing, which
is chock full of wit and soulfulness. One of the most powerful
blues guitarists of the 1930s.
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Even though this legend has passed on, you can
learn great tricks from him, such as:
- How to weave together different elements like chords,
picking patterns, and chromatic slides.
- Easy to play, but powerfully effective single note runs.
- Funky old-school blues chords that will breathe new life into your playing.
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Blind Boy Fuller (1907 - 1941)
Blind Boy Fuller was an expressive vocalist and a masterful blues guitar player.
He started out playing on street corners and house parties in North Carolina. After
developing a following he recorded over 120 sides with the American Recording Company
and become one of the most popular of the recorded east coast blues artists.
He played a steel National resonator guitar, and was famous for his ability to fuse together elements
of traditional and contemporary songs and reformulate them into his own performances, including
many uptempo hits.
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You'll love these intense new blues songs: Untrue Blues,Jivin Woman Blues,
Pistol Slapper Blues, Funny Feeling Blues, Meat Shakin' Woman, and Truckin'
My Blues Away.
There's more blues magic with our next master:
Big Bill Broonzy recorded in the 20s, the 30s, the 40s, and the 50's.
He was another master of acoustic blues guitar. Here's what you'll discover:
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Create amazing blues patterns by combining open strings and
chord chunks.
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Loads of great ideas you can use to create your own blues
riffs and songs including wide intervals, alternate
chords, and more.
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Virtually unknown chord shapes that will blow your mind.
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Big Bill Broonzy (1898 - 1958)
Big Bill Broonzy was a prolific blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s playing
country blues. Through the 30s and 40s he played a more urban blues sound. In the 1950s, a return to his
traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international star.
His long and varied career marks him as one of the key figures in the development of blues music in the 20th century.
Broonzy copyrighted more than 300 songs during his lifetime, including both adaptations of traditional folk songs and original blues songs.
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Big Bill gives you super simple single note runs that sound like a dream,
as well as thick, juicy 1-man-band type arrangements.
Add a whole slew of classic blues songs to your setlist, including Moppers Blues, Pig Meat Strut, Long Tail
Mama, Hey Hey, Worried Man Blues, Saturday Night Rub, Brownskin Shuffle, How You Want It Done,
Mississippi River Blues, and Worrying You Off My Mind.
And last, but not least...
Blind Blake was a true Guitar God of his time.
Maybe the most virtuosic guitarist of the bunch -- he had a killer alternating bass style, but supercharged
it with more complex blues and rhythmic ideas.
Learn some of his killer techniques, like:
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- Unique right hand thumb rolls.
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Twisting, turning blues arpeggios.
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More cool chordal structures that will expand your
blues kung fu mastery.
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Blind Blake (1893 - 1933)
Blind Blake recorded about 80 tracks for Paramount Records between 1926 and 1932.
He was one of the most accomplished guitarists of his genre with a surprisingly diverse range of material.
He is best known for his distinct guitar sound that was comparable in sound and style to a ragtime piano,
with complex and intricate finger picking. He is often called "The King of Ragtime Guitar", and
he extended the alternating bass style, that was popular at the turn of the century,
to encompass the dance trends and more complex blues and rhythmic ideas
that were emerging from the jazz bands of New Orleans and Chicago.
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