October 9, 2020

Blues was the opening theme today, St. Louis Blues to be specific. I recently had a couple students working on this W.C. Handy classic, mostly as done by John Fahey on his first album, now released as The Legend Of Blind Joe Death. This led to a later demonstration of some Dropped D stuff and a mini lesson on modes, so stick around till the bitter end for that.

Our recent releases this week included The Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix, a combination lesson on versions of The Letter by both The Box Tops and Joe Cocker, and my fingerpicking arrangement of Can’t Buy Me Love. I hope some of you take a look at that and give me an idea of how hard you think it is. I labeled it advanced but with one slight change I think it classifies as intermediate, so don’t get scared off.

Coming up we have a look at Dream On by Aerosmith, a classical lesson on Andante, a piece by Carulli, and we will start a long series of theory lessons called Fretboard Freedom.

By the end I got back in Dropped D and did a little improvising that started with the mode demonstration and threw in a bit of Embryonic Journey and my piece Cobble Creek. I hope you find something educational or entertaining in there.

Back next week,

Neil