This month Stuart Ryan heads up the issue with a special feature showing how you can ditch your pick and still play some of the most exciting blues.
The world of acoustic blues fingerpicking has a rich heritage dating back to the late 19th century. Over that time techniques and patterns have been developed and refined, tunings explored and styles generated. In this feature you’ll discover how 10 great players found their own voice with acoustic blues. Some, like Blind Blake, were pioneers of the style while others have learned from the forefathers and discovered their own take on the genre.
Fingerstyle blues developed in America in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Virtuoso pickers were inspired by the sound of ragtime piano players and set about trying to mimic the approach on acoustic guitar. The result is challenging, since you must coordinate basslines, chords and melodies simultaneously at varying tempos. Legends like Robert Johnson and Blind Blake would then use this approach to accompany their vocals -if the guitar playing wasn’t hard enough then try singing along to it!
There are many sub genres within fingerstyle blues, from the uptempo, harder ragtime sound of the early players to the softer, folk blues sound of artists from the 1950s to the 1960s. Some players stripped the sound back to feature a simple bassline and melody approach while others allowed altered tunings to do more of the work, letting them play out of chord shapes with simple modifications to fingerings. When learning this style, aim to separate each voice so you are aware of what it’s doing and which finger is producing the sound. For example, you may try isolating a bassline and then working on picking it with just the thumb.
One of the main challenges with the style is syncopation, notes that don’t fall on the beat. Playing on the ‘and’ of a beat after a bass note really creates the illusion of two instruments playing at once, and at the more challenging end some players will play offbeats with the 16th-note subdivisions -if you are counting ‘1 e + a’ then this means aiming for the ‘e’ and the ‘a’.
Finally, don’t be afraid to go for a big ‘raw’ sound with lots of attack. Authentic acoustic blues is loud and sometimes even brash, so dig in but make sure you never lose sight of the all-important groove!
NEXT MONTH For next month’s Christmas issue, Stuart tackles The Holly And The Ivy
