Blues fingerstyle, or ragtime fingerstyle tunes/repertoire ideas

nickp · March 2021

any ideas of sources of repertoire?

As I can't sing then it's fingerstyle tunes. Intermediate preferred - I'm probably upper intermediate (grade 8/9 on a good day but a little out of practice) but I wan't some easier material that doesn't take months to perfect. I've got some books by Rick Payne which have fairly short studies in them and I've just learned on of the rag tunes which is enjoyable

muchas gracias

digitalkettle · March 2021

Truefire cover this pretty well: https://truefire.com/educators/david-hamburger/e48

BluesLover · March 2021

I'm a big fan of Griff Hamlin and his website "blues guitar unleashed". There are two courses I've been using for a couple of years now and can recommend. First try "acoustic blues guitar unleashed" subtitled playing on the porch style blues, then try "how to jam the blues alone on your guitar". His video lessons are excellent. They're not free, but are very good value for money.

jhumber · March 2021

digitalkettle said:

Truefire cover this pretty well: https://truefire.com/educators/david-hamburger/e48

Saw the thread title and came in to post this. Specifically David Hamburger's "New School Fingerstyle Blues" course sounds like a good fit here: https://truefire.com/acoustic-guitar-lessons/new-school-blues/c18 - I really enjoyed learning a number of the pieces, and they've stayed in my repertoire for a few years now.

nickp · March 2021

thanks folks for the ideas - I have a truefire sub so i'll have a look at the hamburger suggestion - I know his name from somewhere....I'll also have a bugchers at Griff @BluesLover thanks. All I need to do is find a tune that I like, the tab and audio and it's happy days (many generally)

DB1 · March 2021

Yep - Griff Hamlin and David Hamburger would be my two recommendations.

Gandalph · March 2021

Worth taking a look at Toby Walkers website too, he’s got some really good lessons and has regular sales. I’ve just worked through his Piedmont blues songs, fancy a bit of Robert Johnson next.

Andy79 · March 2021

Look up the early blues guys who were filmed in the 60s revival, plenty of ideas and material there

Lewy · March 2021

The book “Fingerstyle Blues Songbook” by Steve James has tonnes of great material in it.

BahHumbug · March 2021

Duck Baker’s Fingerstyle Blues 101 (book) has a variety of excellent pieces in it, The RGT graded them between grades 5 and 8. IIRC there’s one tune at each of grades 5 and 6, 2 or 3 at grade 7 and a few at grade 8.

Toms_Dad · March 2021

There's loads in here under the tabs section. Some are really good.
Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar Page

vasselmeyer · March 2021

I have some really good DVDs(!) from The Guitar Workshop with Stefan Grossman. I'm sure they're on some kind of digital download service somewhere. They're superb and if you're advanced you could drop into the middle of the classes.

DavidR · March 2021

Take a look at musicnoteslib.com and search Blind Blake, Elizabeth Cotten, Etta Baker, Stefan Grossman, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Skip James, Blind Boy Fuller, Mike Seeger, W C Handy, Jackson C Frank. (P.S. re vassels's entry above - a lot of Stefan Grossman's stuff is actually from Rev Gary Davis, of whom he was a student.)

Much more. Surprisingly good Blues/Ragtime(-ish) pieces from the likes of e.g Joan Baez, James Taylor.

From your OP my first stop would be Elizabeth Cotten. Some wonderful Piedmont Blues classics of moderate difficulty but much beauty.

On the Musicnoteslib.com website only select the GuitarPro scores. Other scores are just simple chordal tabs or piano scores. It's a really great source to mine. I'm still finding stuff after several years! All free and easy to print off .pdf option.

(Gift idea. Not Blues/Ragtime but take a look at 'Kiss The Rain' by Korean composer Yiruma. One of the most beautiful pieces for acoustic I've found this year.)

Have fun

nickp · March 2021

I almost feel like I should reply in a fake down home onna porch drawl to this thread now. Starting at the top I had a look at David Hamburger and his new fingerstyle blues course - and that's where I stopped as there are some lovely tunes and some good explanations of why certain shapes and positions are being played. So I haven't got to look at the rest yet otherwise i'll have a brain fart from information overload.

I'm going to start with his excellent course.

thankee folks (american drawl)

koss59 · March 2021

I wrote a little ragtime piece for a student of mine.
I’ve probably got some rough tab for it somewhere if you like it enough to learn.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLv5A8jHogz/

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Blues fingerstyle, or ragtime fingerstyle tunes/repertoire ideas

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