Post 11

 Howdy Folks,

We have been cruising along with our Saturday Jams at the Freight and Salvage; adding some new tunes to the repetoire such as "Sitting on Top of the World," "When You Got a Good Friend," "Chump Man Blues," and a few others.

I should also tell you that there Bluegrass jams on Sunday at the Freight  run by my friend, Ran Bush. If you like Bluegrass you can check out that jam or one of the several Bluegrass jams that the 5th String offers. So dust off of that dobro, mandolin or banjo and get down there!

Often times we have been only guitar players at the jam (come on all you mandolins, fiddles, harps and others!), so I have taken the opportunity to talk about rhythm playing. In the class I have been teaching, "Grooving and Jamming the Blues," we talk about layering the sound; creating different guitar parts to compliment each other. For instance, if one guitarist is playing a shuffle rhythm, someone else can play a walking bass line and another can play 7th or 9th chord accents. This can make for a full band sound. In a jam or when playing with others listen to what others are playing and try experimenting with other parts that compliment the sound.

A couple of calendar notes: This week we will have our regular jam on Saturday from 1-3pm. The following week, UPDATE: the October 27 jam is ON, and will be hosted by Gabriel Olin. The week following that. November 3 there will be a FREE shorter jam from 1-2pm. I will also be previewing my upcoming sessions of classes at the Freight that day from 12-1pm. The next session classes are described below:

MASTERS OF EARLY BLUES GUITAR

Wednesdays : 7-8:15pm


In this class we will focus on a different early blues guitarist each week; learning two or three songs from their repertoire and discovering what made them masters of the instrument. Players will include: Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Blake, Son House and Mance Lipscomb. Songs will include: Crossroad Blues, 32-20 Blues, Stag-o-lee, Satisfied and Tickled Too, Hey, Hey, Saturday Night Rub, Pig Meat Strut, Diddie Wah Diddie, Police Dog Blues, Death Letter Blues, Charley James and more. We will play in standard as well as open G and D tunings. Participants should be able to play some fingerstyle blues (alternating bass/monotonic bass).

JAMMING THE BLUES
Thursdays 7-8:15pm

For guitar players who want to learn how to solo over blues changes. We will take a basic 12 bar blues as our background format and use ideas based on scales, riffs and chord shapes to learn the art of soloing. This will be a lot of fun for those folks who have a little background in playing blues rhythms, but want to create lead lines that are rippin! Learn classic solo lines from players like Robert Johnson, Eric Clapton and many more. Some background in playing blues rhythm required, but other than that just a desire to put some heart (and muscle!) into your guitar playing.

BLUES GUITAR IN OPEN TUNINGS

Thursdays 8:30-9:45pm

In this class we will play strictly in open tunings. We will explore some of the great songs from blues masters such as Robert Johnson, Skip James, Son House and others. We will learn some exercises meant to stimulate our own creativity in open tunings. Some of tunings we will look at are: open D, open G, open C, open D minor and others if time permits. We will be playing mainly fingerstyle (using an alternating bass), but might do a little strumming, as well. Participants should have some familiarity with blues fingerpicking.





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