learnacousticblues

WELCOME to Learn Blues Guitar Now!

The site is dedicated to guitar education. If you are trying to find out about Pete Madsen's shows, cds, and  musical projects got to: petemadsenguitar.com

SUMMER 2019 GUITAR CLASSES AT THE FREIGHT AND SALVAGE AND Timbre Folk 2019

Freight and Salvage

Fingerpicking the Blues

Six Wednesdays, 7-8:15pm. Starts July 10

$130 early bird

Do you love the playing of Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Son House or Delta and Piedmont blues in general? Unlock the mystery of the right hand in blues fingerpicking. This class is designed for the beginning blues fingerpicker: you will learn about playing a constant bass with your thumb over a melody line played with your fingers. First we will learn about “dead-thumb” – playing a single string bass, with melody notes played on other strings. Then we will try an “alternating bass” – a bass that travels between two or more strings. The bass in early blues recordings drove the music with a“chug” and a “bounce” that helped give the music its special rhythmic characteristics.

Participants should have knowledge of first position guitar chords and some fingerpicking experience is useful…beyond that just a love of blues and a desire to learn is all that is needed.
 

Grooving and Jamming the Blues

~Blues Rhythm and Soloing~

Six Wednesdays, 8:30-9:45pm, begins July 10

For guitar players who want to learn how to play rhythm and 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  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.

 

To register contact the Freight and Salvage

2020 Addison St. Berkeley, CA,

 www.thefreight.org, (510)644-2020

SUMMER GUITAR CLASSES 2019!!!

at Timbre Folk

801 Bancroft

Berkeley, CA

 

PETE'S BLUES JAM FOR GUITAR
10:30-1pm

TIME: Saturdays: 10:30-1pm

Starting July 20— six weeks

$200

at Timbre Folk and Baroque

This Session’s Theme: Chord Tone Soloing
The PBJ is an extended class/jam — 2.5 hours — where I will teach various techniques and blues structures, which we will apply in a jam-type setting. We will cover rhythm playing: chords, swing and accents; lead playing: scales, phrasing, partial chords. We have a lot of fun. It’s a structured outline but with plenty of time for folks to comment and discuss ideas, and get feedback from each other and myself. If you are looking to expand your blues guitar playing and want to have some fun feel free to contact me.
 

Rock of the 70s

70's Rock
Six Thursdays, 7:30-9pm
Begins July 11
Price : $175 for full session
This time out the focus will be fingerpicking, but with a few strummers thrown in along the way.  Songs will include:
Black Water (Doobie Bros.)
Long Train Running
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)
Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
Sweet Baby James
Dust in the Wind (Kansas)
and more...
The class will run six consecutive weeks. I realize that folks have summer plans and may only be able to attend a few of the classes or only one or two so I will price it accordingly:
6 weeks -- $175
3 weeks -- $100
Drop in -- $35 each session


 

I also teach private lessons at my studio in Berkeley. E-mail or call me for rates and availability.

 

NEW TRUE FIRE CHANNEL!

Check out my new True Fire channel: access to lots of TABS, videos and acoustic blues guitar education:

Pete's Fingerstyle Blues Academy

 

Order the latest book: Play the Blues Like...

This book shows you how to play in the style of 12 different blues and blues-inspired artists, such as: Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Skip James, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Memphis

Minnie, and many more. The book was written in conjunction with Acoustic Guitar magazine and published by Hal Leonard.

 

WHAT PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY ABOUT PETE MADSEN'S TEACHING:

I'm a beginning guitar player and have been Pete's student for a few months and wanted to write him up here because I couldn't imagine having found a better teacher. I tried a few other people before going to Pete and the difference is amazing. While most guitar teachers know how to play, Pete also knows how to teach.
He's great at explaining things, great at showing technique, he sends an audio recording of each lesson to your email address (a HUGE help), and teaches you songs that you want to play. In addition to all this his rates are good and he's a cool, easy-going, guitar-loving guy…
--private student

looked forward to the class every week. Even though we were at different skill levels, Pete provided each of us with personal attention which inspired us all to practice. It was fun and rewarding to see myself (and all the other students) improve over the period of the class. Highly recommended!
Bob, student from class


Pete Madsen’s blues guitar classes at the Freight are just great! You learn a lot, and it is incredible fun. I honestly cannot get enough!
– student from class


i been playing for quite a while but not correct finger picking cant sink so this is nice and clear teaching i too think this is one of the best thanks bro
– youtube comment

Thanks for the good video on_ your blues lesson. You explained clearly and broke it down just enough keep up the blues lessons friend God bless

jo bro you helped me so much understand more about_ fingerpicking and syncopation. please keep on teaching man, your one of the best around…
--youtube comment




Took Pete’s Acoustic Blues class.......it was everything I hoped for. He really helped me wrap my head around the fingerpicking that had eluded me for years....thanks again!
I'm looking forward to studying with him again in the future.
-- student from class