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 go to: petemadsenguitar.com
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GUITAR CLASSES JUNE 2022

The Guitar of Mississippi John Hurt

On line

Six Wednesdays

7-8:30pm

Starting Wednesday, June 8

Price: $175

For those of you looking to shore up your fingerstyle blues game: learning to play Mississippi John Hurt songs can go a long way towards gaining the skills and confidence to make you a better acoustic blues player. Hurt’s relentless bass lines were the foundation of his sound and gave the beautiful melodies he played a rhythmic drive. In almost every song you will hear the thumb-driven bass lines anchoring the propulsive beat. Participants should have some experience playing fingerstyle blues with an alternating bass.

Songs:

Stagolee

Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor

Stocktime

Candy Man

Frankie

Spike Driver Blues

The Guitar of Freddie King

On-line

Six Thursdays

7:30 -9pm

Starting Wednesday, June 9

Price: $175

One of my favorite, if not my favorite, electric blues player, Freddie King produced some incredible blues instrumentals in the early 1960s. One of the Texas-based Kings, along with B.B. and Albert, Freddie’s blues were a swing-infused joy ride. Learning King’s blues instrumentals will give you a vocabulary of blues licks and phrases that you can carry into your blues playing for future jams and compositions. In addition to learning  FK’s lick-driven lines we will also create backing rhythms for the songs to fully understand the relationship between the guitar phrases and chordal structure.

 

Songs:

Hideaway

The Stumble

San-ho-zay

Sen-sa-tion

Heads Up

Jamming the Blues

*in person*

at Timbre Folk 801 Bancroft, Berkeley, CA

Six Saturdays

10:30-12:30pm

starting Saturday June 11

Price $200

For guitar players who want to learn how play a 12 bar blues in various keys. We will take a basic 12 bar blues as our background format and use ideas based on scales, riffs and chord shapes to learn both rhythm and lead playing. 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! Some background in playing blues rhythm is useful, but other than that just a desire to put some heart (and muscle!) into your guitar playing. If you have taken “Jamming” before this will be an opportunity to review some of the material as well as learn some NEW stuff.

*Participants are required to be vaccinated and boosted and masks can be worn if desired. Participants must also be comfortable being in an enclosed room with 5-8 other people for two hours.

CONTACT PETE TO SIGN UP:

BUZZYFRETS@YAHOO.COM

 

 

 TrueFire

Update: May 6, 2022

TrueFire channel is still live and growing. The latest lessons include Memphis Minnie's "Drunken Barrelhouse Blues," and  "Using a Metronome for Fingerstyle Blues."TrueFire

Check out my True Fire channel: access to lots of TABS, videos and acoustic blues guitar education. The focus is on fingerstyle blues. Learn to play:

• alternating bass

• monotonic bass

• slide guitar

• open tunings

• Lots and Lots of songs!

There over 200 videos and over a 150 TABS

Pete's Fingerstyle Blues Academy

 

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

 

 

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