Slide Guitar Basics, Part 1

This lesson is part of the course Blues Guitar with Orville Johnson.

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About This Course

Become a complete blues player through these lessons in country blues fingerpicking, blues lead guitar, and bottleneck slide, with great technique lessons and blues songs from Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, and more.

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Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor

In this lesson you’ll learn a fingerstyle arrangement of the folk-blues classic “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor” inspired by the playing of Mississippi John Hurt. Orville plays the song through and then explains the guitar part phrase by phrase. He also explains how you can alter the lengths of some of the chords, depending on how you hear the song, something that John Hurt and other great blues singers and guitarists did all the time.

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The Blues Guitar Subscription Includes:

27 video lessons
Instruction in three styles of the blues: lead, bottleneck, and fingerstyle
19 complete blues songs to play
Notation and tablature for all lessons
High-quality video with multiple camera angles so you can see closeups of both hands in action.

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Slide Basics

Slide Guitar Basics, Part 1

Slide Guitar Basics, Part 2: Damping

Slide Guitar Basics, Part 3: Your First Slide Tune

Slide Guitar Basics, Part 1

Orville tells you everything you need to know to get started with slide, including advice about choosing and fitting a slide and deciding which finger to put it on. You’ll also learn to play major scale and minor scales on the first string.

Major and Minor Scales (Available to subscribers)

Previous Lesson

← Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 4: Syncopation

Next Lesson

Slide Guitar Basics, Part 2: Damping →

Previous Lesson

← Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 4: Syncopation

Next Lesson

Slide Guitar Basics, Part 2: Damping →

Previous Lesson

← Country Blues Fingerpicking Basics, Part 4: Syncopation

Next Lesson