Slide in Open G, Part 2: Damping and Pick Blocking

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

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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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19 complete blues songs to play
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Little Boy Blue

Slide in Open G, Part 1: “Little Boy Blue”

Slide in Open G, Part 2: Damping and Pick Blocking

Slide in Open G, Part 3: “Little Boy Blue” Accompaniment

Slide in Open G, Part 4: “Little Boy Blue” Solo

Slide in Open G, Part 2: Damping and Pick Blocking

To play the intro to “Little Boy Blue” cleanly and suppress unwanted slide noise, you’ll need to work on your damping and pick blocking. Orville shows you how to damp the strings behind the slide, and gives you an exercise to practice pick blocking with the picking hand, another way to produce cleaner notes with the slide.

Previous Lesson

← Slide in Open G, Part 1: “Little Boy Blue”

Next Lesson

Slide in Open G, Part 3: “Little Boy Blue” Accompaniment →

Previous Lesson

← Slide in Open G, Part 1: “Little Boy Blue”

Next Lesson

Slide in Open G, Part 3: “Little Boy Blue” Accompaniment →

Previous Lesson

← Slide in Open G, Part 1: “Little Boy Blue”

Next Lesson

Slide in Open G, Part 3: “Little Boy Blue” Accompaniment →