This is DVD II of Stefan Grossman's How to play Blues Guitar lesson 2. I believe the 3 part set should have really been called How to Play Finger style Blues Guitar instead.
It runs about 1:15 min and is wonderful if you have finger picking skills. If you don't have these skills you could conceivably pick them up here if you tried hard enough.
The way to do that is to start to play the chords he is playing C-G-D-Eb7th in the first example. On the beat mostly and doing the alternating bass with your flat pick.
This is one of the best exercises you can do in general for your rhythm guitar foundation. If you don't have one one already go on get yourself a metronome. Here is one combined with a tuner another essential guitar tool.
The beat is quarter notes for the right hand with your thumb playing the alternating bass notes on the One and Three and then on the "AND" count (also know as the up stroke) for the plucked melody notes. Its multi tasking and you can do it if you let yourself remember how and use the Time to make the effort.
At least that's what I tell my self looking for an easier way. On the high strings you will learn to play with your little finger and fore finger. Then just when you think you can do that 'in time' you can get funky and syncopate.
I could be wrong but syncopating you are a little late in articulating the note or a little early but still within the legal limits. This after you get good at fingerpicking. Then you can start to play with it. You get that feeling!
Stefan Grossman's repertoire in this presentation are tunes (invented really) by such cool finger stylist blues phenomenon as Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Rev. Gary Davis, Tommie and Lonnie Johnson (from whom Robert Johnson was influenced) and he also sings.
So Stefan is famous as a musicologist but is he a good guitar teacher? I can not give an unequivocal Yes answer to that. There is a .PDF file on it. To his credit Stefan usually has a quality pamphlet. You are going to need that,
Stefan combines his vast knowledge of this type of finger style guitar with his ability to play but spends too much time on the left hand never playing anything particularly difficult when its the right hand he should be talking about.
Is this the best way to learn this kind of guitar playing? I don't think so. I have about ten more of his guitar lessons and am still looking for the one where he actually teaches us the right hand. If you look at the menu below you will see where it says "split screen" after each tune. This is where you get to see both hands playing the song. You see his right hand fingerpicking so that's a big help combined with the pamphlet. I wish the whole guitar lesson incorporated that feature.
I'll let you know of all Stefans which is the best one for a beginner and see how its stacks up to my preferred choices thus far.
You can learn a lot here but if you cant fingerpick worth a hoot what good does it do you? Plenty if you can play rhythm guitar with a pick.
You'll learn how the melodies work mechanically. Is this the DVD to do that with I wonder? Its a definite possibility.
There are also 15 bonus audio tracks from between 1927-1937 By people mentioned above and Josh White, Blind Boy Fuller, Pearl Dickson, Walter Coleman and Willie Lofton. Those themselves are an education in country blues mastery. What's cool is he often has two or three versions of the same song by differing artists for example: 'Mama let Me Lay it on You' is performed by Walter Coleman and Blind Boy Fuller and Rev. Gary Davis. This I have to admit is a unique feature I haven't seen before. They each do it their own way or a they say have their own arrangement
For spanking new beginners I recommend this finger style guitar picking DVD in its place as it has lays a better foundation to build upon. I recommend others too. Now I go on to review DVD III of this three part finger picking blues guitar series.
Fall seven times and stand up eight. – Japanese Proverb