Hi. Eric Madis from JamPlay.com, again.
I am picking up where we left off in our last lesson in which we worked on the country blues double wham.
It's a very common lick.
Again, it was on the seventh and eighth frets of the first two strings and we had three different endings for it.
One in which we played the open strings which gave us the option of course of going anywhere on the fret board.
In other words, if I do this… It allows me time to be able to move.
The other one that was for playing downward on the neck was one in which we dropped down the index finger, down two frets.
In other words, we dropped down in this case to the fifth fret but still on the second string like this…
And this is especially good if you continue to go… Down.
So that is one other strategy and in the third strategy is where we stay where we are in third position.
Positions are something we are going to talk about more in upcoming lessons.
So in some cases the way that you end the lick will allow you to continue moving and one of the things we find in any style of music
but this is true in blues is when it comes to improvisation you want to be able to use fingers
and place your fingers in places where you can always hit the ground running.
Where you can continue to play.
Where the physical act of playing the instrument does not impede with your mental processes and that's very important.
I've known a lot of students who can play the notes the right way and get the sound but then way they finger it paints themselves into a corner.
In that case they end up having to regroup, having to reposition their hand in order to be able to continue on with their ideas
and that momentary lapse is enough to stop the flow of thoughts.
You want to be able to improvise so that however you think at that moment, you can go.
Anyway, let's pick up where we are on that.
If we take that same blues double wham and we move it up three frets to the tenth and the eleventh frets, respectively, of the first two strings.
And resolve it on E. In other words, the top E.
In other words, we use our ring finger and we strike the twelfth fret on the first string.
This is another really nice lick for E.
So this is double wham number two and a lot of these ideas I got from Lightnin Hopkins, as I've mentioned in the past.
So we have double wham number one.
Number two.
Now you can do some nice things with these licks too that you might want to think about.
For instance here's kind of like a harmonica like approach to that double wham number one.
Now the way that you can do that is by first place you have to vibrato it
and in other words, vibrato-ing, again is what I've said before it's you need to have the thumb on the side of the neck, not over the top of the neck
too much but some so that the joint here presses against the side of the neck
and then allow the wrist to turn like you're turning a door knob backwards.
Then while you do vibrato-ing , you pick between the second and first strings.
So down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down. Using your right hand technique.
Or if you're fingerpicking, alternate with your two fingers. Like that.
Either way you can accomplish the same thing.
Same thing can be done with double wham number two.
So these are both really nice, authentic blues licks that you can add to your repertoire
and you can develop more and more really authentic country blue licks.
Now you may have noticed by now that before I play the lick, I always strike the tonic string, the low one.
Now there's a reason for this.
First place I'm not fingerpicking where I keep a constant bass on.
It's good to develop the habit of being able to strike the bass string before you play a lick.
Now that doesn't mean that you would do it every time or even every other time
but a bass note played strategically in the right place when you're flatpicking is a very effective way
of being able to accompaniment yourself when you're playing solo
and when you're flat picking solo you need everything that you can to be able to fill the sound up and make the sound as bottom heavy as you can.
Since you're not fingerpicking steadily like you would in a piedmont style or Texas style of blues.
So it's a good idea every time you do a lick, as you practice them, to hit that low E or that low A or whatever the tonic string is
and use that to fill in behind you and it'll not only help you to blend your licks in better but it will help you as you start improvising freely
to be able to insert that bass note whenever you have time and you see fit to make the sound fuller and more bottom heavy.
Thanks. This is Eric and I'll see you in the next lesson.