How to Play Ragtime Blues in 3 Simple Steps
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Video Title: How to Play Ragtime Blues in 3 Simple Steps
In this lesson I’ll take you through how to get started with ragtime blues in three steps let’s get to Hey John here with the blues guitar Institute and this is your Tuesday blues where every single week we take a cool acoustic blues concept and we break it down into a simple straightforward lesson just like this one and if you’re into ragtime blues that sound that you
Just heard this lesson is for you we’re gonna break it down into really three main steps to take to really get your ragtime blues picking chops up to snuff so let’s get into it first up you’ve got to know the progression ragtime blues can be full of these crazy twists and
Turns in the chord progression so sometimes they don’t quite make sense if you’re coming from a background of you know strumming along with some acoustic Tunes or even if you’re kind of studied in theory if you know your diatonic Court Theatre you’re not going to expect
An a7 to follow a C major I’ve talked a little bit about why this does make sense back in Tuesday blues number 266 and I highly encourage you to check that out but the first step for me has always been to just strum through the chord
Changes and learn them even if you don’t understand them just make sure that you get this down before you try to add any other complications like we’re gonna see in step 2 and 3 when it comes to learning a ragtime blues piece let’s put this into action will strum through a
Four-bar snapshot of a typical ragtime blues progression will strum a four count for the Secord another full measure for an a7 and then we’re gonna split measure 3 between a d7 and at g7 so two beats each before going back and on measure let it hang on C for
A full measure okay so that will sound like this you can hear even just playing through the courts there’s kind of this melody that’s inbuilt just employing through these open position chords you can hear that ragtime sort of sound coming out of just these chord changes
Step two is to take a very basic finger picking pattern and run it through these chord changes so you might play something like Okay even though we’re calling this a basic finger picking pattern there’s still quite a lot of skill that goes into pulling this thing off not the least of which is you’ve got to get your thumb doing its thing and we started off with this three string sort of Travis
Picking style of alternating bass and that’s pretty difficult you know you’re traveling over the strings and we’re gonna get into some exercises and future Tuesday blues lessons that will help you really nail that and get that motion down to help you do that slightly more complicated of alternating bass but then
In measure two you may have seen we just alternated between the fifth and the fourth string a little easier maybe a whole lot easier even to tackle before doing a six floor bass and a six for bass but the point is that is embedded in this pattern so you can focus on just
The alternating bass and really work on that and it will help the top part the treble notes come in to focus a little bit easier but back to this little basic finger picking pattern we did the alternating bass but then on top it was really just a couple of pinches
With the beefy two and three and we did that holding down the court not doing any sort of melodic movement here first string first string first verse and that first string I’m calling out is really just that one melody note that changes depending on what chords are alright but
We want to take this a bit further to really give some life to it and that’s step three we’re going to add in some melody notes that really make this come together as a ragtime sounding piece alright before we bring this together and let you hear the example played
Fully intact I’ve got a question for you leave a comment below and let me know which of these three steps would give you the most struggle is it learning the chords is it actually putting a finger picking pattern into the chord progression or is it adding something
Cool and snappy in the melody on top let me know comment below All right so you can hear in this example we’re moving the melody just a little bit we’re playing on the first string still but we’re adding some different notes that really are kind of right under your finger so I think this is an excellent little tune a little snippet of a ragtime influenced
Progression to get you started in this style of blues because the notes there’s nothing crazy happening here on the fret board this to me is really targeting your picking skills and what we’re gonna do is simply play with that first string the G note on the first string is right here we’re
Heading for the pinkie to just kind of land there and then we’re just toggling between that and the open alright and so that’s really done on beat two and then beat three but on three we do eighth notes in the melody so it’s alright so there’s a pinch with the two
Outer strings and then we put down and plug that G note on the first string by itself before letting the bass return to the fourth string alright so here’s the first measure And we change chords and we keep that pattern mostly the same but we get into this long a position so now instead of an a7 we’re gonna move the melody along a little bit by reaching up and grabbing the hi egg on the first string 5th fret
Okay and then we play much with that same base but this time we’re doing it string 4th string alternating and the melody notes happen in that same sort of rhythmic space Right so we’ve got a pinch and a match and then apply on the base we’re splitting that last beat between the bass and plucking up on the a note there just a cool little filler note okay so it’s adding a little bit to this feeling that we’ve gotten it
Kind of propels us forward a little bit as we change into the D chord now I’m playing this with my thumb over the base you could refinish and play it with a different fingering if the thumb is a little bit uncomfortable for you but you
Might want to try doing that I use this all the time in acoustic blues and it’s really handy when you’ve got your thumb taking care of some of the fretting duty because then it gives you some latitude with your fingers it frees up a finger that would otherwise be playing that
F-sharp I hope that makes sense to you but for this example just make sure you’re catching that f-sharp in the bass and our bass is gonna fly by really it’s just two beats one two before moving into our g7 so all we’re gonna do melodically on this d7 chord is pitch on
Beat two before pinch And then on that and a furry just like before we could play another melody note on the second string this time same as with the a7 so we get to that g7 face the filler notes same pattern as before and then we wrap things up in C And here I’m planning on that G kind of brings this home it sounds really good so hopefully these three steps help you write first thing is you’ve got to know the chords when they’re coming up and then from there we want to just apply a picking pattern now these can get
Fancier as you become more advanced and more adept at picking out some more complicated patterns but keep it simple much like our example in the beginning and for step three you take that one little tiny step forward by adding some melody notes and the cool thing is right
Here in this area of the fretboard when you’re picking along with these open position chords there’s so many notes that are just right under your fingers and we highlighted a couple of these in the example Okay yes this is a very linear approach to putting together a cool little snippet of a ragtime of blues but sometimes we need to take things step by step you don’t have to see the entire complicated one blade picking that’s going on sometimes you just need to take
The step that’s right in front of you and that’s what this lesson is designed to help you do break it down and in these core elements and see just how far you can get taking it slowly and one little chunk at a time I hope you found
This useful if you did there’s so much more going on inside there Premium Membership for PGI we’ve got cool ragtime based courses like one that just came out called georgia blues we’ve got licks coming out every single month and an awesome community of like-minded pickers just waiting to give you some feedback
Encouragement a helping hand or just talk some cool blues so check out Premium Membership at the link in the description and I’ll see you in the next Tuesday blues lesson until them practice smart play on
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Q: What do you struggle with the most (chords, patterns or melody)?
We're working hard on fingerpicking skills over in the premium membership. Check out premium membership here: https://mybgi.net/2Inc2k1
Which step is the more difficult…
What do you think Sherlock??? Ils like spliting one hand in two.
BLA,BLA, BLA,BLA,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..!!!
Thanks mate! I dig it. Love having something new to play with.
Melody
In my head, I am hearing the melody to Alice's Restaurant from these chords.
I love playing guitar, I was just playing metallica, now I'm having fun with ragtime.
Bravo! But, fuck! how much you talk!
ragtime is granddaddy of swing music and rock n roll
Wow! 2 years later and I still can’t get exactly what’y’re doin’, BUT!!! I did c9me up with a pretty song! Lol It’s called “Walkin’ To That New Life Of Mine”. Thanks!
Getting my thumb moving, it's lazy. Always wanted to learn Travis Picking though.
You slow it down pretty good on when to pinch and pluck each chord. I will just practice 1-2 chords over & over until it comes naturally. Reminds me of when i was learning "Blackbird" a vein in my head wanted to explode, but now it seems so simple.
This is a cool sound. The alternating bass is not the problem, it is when & how to insert the melody with the bass! Thanks
Colter Wall brought me here. Thanks for the lesson!
Dude looks like Bill Paxton. 😀
Thanks for the tips bud
thanks!
Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.
Talker
Great lesson! I'm pretty sure the chord progression is identical to Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant Massacre as well.
I have been learning how to play quite demanding classical music pieces so I was pretty confident about ragtimes blues to be picked up just like that, but this video keeps on giving my fingers brain damage, definitely basic is not easy, amazing lesson and just shows how infinite music can be, always learning. Thank you
This is teaching me advanced picking technique in a way that I can digest in my own time so I think for me the toughest part will be adding in the melody. Just because it's all new! Thanks for the excellent content!
My pinky does NOT want to reach to that 5th fret 😂😭
Your lessons are very good. I took 12 fingerpicking lessons about 40 years ago and haven’t learned much sense. I think this one is at the right level that I could probably learn to do it. Thank you very much.
Finger picking pattern is most difficult, to get that ragtime feel!
Thanks John, love your teaching. Extra notes are the most difficult for me. Cheers