Before the Blues
Early American Fingerstyle Guitar

This DVD is an instructional tool for people who are interesting in finding different ways to approach American vernacular guitar. I have found in my studies of early country blues guitar that many of the styles of fingerpicking and strumming used by the early songsters incorporated parts of the banjo techniques used in old-time music. As the guitar became popular in the black communities of the South, there was a time when the two instruments freely interchanged ideas. I spent long hours practicing and learning the styles from various players in the South. Others approaches to fingerpicking were learnt from the 1920s recordings of musicians such as Jimmie Rodgers and Papa Charlie Jackson. They used a syncopated style to "dress up" what would otherwise be simple chord progressions. I hope this lesson will show a guitar approach that is perfect for accompanying a song and selling a performance. While the mechanics of the lesson may seem rudimentary, I believe you will be surprised at the way you can apply these techniques to your own style." - Dom Flemons

A detailed tab/music booklet is included as a PDF file on the DVD. Each tune is taught phrase by phrase and played slowly on a split-screen. As well, a Bonus Audio section features the original recordings of the tunes taught.

Titles include: My Little Lady, Keep On Truckin', Oh Babe Ain't No Lies, Steel Pony Blues, James Alley Blues, Fishin' Blues, I'm Not Jealous and Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine DVD is region 0, playable worldwide. 110 minutes