Back in the sixties there were not a lot of very good acoustic blues guitarists around. American students of the old acoustic guitar music had found all the living blues masters and copied their techniques, writing it down on paper as they went. Guitar players like Stefan Grossman and others did a great service to future guitarists by putting together a simple tablature system for other guitarists to follow. It really cut corners – in place of listening to the old blues and trying to figure out where to put your fingers, it was written out, and accelerated the learning activity.

Very shortly, many guitarists were tackling the most complicated ragtime arrangements, and finger picking became increasingly more complex, with players using their thumb, 2, 3 and sometimes all their fingers to finger pick! How did this situation come about? Perhaps in an attempt to simulate the styles of the classic guitarists like Blind Blake and Reverend Gary Davis, more fingers came into use. It was a way around, and meant that 1 finger didn’t have to move so fast, in the way that the old blues men played, its not as simple as that. Even when the picking is correct technically speaking, there is frequently a certain thing lacking in present day performances – a subtle change in the tempo and that elusive feeling that speaks to the listener. One finger passing quickly over the strings gives a certain accent to the beat, which can’t be simulated by using more fingers. Also, the bass strike differs in it’s angle of attack and power when more fingers are used.

The hunt for technical excellence can be the big aim for guitar players, but it’s wrong to follow this path. Not many guitarists can equal the power of the old blues men,simply because the basic techniques don’t make a good enough foundation. There are no short cuts to the strength of the blues. Listen to the bass lines of guitarists like Gary Davis, and Lightnin Hopkins. Lightnin’ could strike just one note and send a shiver up your spine. It isn’t the complicated proficiency that represents the blues, but the feeling and power behind it.

Learning how to play blues finger picking guitar is a two pronged battle. First, we need to train our motor skills to competently perform the music. Once we have learned where our fingers should go, its simply a case of playing over and over again for many hours a week. It is that a professional guitarist has approximately ten thousand hours of practice time to his credit. Tommy Emmanuel once guessed that he had practiced about 100 000 hours in his life time, which comes in at about 5 hours a day, every day! Guitar players will tell you that progress arrives in levels – you seem to be stuck at one level for a lengthy period, and then suddenly you jump up a notch. Of course, the improvement is because of regular practice.

We have all watched very competent guitarists perform and been totally bored after 5 mins, just because there is no feeling – it just doesn’t mean anything. Every now and again, technical skill and feeling will gel in one person, and then we see some magic. Of course, everything is relative, and guitar picking is no exception. Even though Clapton is considered a legend, his acoustic finger picking technique appears quite basic when compared to Tommy Emmanuel, who can literally play anything. It happens now and again we feel completely blocked and need something to push us through the ‘wall’. Often, the blockage is purely psychological. An old playing partner of mine left town for a year or so, and we spoke on the telephone now and again. One time he told me he could now play ‘Police Dog Blues’ by Arthur Blake, which is a formidable song to play properly. Up until that point, I could never play it. My old partner was always a slightly guitarist, and I was very competitive, and so I learned it inside one week. When he returned, I let him know that I could play Police Dog Blues as well. He let out a laugh and exclaimed, “I can’t play it at all – too difficult. I was just having fun with you.” There’s a lesson there.

Learn more about acoustic blues guitar. Stop by Jim Bruce’s site where you can find out all about acoustic blues guitar.