What are /r/bluesguitarist's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blues-Rhythms-You-Can-Use/dp/1423456637

I like all of the Blues you can use stuff.

I say Rhythm because most of the time you are going to be playing rhythm either as accompaniment to a singer or a brass instrument etc. I think it's quite a skill to play in band and know not to tread on the piano players toes or the bass players or the singer's etc. Sitting on your D, G and B strings is the safe zone I'd say. But playing as a touring guitarist is well above my pay grade so hopefully some more competent fellas will chime in with some more specific advice for you.

These guys. Just a suggestion: Don't limit yourself to listening for guitar. I'm busy (trying to) transpose Sonny Boy Williamson harmonica and vocals into licks for guitar. Is fun.

Ok, good morning, it's out!

First recorded by Robert Johnson in Dallas, Texas on June 19th, 1937, exactly 80 years ago today:

https://steemit.com/music/@ramblin-bob/vintageblues4k-e04-i-m-a-steady-rollin-man-by-robert-johnson-1937

He kicks it off with that little BB riff that I love so much. I came across him on this website by putting in SRV, Taste, and BB I think. Bought the album "Luthers Blues" straight away. He seems to be a cool mix of blues and souly funk. I am enjoying.

Episode three came out this week:

https://steemit.com/music/@ramblin-bob/vintageblues4k-e03-mississippi-blues-by-william-brown-1942

it was definitely the longest and one of the toughest songs I'll be doing for this channel. And remember, I first heard of this song right here in /r/bluesguitarist !!!

I'll do another William Brown tune a bit later in the series. Next episode will be back to Bob Johnson, the last one I recorded in my first batch. After this I'll have to wire up the microphones again and start recordings things again for the next phase of the project.....stay tuned!

Pretty happy with how the second episode came out https://steemit.com/music/@ramblin-bob/vintageblues4k-e02-worried-blues-by-skip-james-1966 I always liked this song. And the Steem money machine keeps a printing, this one did almost twice as much as episode one. Gotta film one more scene for episode 3 and then we're headed "down to the delta...."

Well guys, my long overdue blues channel finally launched this week and I'm very pleased with with how it turned out. Read the dedication, it was inspired by bluesnoodler_, newaccount, and everyone here!

https://steemit.com/music/@ramblin-bob/vintageblues4k-e01-kind-hearted-woman-blues-by-robert-johnson-1936

Really pleased I actually made $25 by posting it to SteemIt, which is a lot more than I'd ever make posting a blues video with YouTube's annoying pennies per month ads, and is also more than I used to make playing for tips in NYC's Central Park back in the early nineties.

I've already got my episode two song recorded, just need to go film me trying to kill myself for the dramatic intro for this week's video. Stay tuned!

I'm learning a lesson from last week and posting the direct YouTube link to the video, as I've discovered that SteemIt links can head straight into reddit's spam filter.

So here's the link to the complete Episode 02 article: https://steemit.com/music/@ramblin-bob/vintageblues4k-e02-worried-blues-by-skip-james-1966

Maybe a blu ray with B.B. King: Live at Montreux 1993 [Blu-ray]. Here is a link from amazon : https://www.amazon.com/B-B-King-Live-Montreux-Blu-ray/dp/B00265SCJI

Here you can see one of the songs from that concert : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1upbgyd9lo

{What I use.}(https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N6D3W6R/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Height adjustable, arms go up and out of the way. I do have to use a seat cushion 'cause it ain't got much padding. Going on 2 years with it and still happy.

GET GUITAR TAB FOR LICK 2: https://tinyurl.com/w9oh48o

Thanks, its an iyv ijz 300 guitar, made in vietnam. Around 250$ from amazon

https://www.amazon.ca/ivy-IJZ-300-TSB-Solid-Body-Electric/dp/B0107BCV1M

Really great for the price, i owned 2 squier bullet strats in the past and this one feels much more expensive and higher quality even though they're in the same price range. Its listed as a jazz guitar but i find it sounds great playing any genre

I hired a teacher to teach me music theory specifically for blues improv. That lasted a couple months and I saw great progress. Got away from it a bit then recently found this book I'll link to that teaches almost exactly the same way my teacher did. Even if you don't buy it check out the table of contents to get an idea and don't let big sounding words like arpeggio scare you if you're not familiar. Chord Tone Soloing Private... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634083651?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Looks like they have changed the content, but you can still access it via the internet archive here: https://web.archive.org/web/20140420011745/http://www.nps.gov/history/DELTA/BLUes/people/people.htm

The hellhound is winning at the moment, but I'll re-evaluate after playing the Gretsch's at the same time (though the Republics just feel like a better quality instrument, so I doubt I'll change my mind!)

Then there's the Triolian Parlour model, which is just a beautiful instrument. Being wood, it doesn't have that real swampy sound, and sounds a lot like my main guitar - a 20 year old Maton acoustic - but the burl(?) on the edges is very, very nice. I'm trying to talk myself into buying it! It has a bit of the sound I want, but it's not really dirty enough for those times you need to get right into it.

(imgur isn't working, apologies about tinypics)

I use capo.

It's not free, but it works great for me. I'm sure there are others you can find as well. I've had this for about four or five years and never upgraded, and it still works great.

What do I get from tabbing out licks, solos and songs?

I learn in depth how a guitarist plays the pieces I want to learn.

If I read a tab someone else wrote, I didn't have to take any time listening to the song to work it out. Part of learning to play is developing your ear, and tabbing songs out forces you to develop your ear.

Whenever I can start with tab that's already done, I still go through the piece note-by-note to see if I think it's right. Sometimes the tab is written by pianists who don't really play guitar, and you can tell from the absurd movements they expect you to make.

Sometimes the tab is done by people with less experience, and it just isn't close.

In any regard, spending the time to take songs apart really helps you understand the structure of the piece and the guitarist's personal technique.

And, the more you learn, the better your improvising will be over time.

I would recommend this program (with some hesitation) called Capo:

http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/capo/

I've felt for a long time that guitar transcription is something that could be greatly aided by computer, almost to the point where it could be nearly fully automated. We're still aways from that, but I think this program comes close.

It's not a program without it's flaws. The capacity to transcribe rhythm is still very bad. But it does help in transcribing pitches, and it's very cool to be able to just visualize the notes of the song and click to tab them right out.

I am really digging https://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-You-Can-Use/dp/1684016290/ for guitar based theory built from the ground up. All these years I was practicing box shapes but not caring about what I should: where the 1,b3, 4, 5.. etc are within those shapes.

This could take a minute to iron out, but as far as I know the hangouts features works in chrome on win/mac/linux. I think we just need any room with a mic in it really. The thing about video is it's for the elite few with decent internet connections.

I used to hangout in the jam room on paltalk and do something kind of like this. The advantage there is that people raise their hands to wait in queue while I think three people can talk at once, an admin can toss drunks that harass the waitresses into the street if need be, and the service was consistent as I seem to remember.

The backing track is weird. It wouldn't flow well at all if we all had to pause, rewind,shuffle etc. Every other minute or so. We just did whatever on our own without one.

Just a thought to keep under your hat for awhile. If you want to see it in action the room is still there and accessible by browser, but it's going to harass you to install a chat app that I don't remember appreciating at all for some reason.

http://www.paltalk.com/

http://www.google.com/hangouts/

I've bought and currently studying this nice "Classic" blues songbook :

https://www.amazon.com/Fingerstyle-Blues-Songbook-Country-Acoustic/dp/0634067184/

Almost forgot David Hamburger's book. His videos are also quite good.

Beginner here. I’m taking lessons, and after really liking a few of the practice pieces assigned by my teacher, I looked up the book they came from. I’m really enjoying (and learning from) this book, Complete Acoustic Blues Guitar Method, for some basics.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blues-You-Can-Use/dp/B000FH4OFU

An oldie but a goodie. Takes you from scratch to actually playing blues and the pieces actually fun to play. There is a whole series of them too. Blues rhythms you can use, jazz blues you can use, More Blues you can use etc etc.

I learnt things after playing guitar for 20 years because it's so well structured.

all 7 of the modes are based out of the major scale, and the major scale itself is the Ionian mode. The major scale & each mode consist of 7 notes, while the pentatonic (which consists of 5 notes) is the same scale, minus two notes (and these are the 2 notes that give the modes their characteristic flavor).

I think what he is saying is it's good to be able to play the pentatonic shapes fluently, while being able to add in the modal notes when it's appropriate. I was recommended this book by someone on here and it completely changed my understanding of the modes and how to incorporate them into my pentatonic scales. I can't recommend it enough. It's written in a very readable way - not using extremely technical/theoretical stuff while still accomplishing the same thing