Learn Four Classic Blues Mandolin Songs Finding blues music for the mandolin is a challenge at the best of times, so in this lesson, we will learn four popular blues classics. Very few blues songs are written specifically for mandolin, so we borrow a few from the...
Open D Guitar Chords – Major Chords In today’s lesson, we will work on our Open D major chords. In particular, the primary chords from the key of D major: are D, G and A. Open D (DADF#AD) is an altered tuning that is exceedingly popular with creative...
In today’s cigar box guitar lesson, we will learn one of the most famous, if not the most famous, blues songs of all time – The Thrill is Gone. The song was written by Roy Hawkins and Rick Darnell in 1951, but it was B.B. King’s recording in 1969 that...
Here is a wonderful photo essay on how to build a mandola instrument from scratch. Yair Stern is a talented Canadian luthier who builds mandolas, among other instruments, including mandolins, octave mandolins and guitars. Mr. Stern has agreed to share photos taken...
Fingerpicking on the Ukulele In today’s lesson, we will work on ukulele fingerpicking. After you have learned to strum some chords, you may ask, is that all there is? What else can I do with this gem of an instrument? You could learn more chords up and down the...
A Brief History of the Looper Pedal From the beginning, the concept of looping has remained the same: to record a segment of music and have it repeat automatically while other parts can be overdubbed or played live.  It began with composers splicing and joining audio...
Today’s cigar box guitar lesson will look at two country classics. The first is Lefty Frizzell’s “The Long Black Veil,” followed by a song that needs no introduction, “Tennessee Waltz.” Both tunes have found a place in the top 100...
Introduction to the Mandola The mandola is not exactly an instrument you hear of every day. Sometimes hard to find and even harder to find any music to play. My spell checker doesn’t even know the word! When I type in mandola, I get the correction...
In today’s cigar box guitar lesson, we will learn Blues Jam #2. One notable difference is that I’ve added some rhythm using a guitar looper pedal and a few other effects like the octave pedal. You don’t need a looper pedal to learn this blues jam – just a...
If you are a beginner at cigar box guitar, one of the first things you will want to learn is how to play a few basic chords. In a recent cigar box guitar lesson we learnt how to play 10 major chords. In today’s lesson, we will learn 10 minor chord shapes you should...
Recent Comments