By G. Springfield

The Acoustic Blues guitar was brought to the world by the stature of Robert Johnson, Bill Broonzy, and the Rev. Gary Davis. Finger-picking acoustic blues uses the thumb to touch serious notes, whereas the first and the second finger are used to reproduce the melody. Rev. Gary Davis was a player of acoustic blues that used his thumb to tear the cords and only his forefinger to reproduce the melody. Lightnin ‘ Hopkins was another Acoustic player Blues who grew up listening to music of bands, but learned to play the guitar in form isolated of other musicians.

Many blues players have seen equal success in playing the acoustic guitar as well as the electric guitar. A clear example is the success of Eric Clapton had with its disc MTV Unplugged, but there many others who had the same successes. Jimi Hendrix even played some acoustic blues songs.

The secret to play a blues song in either acoustic or electric guitar lies in learning a sequence of basic chords. To one, four, five progression – for example, C, F and G and G, C and D, generally are the acoustic sequence of chords of blues guitar.

Listening to the music of Mississippi John Hurt it is a good way to begin and learn to play the acoustic blues. You can also search the Internet for lessons that teach you how to play acoustic blues guitar like the great blues musicians of the past, but a general introduction to the acoustic guitar fingerstyle is the best way to start learning how to play the acoustic blues guitar. The technique to learn is called ‘Travis Picking’. The basis of this style is to use the thumb, first, second and third right finger to gather the cords in a predetermined sequence and the left hand positions the chords. This type of guitar style was popularized by Chet Atkins. He would be a good musician to listen to to quickly pick up on this style of playing the guitar.