My weak bass line

I'm gonna make this quick i hope, Since i have alraedy talked way more than i like to on the forum. Are there some thorough studies on GT to learn the fingerpickin styles of players like lightnin hopkins, robert johnson and the like. In studying crawlin king snake i find that i seem to have a hard time putting dynamics and steady hard bass when needed in this style. I would really like,to learn this style that these guys played. I'll leave it at that...Thanks Tom.

Hey, Steve. Tom might be busy so I'll try to help until he gets a chance to chime in!

Originally Posted by: stevelankford313In studying crawlin king snake i find that i seem to have a hard time putting dynamics and steady hard bass when needed in this style. I would really like,to learn this style that these guys played.

The best way to learn any new technique is break it down into the smallest components necessary to learn it & then practice it over & again.

In this case it sounds like you are having trouble with the thumb on the bass note. So, spearate that element out. Make practice time to just play that bass line with your thumb. It's really important to get that triplet rhythm pulse right at this point.

|------------------------------|--------------------------------|[br]|------------------------------|--------------------------------|[br]|------------------------------|--------------------------------|[br]|------------------------------|--------------------------------|[br]|-0---0-0---0-0---0-0---0-|-0---0-0---0-0---0-0---0--|[br]|------------------------------|--------------------------------|

It's simple enough to do for 5-10 minutes at the beginning & end of every practice session. You can do it while you are watching TV. You have to do it over & again until your thumb & hand get used to making it second nature. Reptitious practice is the only thing that will make it happen.

After you get that happening, you can add some of the upper string notes. If necessary you can simplify measure 3 as an example just to add an upper string line with the bass line.

|--------------------------------------|

|--------------------------------------|[br]|-3-0-----3-0-----3-0-----3-0-----|[br]|------3--------3-------3--------3---|[br]|-0---0---0----0--0---0---0---0---|[br]|--------------------------------------|

Again do that until you can really make it automatic. Go slowly & keep the bluesy swing rhythm happening. Be patient. If you aren't familiar with this kind of playing technique it might take a while to get happening.

Eventually after you get that much under your fingers you can start to slowly play each measure of the song. There is enough similarity in each part of that & lots of blues songs that you can usually play along with it without doing every single little variation.

Finally, I recently updated a tutorial that might help you with some of this kind of blues playing. It involves playing bass lines with upper string notes. See if this can help.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=151

Hope that helps! Have fun with it!

Thanks for that, i looked at the introduction and i'm sure there are lots of valuble lessons in there. For one, anything that steadily improves my hybrid or fingerstyle play interest me. I also want to get better at layering and composing guitar parts.....Thanks again my Friend...Later

Thanks for chiming in Christopher, I've been camping in the mountains and just now back in civiliaztion and reception!

The independpence needed to play this style takes a little while to develop, but will definitely come with practice and onece you have it you will have it forever! Keep up the good work and be patient with yourself :)

Tom~

Thanks Tom, I'm gonna incorporate some of this style into my daily exercise. I would like to find some more fingerstyle blues lessons, maybe in open tunings. Not just for this style, but to cross over into other rock, blues, country...Thank Again!