Acoustic Blues
Guitar Basics
A Group Course for
Intermediate Students
Next course starts 29 January 2025.
‘An excellent introduction to playing the blues. I now really understand the form and how it works, and my playing has improved immensely.’
– F. Dunne
‘I learned more from this 10-week course than from trying to teach myself acoustic blues for over 10 years!’
– D. Farrelly
Course Description
For all guitar players who love the blues (and who doesn’t?), Waltons New School of Music’s Acoustic Blues Guitar Basics course provides an extensive introduction to all the basic elements of acoustic blues, including:
- The twelve-bar blues form
- Minor pentatonic ‘blues’ scales
- Common blues chord progressions
- Chord shapes and partial chord shapes
- Some of the most popular blues rhythms
- Fingerpicking melodies and solos over independent bass patterns
- Great blues ‘turnarounds’ – the climatic final two measures of all twelve-bar blues songs
Students will be introduced to these techniques initially through basic study songs but will also get the opportunity to tackle some classics of the genre, including:
- ‘Baby Please Don’t Go – Lightnin’ Hopkins
- ‘Hey Hey’ – Big Bill Broonzy
- ‘Key to the Highway’ – Big Bill Broonzy
- ‘Kind Hearted Woman Blues’ – Robert Johnson
- ‘Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out’ – Scrapper Blackwell
- ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ – Robert Johnson
- ‘Walkin’ Blues’ – Rory Gallagher
Although this course is an introduction to acoustic blues guitar, it is not a course for guitar beginners. (See Introducing Guitar for Adults or Introducing Guitar for Teens for information on our beginners’ courses.) Participants should be familiar with guitar tablature and basic chord forms, including barre chords.
Enrol in this course.
Questions about the course?
or call us on (01) 478 1884.
Acoustic Blues Guitar Basics is one of the New School’s group courses. We also offer private guitar lessons in a range of genres for students of all ages and skill levels. See Guitar • Bass • Ukulele Tuition for more information.
Techniques Covered
A video demonstration of some techniques covered in the course:
John Sweeney
John comes from a musical family and has been studying, playing and teaching guitar, as well as bodhrán, tin whistle and a range of Irish traditional instruments, for over thirty years. He works in many different styles, including blues, rock, jazz, traditional and flamenco, and he has performed and recorded with a number of Irish groups, gigging extensively throughout Ireland, Canada, the UK, the US and Spain. He began teaching in 1988 at the Scarborough School of Guitar in Toronto, Canada, where he also studied composition and flatpick technique. He has also studied flamenco guitar with Miguel Escudero Lopez in Seville, Spain and traditional music at St. Enda’s Folk Park & Museum, and he continues to develop techniques in a range of guitar styles. John was the only guitar player selected by the renowned vocal innovator and improviser Bobby McFerrin to perform with him in the National Concert Hall for Bobby McFerrin Meets Ireland (2013), a unique collaboration for the Waltons World Masters Series between Bobby and a small, select group of Irish performers – chosen to represent the creativity, tradition and spirit of Ireland and selected through an Ireland-wide audition process. He has taught at the New School since 2003 and also teaches our Introducing Guitar for Adults, Introducing Guitar for Teens, Introducing Bodhrán and Trad Guitar Basics courses, as well as guitar and bodhrán courses for our Outreach Programme and Music at Work Programme.
John performing ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ with Bobby McFerrin at the National Concert Hall in Bobby McFerrin Meets Ireland, part of the New School’s Waltons World Masters Series.
Reviews • Testimonials
‘John is an excellent instructor who has time for each student.’
– T. Byrne
‘Really enjoyed the course. I feel that I’ve really got to grips with the style.’
– D. Harris
‘I regret not coming here years ago. I would be a much better guitarist had I done so. Don’t even think twice about it, just go for it [and] don’t regret it like me. Highly recommended.’
– A. Kelly
‘The perfect introduction to acoustic blues playing. Highly recommended.’
– P. Murphy
‘What I liked best about the course was its interactive nature. the enthusiasm displayed by our teacher John Sweeney and the opportunity to witness a pure professional. And the encouragement and support provided by the school staff has taken the fear out of taking on a music course and added to the enjoyment and confidence to take on more.’
– J. O’Connor
‘An excellent course.’
– G. Walsh
Have you taken – or are you taking – this course? We would appreciate it if you could take a few moments to give us your feedback in a brief online questionnaire about it.
2024-2025 Second Term
Course Schedule & Fee
10 weeks, 29 January – 9 April 2025
(No class on 19 February – Mid-Term Break)
Wednesdays 7.45 – 8.45 pm
Course Type: In-School
Tuition Fee: €220
Enrolment
Enrolment for this course requires a completed Enrolment Form and full payment of the tuition fee. Places in the course are limited to eight and are available on a first-come, first-served basis, based on the date of enrolment. Many of our group courses fill in advance of their start dates, and early enrolment is recommended.
Purchasing this course as a gift?
Please complete a Gift Certificate Booking Form.
Questions about the course?
or call us on (01) 478 1884.
Acoustic Blues on YouTube
‘Blues is a natural fact, is something that a fellow lives. If you don’t live it you don’t have it. Young people have forgotten to cry the blues. Now they talk and get lawyers and things.’
– Big Bill Broonzy
‘If I was a catfish, swimmin’ in the deep blue sea,
If I was a catfish, oh, swimmin’ in the deep blue sea,
I’d have all you women fishin’ after me.’
– Lightnin’ Hopkins, ‘Catfish Blues’