Country Blues Guitar

The use of open tunings on the guitar to accompany singing is one of the hallmark sounds of the Country Blues. Unquestionably, the two open tunings that have been used most commonly in the Country Blues have been Spanish tuning, often called Open G tuning and Vestapol tuning, quite often called Open D tuning. For this 2-DVD lesson, we've chosen the names Spanish and Vestapol to designate these tunings, because in practice, Spanish tuning was not always tuned exactly to an open G chord and Vestapol tuning was not always tuned to an open D chord.

Each one of these tunings represents its own sort of sound universe, but what is really interesting to hear is the different approaches that different players took to the same tunings, and the different sounds that resulted. In each of these tunings, you'll encounter players whose approach was so melody-driven that it ends up sounding almost like slide guitar played without a slide, and at the opposite end of the spectrum, high concept, chordally sophisticated arrangements. We've purposely chosen the songs that are taught on the lesson to encompass as much of that sound spectrum as possible.