Vestopol tuning (open-D/E: DADF#AD/EBEG#BE): work out heads and background riffs; move beyond the Elmore James riff, but pay attention to his music.

Some repertoire in this tuning:

  1. “Standing In My Doorway Crying,” Jesse Mae Hemphill
  2. “Louise,” Fred McDowell
  3. “I’m Crazy About You Baby,” Fred McDowell
  4. “Rambling On My Mind,” Robert Johnson
  5. “I Heard Somebody Calling,” Fred McDowell
  6. “Mojo Hand,” Fred McDowell
  7. “Break ‘Em On Down,” Fred McDowell
  8. “61 Highway,” Fred McDowell
  9. “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning,” Fred McDowell & Blind Willie Johnson
  10. “Someday Baby,” Fred McDowell
  11. “Wake Up Mama,” Blind Willie McTell
  12. “John Henry,” Fred McDowell & Blind Willie Johnson
  13. “God Moves On the Water,” Blind Willie Johnson
  14. “Preaching the Blues,” Son House
  15. “Lay My Burden Down,” Fred McDowell
  16. “Sebastopol,” Henry Worrall
  17. “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,” Blind Willie Johnson
  18. “God Don’t Never Change,” Blind Willie Johnson

Spanish tuning (open-G: DGDGBD): work out chord voicings and fragments, bearing in mind that the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings are the same as standard tuning (I can break out some Van Eps triads)

Some repertoire in this tuning:

  1. “Country Blues/Late in the Evening,” Muddy Waters
  2. “I Be Troubled,” Muddy Waters
  3. “Rolling and Tumbling,” Hambone Willie Newbern
  4. “Dry Spell Blues,” Son House
  5. “Death Letter Blues,” Son House
  6. “Write Me a Few of Your Lines,” Fred McDowell
  7. “Mississippi County Farm Blues,” Son House
  8. “Come On In My Kitchen,” Robert Johnson
  9. “Standing Around Crying,” William Brown
  10. “Poor Black Mattie,” R.L. Burnside
  11. “Walking Blues,” Son House
  12. “Black Cat Bone,” Jesse Mae Hemphill
  13. “Dough Roller Blues,” Raney Burnette
  14. “That’s Alright,” Fred McDowell
  15. “Spanish Fandango,” Henry Worrall

Cross-note tuning (open D/E minor: DADFAD/EBEGBE): Pay attention to this tuning because the top three strings of open-Em tuning are the same as standard tuning. I can mix bottleneck playing with blues riffs and Van Eps-like triad playing, making it easier to voice II/V cadences and quartal harmonies

  1. “Count the Days Until I’m Gone,” Rosa Lee Hill
  2. “Cypress Grove Blues,” Skip James
  3. “Devil Got My Woman,” Skip James
  4. “Hard Time Killing Floor,” Skip James

I need to spend less time writing about guitar practice and more time actually practicing, although these posts about repertoire and guitar practice are clarifying to me. I need to get back to the freewritten style of this blog and leave the guitar stuff to my practice time.

Practice the use of volume and touch to get various tones from the guitar; get more comfortable with using overdrive; learn to make notes sing like a B.B. King moment; move beyond the country blues, but keep the delta and hill country feel to my playing; work up a repertoire I might play with a band, though I’m not crazy about being a singer; learn to sing all the tunes, despite how I feel about singing; learn all the lyrics, and play the guitar parts to the lyrics, even while not singing; play the fucking instrument.