Topic: Guitar of Bukka White Lesson

[SGGW]

Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop Presents

Guitar of Bukka White
Taught by Tom Feldmann



Bukka White's slashing slide figures and pounding chords are capable of generating a high level of excitement, capable of leaving dancers joyously exhausted. Yet there is also a sensitivity and a sense of dynamics to his music. Bukka's lyrics ran the gamut from the perceptive to the surreal. The combination of these two voices places Bukka squarely within the blues tradition and in his own unique niche.

In this lesson Tom Feldmann takes you through 10 of Bukka White's tunes. Starting off in Vestapol tuning you'll get his right hand, train beat picking down pat with Special Streamline. Next you'll learn to master playing in Cross-Note tuning with Jitterbug Swing, Aberdeen Mississippi Blues, World Boogie and Sic Em Dogs On.

Bukka's approach to Cross-Note tuning set him apart from his contemporaries and will add a new depth to your own playing. You'll learn Bukka's trick of dampening the 3rd string, behind the slide as well as his signature ?Spank the Baby? technique, a real crowd pleaser. Moving into Open G tuning you'll learn Poor Boy, Fixin' To Die Blues and Gibson Hill. The lesson finishes with When Can I Change My Clothes and Strange Place Blues in Standard Tuning.

These carefully selected songs where chosen on the basis that Bukka used similar patterns for many of his songs and by learning these 10 you're really learning his entire recorded works. The original old recordings of all the tunes are included.

Titles include: OPEN D TUNING: Special Streamline CROSS-NOTE TUNING: Jitterbug Swing, Aberdeen Mississippi Blues, World Boogie, Sic Em Dogs On OPEN G TUNING: Poor Boy, Fixin' To Die Blues, Gibson Hill STANDARD TUNING: When Can I Change My Clothes, Strange Place Blues

112 minutes ? Level 2/3 ? Detailed tab/music PDF file on the DVD

Purchase info: http://www.guitarvideos.com/styles-1/blues/guitar-of-bukka-white

[sustaireblues]

That is a great lesson, some good train sounds!
I'm glad there's finally some Bukka teaching out here. I was captivated by his sound early on and was disappointed I couldn't find any instruction on him. So a hole has been filled!

This one I'll be getting,
Joe

[CF]

Ah I was hoping to get some insight into how Bukka plays that thrilling slide phrase in 'Streamline Special'. Tom's approximation of the lick is nice but it's not what Bukka is playing . . . this lick is one of the highlights of country blues slide guitar imho, just so thrilling & soulful.
Is there even video of Bukka playing this song? 

[-]

Ah I was hoping to get some insight into how Bukka plays that thrilling slide phrase in 'Streamline Special'. Tom's approximation of the lick is nice but it's not what Bukka is playing.

Which slide phrase?

-Tom Feldmann

[Michael Cardenas]

Ah I was hoping to get some insight into how Bukka plays that thrilling slide phrase in 'Streamline Special'. Tom's approximation of the lick is nice but it's not what Bukka is playing . . . this lick is one of the highlights of country blues slide guitar imho, just so thrilling & soulful.
Is there even video of Bukka playing this song?

Feldmann's tempo is rather slow by comparison, but my guess is he's lagging for instructional purposes. The church bell chime Booker does has a bit of sliding out from the note which you aren't hearing from the instruction, its also on the unwound string and that chime won't translate so well with a wound third. I also feel the alternating bass in Feldman's approach is too simplified i.e., much too back and forth and missing the rolling undulation of Booker's right hand frail. When you should be hearing low E string and high E ringing in unison on accents, instead you are hearing Feldmann going back and forth from low E to high E strings mechanically. Booker isn't thumping his pulse on the low strings with any silent mute or rest (no dampening), he is ringing out the bass constant. Again, I suppose this abbreviation of technique is for instructional purposes.

Incidentally, I prefer the Panama version as superior. AIR FRATE! If you notice in the Panama version the pedal tone is coming from the center, the constant upstroke vamp is from the center, not the high strings as Feldmann supposes in his translation of Streamline. There is more ringing alternating bass pattern per cycle than high string pedal in Streamline.

[CF]

Hi Tom, the lick is almost the signature lick of the tune, here's an edit of a youtube vid of the song. The lick is played about six times throughout, you reference it about 3 times in the version in the video above. I don't play slide or I'd give it try.
Relistening I see they are pretty similar, perhaps just a matter of emphasis & Bukka plays so fast & 'emotionally'. It's a great tune, & that lick really sends me over the edge for some reason 

[banjochris]

He's also tuned almost a full step lower than Tom is on the lesson, Cheapfeet, so that might account for the difference in sound.

[Mike Shipman]

Love the Bukka clip and really enjoyed the Tom Feldman clip and demo - thanks for posting.

[Slack]

Yes, nice lesson clip Tom, thanks for posting!