🇬🇧 I think I’ll start a little series of recommendations for fingerstyle blues guitar exercises. What’s so favorite about this one? Well, for one I love altered tunings and „Bull Frog Groan“ needs a drop D tuning. Also, I love a quite a few of the blues pieces in Woody Mann’s guitar book „Blues Roots – An Original Repoertoire Approach for Fingerstyle Blues Guitar“ [Amazon Affiliate Link]. You will find the music sheet and guitar tablature for „Bull Frog Groan“ in it, too.

And, I don’t know, this piece has only 16 bars and is finished in just under a minute. But I can play it for half an hour straight and won’t get bored. Plus, the song title „Bull Frog Groan“ rhymes with the title of my favorite blues movie „Black Snake Moan“ [Amazon Affiliate Link] starring Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci and Justin Timberlake.

Get „Bull Frog Groan“ fingerstyle guitar tab on Amazon [Affiliate Link]!

To brush or not to brush

In his guitar book, Woody Mann writes „Bull Frog Groan“ was inspired by Tommy Johnsons‘ „Big Road Blues“. And that it should be played with brushing techniques. Brushing across two strings with one finger to create a full sound that resembles a strumming sound. Well, I don’t know if it really needs this. I think it sounds just as cool being fingerpicked. Or respectively the two strings being brushed (or stroked) parallelly by two fingers.

I know I should be playing this in a more bluesy shuffle/swing rhythm. But I’m sorry, I just feel the groove much better in this rather driven than chilled way of playing the piece. Also, I think, Tommy Johnson isn’t shuffeling too much, either. And yes, I know that in bar 5 and 6 I leave out an eighth note. And in bar 9 I play an E in the middle of the bass line where there should be a syncopated A. Again, I just like it better that way. And isn’t blues music made to inspire and get you going whereever you want?

Get „Bull Frog Groan“ fingerstyle guitar tab on Amazon [Affiliate Link]!