Killing the Blues

from: Beginning Guitar with Adrianne Serna

This lesson is part of the course Beginning Guitar with Adrianne Serna.

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About This Course

Learn to play guitar from scratch and sing some of your favorite songs with simple but powerful chords and strum patterns. Includes 24 great songs to play, with chord and lyric sheets.

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Orphan Girl

Gillian Welch’s song “Orphan Girl” was first recorded by Emmylou Harris on her classic Wrecking Ball album, and Welch recorded the song, which has become a bluegrass jam session favorite, on her debut recording, Revival. You can play “Orphan Girl” with just three chords—G, C, and D—and the bass down-up strum, with or without an alternating bass, whichever you choose. Adrianne shows you which bass strings to alternate for each chord and how to accent the second and fourth beats of each measure.

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The Beginning Guitar Subscription Includes:

24 complete songs to play
Chord tutorials for 11 essential guitar chords
New strum patterns (with variations) introduced in each lesson
Advice on tuning your guitar, changing keys, using a capo, and more
Chord-and-lyric sheets with recommended strum patterns for all songs
High-quality video with multiple camera angles so you can see closeups of both hands in action.

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Killing the Blues

“Killing the Blues” was written Rowland Salley and covered by many people, including Chris Smither, Shawn Colvin, and Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. Adrianne plays “Killing the Blues” in the key of D (the key used by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant), using D, G, and A chords. You can play “Killing the Blues” like the Alison Krauss and Robert Plant version with downstrokes on all the eighth notes: one and two and three and four and. Adrianne also shows you how to use palm muting for a more percussive sound.

"Killing the Blues" (Available to subscribers)

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