Fan It

This lesson is part of the course Blues Guitar with Orville Johnson.

Get immediate access to this lesson and all of the lessons in this course when you subscribe.

Start Course
Browse Courses

About This Course

Become a complete blues player through these lessons in country blues fingerpicking, blues lead guitar, and bottleneck slide, with great technique lessons and blues songs from Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, and more.

Try a Sample Lesson

Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor

In this lesson you’ll learn a fingerstyle arrangement of the folk-blues classic “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor” inspired by the playing of Mississippi John Hurt. Orville plays the song through and then explains the guitar part phrase by phrase. He also explains how you can alter the lengths of some of the chords, depending on how you hear the song, something that John Hurt and other great blues singers and guitarists did all the time.

Try a sample lesson

The Blues Guitar Subscription Includes:

27 video lessons
Instruction in three styles of the blues: lead, bottleneck, and fingerstyle
19 complete blues songs to play
Notation and tablature for all lessons
High-quality video with multiple camera angles so you can see closeups of both hands in action.

$20/Month For One Course

Additional courses only $10/month each! • Save 20% with an annual subscription

Start Course

Get started now!
Use promo code OrvilleLand at checkout

and get your first month free or $20 off an annual subscription.

Fan It

The blues song you’ll learn in this lesson is in the style of Lightnin’ Hopkins, a great guitar player, singer, and songwriter. “Fan It” is in the style of his “fast” songs. For the basic rhythm, Hopkins played a moving bass line with his thumb and “upstrokes” on the offbeats with his index finger. Orville walks you through the rhythm guitar part measure by measure, showing you some accents Hopkins played and one of his favorite turnarounds. For his solos, Hopkins just soloed a bit on the I chord and then came back in on the IV chord whenever he felt like it. Orville shows you a couple of solo ideas, one using some simple bends in open position, and one using a pentatonic scale up at the ninth through 12th frets.

"Fan It" (Available to subscribers)

Previous Lesson

← Mississippi John Hurt’s “Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me”

Next Lesson

Slide in Open D, Part 1: Blind Willie Johnson Style →

Previous Lesson

← Mississippi John Hurt’s “Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me”

Next Lesson

Slide in Open D, Part 1: Blind Willie Johnson Style →

Previous Lesson

← Mississippi John Hurt’s “Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me”

Next Lesson

Slide in Open D, Part 1: Blind Willie Johnson Style →

Guitar Articles

The Martin D-200 Deluxe

To celebrate their two-millionth guitar since 1833, C.F. Martin & Co. introduces the spectacular D-200 Deluxe limited edition.

Charlie Torch: “Red Rocking Chair”

Peghead Nation fiddle instructor Chad Manning plays a traditional song with his band that includes siblings Jasper and Jayda Manning, Tyler Stengall, and Mark Schatz.

Fan It

About This Course

Guitar Articles

Guitar Videos