Plays in all Television DVD players in the USA, Europe, United Kingdom, Australia, and Asia
3 string guitars are very easy to play. It is much easier to learn to how play a cigar box guitar than it is to learn how to play a regular 6 string guitar.
Delta Blues and early American Folk music that was played on these homemade guitars was created by people who most often could not read music. Nor did they know any music theory or what chords and keys were. Many of them could not even read the written word!
To play vintage Blues, you DO NOT need to know any math, chords, or complicated music structure to play great sounding 3 string cigar box guitar. If the people who played old time Blues music did not know music theory or complicated math, than neither do you.
On this DVD I will explain early American music from the 1880's to the 1930's and how to play it on 3 string guitar. These lessons teach you how to create and play old time Blues WITHOUT using complicated math.
We are going to learn and study lessons that I have broken down in small easy to learn step by step building blocks that we will then put together to achieve that heavenly Old-Time Delta Blues sound.
Watch this video, you will see that vintage Blues is easy to learn and play. Slide guitar is basically one finger guitar. Watch my fingers, there is not much movement, watch the entire video, I will teach you how to play this exact type of music.
Watch this video, it will open up in a new window, give it time to play.
If you have always wanted to learn to play old school Blues or tried to learn how to play guitar in the past but you've always failed to get the right sound, it was most likely the poor instruction that hindered you from learning. All of that useless math and science theory usually stops most people from learning guitar. That confusing garble gives everyone headaches. You are not alone.
This DVD is not like the other standard "hard to learn" courses that every one else has.
On this DVD,
NO math is involved
NO scientific music theory
NO folding and unfolding fretboard maps and wall charts
NO confusing books to balance on your knee as you try to play your guitar
This DVD is different. I will explain how to play guitar in clear everyday English. I offer correct explanation of the techniques, how to TUNE the guitar to get a truly authentic and vintage sound, and on your part, you will only need patience and practice.
I also show on this DVD how to set up your guitar. I like mine to sound gritty with a ruff-edged vintage type sound. I like it when the guitar is kind of scratchy and twangy. It makes the music sound like an old recording from the past.
I have spent many years studying slide guitar, early Blues and traditional Rock. I have been playing guitar for almost 30 years. I also build and sell cigar box guitars under the name "Red Dog Guitars." The combination of my knowledge on the structure on how the cigar box guitar is built and the history of the music played on these unique guitars has given me a higher understanding than most people about slide and Blues music that is played on a 3 string guitar.
Watch this video and let's take a step back in time and listen to something vintage, then I can explain more below.
Here is something to think about,
Along time ago, if some guy played music like that sitting on the porch of his farm house, then you can do it too.
Try this,
Use your imagination and think of a time long ago in the past. Imagine an old red barn or farm house during a peaceful time 100 years ago.
Think about an old wooden hay wagon at the edge of a corn field. Imagine an old farmer who works the crops in his field. He's just a hard working farmer from a long ago simpler time, someone from the past who could not read or write.
Now, visualize him sitting on the porch of his farm house in a rocking chair after a long days work. He's holding in his lap an old homemade guitar that he's made out of a used cigar box and some scraps of wood.
He's just sitting there relaxing, not thinking to hard about what he's doing. He's just strummin' away a breezy afternoon without a care in the world. He's having fun and entertaining himself playing music he likes and making sounds that he enjoys. Nothing fancy about it.
Now picture this part,
Do you think if me and you went back in time and walked up to him and asked him,
"Do you know what a D chord is transposed over the major 9th?"
Do you think he would know what on earth we were talking about?
Would he even know what "music theory" was?
The answer is, No.
OK, so I don't have a DeLorean time machine, I am just making a point here,
If many of the greatest Bluesmen of the last century didn't know complicated music theory and math, then you don't need to study or know it either. None of it.
You do Not have to learn any at all. I don't use it, and on this DVD we will not study it. You don't need to study rocket engineering to learn how to play cigar box guitar.
In fact, the more music theory and math you try to learn, the farther away your music gets from "Blues" and the more it sounds like contemporary and European music.
You do not need to learn math or music theory to play great 3 string guitar. 3 string guitar is fun and simple. With proper instruction on how to create and play that old time Blues era sound from early America, you will then understand how to make your guitar make the "sounds" you want and desire to play.
Region "0" NSTC & PAL - DVD
Plays in all Television DVD players in the USA, Europe, United Kingdom, Australia, and Asia
It also plays in most computers with a disc drive, but it is a DVD and can be viewed on all TV's worldwide
OK, either this DVD is for you or not, I guess I am done with the explaining. Thanks for your time and if you have read this far, thank you. This is just real simple and fun to play music. You can play this kind of music too!
Overseas & Worldwide (14 to 21 days) Stamped "Air-Mail"
What is a cigar box guitar?
Cigar box guitars are an old American tradition. This form of antique guitar construction spans back well over 150 years in our country's history. Since the mid 1860's up to the early 1950's and before musical instrument mass production brought the cost down, it was common for people to make their own guitar or stringed instrument out of old cigar boxes and scavenged or found wood.
In the South it's common to hear stories that Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins and all those other old-time Blues guys started playing guitar on a cigar box guitar. Not many people who follow Blues and Country music know this, but many famous Blues and Country singers started their career on a simple homemade cigar box guitar. One reason most Blues and Country music has such a distinctive sound is because it was derived off of music made on these simple instruments.
The precursor to the cigar box guitar as an instrument was the diddly-bow. It was a one stringed instrument where the player would take a glass bottle neck and run it up and down a string while plucking the opposite end of the string to achieve the tone they where after. Because those basic "guitars" did not have frets, that early form of crude guitar playing is what evolved into the form of slide guitar we are familiar with today. That is what is thought to be the creation of Delta Blues and slide guitar from the "Southern Delta."
Lightin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, they were all influenced in some way by these early homemade instruments. Many of them following along in their career as slide guitar players. That's where the blues and slide guitar truly started at. On those plantations and cotton fields, homemade guitars and 'field hollerin' went hand in hand. Blues players didn't play Gibsons or Martins, they couldn't afford them. If you grew up in poverty and wanted to play guitar, you had to build a guitar yourself.
Those humble beginnings of the cigar box guitar are what eventually gave this little known guitar a home in music history. This tradition of making and playing a homemade guitar continued from the 1880's and for many decades up until the 1950's, but this form of guitar construction never really went away. Many Blues musicians from the 60's, 70's and 80's kept this long forgotten art form alive. Even though homemade guitars have faded into obscurity, some Blues and Rock musicians still enjoy playing them today.
Today's modern and Chinese made guitars can't even come close to the true primitive sound these handmade guitars make. Cigar Box Guitars can be channeled into a creativity that many musicians desire for in their playing, giving them a more authentic sound. Blues guitarist, in particular, really enjoy playing cigar box guitars in the search of hearing "Delta Blues" in its purest form. Today you can still find guitar players who are looking for that raw and authentic sound from the past and they chose to play cigar box guitars.
Here is a wonderful example of one being played today, it really does take you back in time.
Watch this video of Billy Gibbons of ZZ-Top playing a homemade cigar box guitar.
This sound recording of Ry Cooder's song "Billy The Kid" is performed by Billy Gibbons of ZZ-Top and is an excerpt from a Mark Maron interview. I have presented it here for educational and commentary purposes only in relation to the brief discussion about of the history of the cigar box guitar as a long forgotten instrument in American history. (Copyright Law 107-Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use section; 40) All Copyrights for this material are the property of their respective owners.
If you are interested in the hobby of Cigar Box Guitars. I have 4 different disc available on the subject.
Here is the list,
1. Understanding 3 string Guitar - How To play lessons DVD
2. How To Build - 3 & 4 String Cigar Box Guitars DVD
3. Dust Bowl Blues - 3 string Cigar Box Guitar Music CD
4. Cigar Box Americana - 3 & 4 string Cigar Box Guitar Music CD
The 3 string Lessons DVD is called "Understanding 3 string guitar." It covers all the playing styles heard in Blues guitar playing, both slide and finger style to help you get that old time vintage sound. Even if you've never played guitar before, it's never to late to learn how to play cigar box guitar, even if you are 70!
Slide guitar is basically just one finger guitar. You can learn to play theses guitars, It is not hard at all.
The How to Build DVD covers in-depth how to build 3 & 4 string cigar box guitars and Homemade Resonator guitars. These guitars are just as much fun to build as they are to play. Anyone can build a great guitar, even on you first time if you have correct instruction and explanation, you only need a few common hand tool that most people already have.
I also have 2 different Cigar Box Guitar music CD's, ( also in download form )
The best way to learn how to play great cigar box guitar, is to listen to cigar box guitar music.
One is called "Dust Bowl Blues." This is an all Delta Blues an all cigar box guitar CD recorded mostly with 3 sting cigar box guitar, it's all cigar box guitar and Blues music.
The other music CD is called "Cigar Box Americana." This is old time Delta Blues and Southern Bottleneck cigar box guitar that has been recorded on both 3 & 4 string cigar box guitars and also using vintage amps and Retro Radios turned into amplifiers.
All of the music and videos I have recorded are only on the topic of Cigar Box Guitar, no regular guitars are used.
You can see the DVDs and Cigar Box Music CDs - Click Here
Email me if you have any questions