This month’s Challenge focuses on playing an acoustic blues (or playing on an electric guitar without any effects). The comments people made when they posted their videos are included (from the original post).

The Active Melody member challenges are open to players of all skill levels. Thanks everyone for leaving friendly and encouraging feedback on each other’s submissions, and thank you Brian for keeping us motivated!

Thanks for your patience. It’s always something. My dog has been giving me a hard time for sitting in front of the computer when I should be walking her, playing, petting or feeding her. If you don’t mind the delays, I can do this (I had paid work on Thursday and Friday, and I do need to walk and play with the dog [see attached photo]…).

EDIT: I added Martin W.’s post—with apologies for missing it the first time—where it belongs between Steven L. and Richard G. on Monday morning (December 11). If you notice any other errors, please comment here, and I’ll correct them. Thanks!

Welcome to everyone on your first Challenge! Happy Holidays!

Brendan G.

Hi there,
Its Friday morning here in Australia.
I have-not done a challenge for a while. So I have a few minuet’s so I put this together.
A blues in E with some movement. Hope its ok.

Garry

Hi All,
For my Acoustic Blues I have chosen EP303 Eric Clapton Unplugged Style.
Looking forward to everyone’s submissions.
All the best!

André M.

Hello AM, November already.
For this challenge I selected EP514.
Playing acoustic and finger style.
Wanted to do it without the backtrack but wasn’t sounding good so i did it with the backtrack.
Enjoy

cloughie Brian

Hi Y’all,
A little bit of a Peter Green rhythm thing followed by EP065/066.
Enjoy.

Bruce L.

So here I go my first challenge submission!

Fully unplugged – borrowed a bit from Eric and the lead from Brian. I’ve been practicing holding the pick in my hand for the lead and switching back to finger picking. A bit rusty on the transition but probably the best I can do for the camera.
I hope you enjoy.
Cheers

Liam Innes

Hi all,
I’ve went with EP282 for this challenge.
First time I’ve done a solo acoustic piece for a very long time and I have to say I found the silence and open space rather intimidating.
Hope you enjoy it.
Liam.
Active Melody ep 282

Manfred M.

Hi AM folks,
a special challenge contribution from me this month. I tell something about it in the beginning of the video ( unedited recorded in free speech, with all my searching for the right english words, and stuttering around. I hope it‘s ok)
My contribution is a live recording from a Meetup of „Invisible Technique“, Joe Robinson’s guitar Community, where 9 people attended from the USA, Australia, Israel, Ukraine, Scotland and Germany in a Zoom call.
My idea is to make such meetups also here on Activemelody. Such meetups are such a great opportunity to share the love for the guitar with other likeminded people. I think it would be great to do this also here on Activemelody. I think so many of us, are only sitting in their guitar rooms, with no possibility to show to others, what they have learned. In such meetups, we would have the opportunity, to show each other which of Brian‘s lessons, we learn and play it for each other in a live situation. I can say, it‘s thrilling, but it‘s also so much fun.
What do you think about this idea, to do something like this here in our community? All you need is a free Zoom acount. And it would be great, if one person had a payed account to avoid the time restrictions.
Let me know in your comments, if you are interested, to take part in such meetings here on Activemelody. When we know, who from which part of the world will take part, we can look for a suitable time spot.
It would be great, if we could establish something like this here on Activemelody!
I‘m looking forward to your reactions and of course to all your acoustic performances.
And now I hope you enjoy my performance, an excerpt from a meetup three weeks ago.
I know it‘s not perfect, but it‘s live!
Greetings to you all!
Manfred

Richard G.

For this November’s acoustic challenge (no enhancements) I’ve decided to play something based on EP484, which of course includes a backing track and strictly not allowed. So, I’ve merged the melody and rhythm parts and played it as a fingerstyle percussional piece together with an alternating thumb style, the result has created a vibrant groove.
I’ve kept the main melody reasonably in tact, although played in a different part of the fingerboard and also added some improvised parts in an attempt to add some variety.
You could say that it’s very ‘loosely’ played in the style of Brian’s original.
I hope it meets with your approval.

Martin W.

Hi folks , for this months challenge I went with Ep 416 country blues in drop d , this was quite challenging in parts with lots of timing nuances.
I added an intro , also because this lesson reminded me of Steve Earle’s
Copperhead road I couldn’t help but give a little nod to that at the end .
I’m away travelling this weekend so will catch up with everyone’s submissions at some point .
Martin

Steven L.

Hi Everyone,
It’s a bit hasty for me to post challenge recording here because I’ve just joined the community and I’m still familiarizing with all the rules and how to, etc. I managed to get my stuff to youtube and post here, because it’s an audio piece, not favorable but allowed here, I hope you don’t mind!
This is EP066, one of Brian’s acoustic lessons which I really like, I tried to my best to replicate Brian’s original version but still found it can’t be perfect in terms of coherence and speed. Anyway, I hope you can still enjoy it!
Steven.L

Gary W.

Hi Folks,
For my submission this month I worked on EP511 acoustic finger style blues (I have a feeling I won’t be alone on this!) The recording includes two laps of the 12 bar cycle, the first is close to Brian’s lesson – then for the second lap I developed my own version.
It’s ok, not quite got the swing I was after – but its was a good exercise:-)
Thanks for listening & best wishes to all.

Mark T.

For this month’s challenge, I really wasn’t sure what to do and time was marching on! In the end, I just placed the iPhone in front of me, hit Record and noodled to see what came out 😂
I got about 5 different tunes from this single take of apx 30 mins – most of them were rubbish, but this one was the best of the bunch (though far from how I can play) 😁
If I’m honest, I was in two minds whether to submit this at all, but my wife (or “The Boss” as she likes to be called 😂😂) said I should post at least ‘something’. She added, “You don’t make life easy for yourself, do you, with these awkward chords! But this one has promise and you could develop it into something.” – erm, thank you sweetheart (I think she meant this as a compliment 🤣🤣🤣)
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! 😎♥️

Vincent K.

Hi AM-ers
For this month I challenged myself with a percussive fingergerstyle Lesson EP372.
I do not own a acoustic guitar so I played this one on my recently bought Red Tele.

Mike W.

Good day – I hope you are all well.
Brian’s challenge was to play an acoustic blues solo. That was all the excuse I needed to get hold of a new acoustic guitar on Black Friday. The Recording King arrived Monday and this recording was made on Wednesday. We haven’t really bonded yet but we’re getting on ok. If anyone else has one of these I’d be interested to know what strings you find best – there’s a bit of whistle on these but I don’t want to change to strings which lose the old-timey sound.
The piece that I’ve recorded is “Laid Back Blues”, written by Johnny Norris – an acoustic blues player from Ireland. Hope you like it.
I’m looking forward to seeing all the other submissions.
Take care and have a great Christmas – here’s the link

Don Patton Jr.

Hello AM members!
For this challenge I have created an Original acoustic blues composition.Standard tuning in the key of”D”. D5,A7,G7,GM7, Along with a little slide play.Stand alone acoustic blues as Brian mentioned.
Looking forward to hearing your posts!

Brian M.

Hi all,
First time posting here, looking forward to seeing all the submissions.
I used EP 540 but added my own twist to it and made it longer – Not sure how to embed the Youtube video directly in here so here’s the link. I noticed Brian asked people to share this as December 2023 Challenge but everyone is posting under November so will do that.

EP540

ep_540-240p

Denise & Daily

Hi AMers
There was only little time to work on the acoustic challenge in November (due to a planned endovascular surgery and recovery), so I chose that simple short 1-5-4 acoustic Blues.
But it’s been fun to play around with my Taylor GS Mini which I usually only do when on holidays.
I wish you all a wonderful and healthy festive season. We just got our first snow here in the lower regions.
Denise

John H.

One Take Pickin’ on Some Skynyrd

Manuel M.

manuel wollman france paris ep486

Leo Lutz

I went through one chorus of a Clapton inspired blues in E. I don’t know the lesson number but it comes from one of Brian’s “in the style of” offerings that he posted on Clapton’s birthday a few years ago.

Catherine Arsenault

Hi all Active Melody members I’m sorry I haven’t been online for a little while due to selling our house and moving 😅
Covid finally got me this week after avoiding the dreaded thing for 3+ years or so it’s a whopper but I had to get this this short video out sweated through the whole video I hope you enjoy and Happy Xmas and Jolly Yule my friends 🤶🇨🇦🎶🎄

Bill

Hi AM friends! Busy busy month between holiday and work trips so no time for a new recording unfortunately.
Luckily, I had met the parameters of this challenge a couple months ago when I recorded ML100 on my Taylor GS Mini.
I don’t often play my acoustic guitar so it somewhat feels like an entirely different instrument. But I thought it sounded nice for this piece.
Hope everyone has a great Holiday season and a very Happy New Year!

Bob Utberg

Inspired by EP496 and SRV:) Thank you Brian for encouraging me to pick up that gitfiddle with the big hole in the middle of it for this Challenge!! LOL!!
Enjoy the Holidays everyone and see you all in 2024!!! Wowza – where did 2023 go?

Tom D.

I love acoustic blues and chose to arrange a 3-part medley using Drop D tuning.
The first 2 parts are EP354 and EP085 from Brian’s awesome catalogue , and the 3rd part is my short solo acoustic guitar Drop D arrangement of Bill Frisell’s full band jazz tune called “That Was Then” – a cool song that was fun to work out, and that added a different flavor. All parts were played fingerstyle and, of course, some blues licks were tagged on to close out the medley.
Thanks for watching. I can’t wait to hear your acoustic blues posts and hope you have a Great Holiday Season and New Year! Tom

Mike D.

Quick E/A vamp with one turnaround.

Alan O.

Hi Everyone,
This is the first recording with my new condenser mic and audio interface. By the way, thanks everyone for the recommendations on equipment! I ended up with an Audio-Technica AT2035 and a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (4th gen.). I’m happy so far with this setup.

Jean Luc G.

Part 1

Mixing Mississipi blues and Brian’s lessons…
Who will recognize Brian’s lessons ?
I did not respect the rules by using a backing track…Sorry…

Part 2

Mixing Mississipi Blues with Brian’s lessons..
Who will recognize Brian’s lessons ?

DaveW

Hi AMers,
It’s been awhile since I have joined in any of the challenges. Hopefully I’ll have the time to keep it up. I chose EP354 a drop D blues piece. For some reason that Drop D sound seems to call to me. It’s not a perfect recording but I finally was able to record one that turned out ok. Happy holidays to everyone!
DaveW

sciencefiction Larry

I recorded the first video (EP139) a couple of days ago. I posted EP114 and EP131 (second and third videos) way back in March, 2016 but they somehow got deleted from the site. So, I’ve taken the liberty to reprise them here. By the way, in the first video, you might notice our new Golden Retriever, Dory, who just turned one year old. And, EP131 always reminded me of that song Bluebird by Buffalo Springfield, so I remember I tried to add a little Buffalo Springfield action at the end (LOL).
Thanks,

Paul S.

I feel a little guilty. After more than a year on the wagon, so to speak, I fell off for a couple months and failed to submit a challenge response. But I am now climbing back on with this unplugged and homemade acoustic riff. (I’m sure you all missed me.)

Michael L.

Acoustic Blues – three approached occurred to me for this challenge:
Memorize and play an EP, or play one I’ve already memorized. Good experience, but seems like limited learning.
Compose something. I’ve done this for previous challenges, but this time not feeling too inspired.
Improvise some blues. I’ve struggled with this, though I see Brian do it in many lessons, and it seems a decent guitarist should be able to do it. Tough road, but lot’s to be learned here.
I spent a lot of hours this month just improvising on the blues. Brian said “just your fingers and a guitar”, and this felt to me like what he meant. This video is rough, unpolished, and limited in terms of “blues vocabulary”, but I’m beginning to acquire a bit of groove with it and it hangs together at least. I’m certainly seeing much more of the fretboard while playing over dominant 7th chords.

”Slappy”

After the broken arm and wrist, still don’t have full movement of the Pinky but here we go.
Just the Acoustic guitar no effects doing the blues, Okay during the song you get a little reverb from the Mic. But I give singing a try.The second part you hear the Mic drop out and it’s just the Guitar. a good challenge to not suck without the help of effects. But there’s no effects out in the woods.
Thanks for watching.

Pap

Hello fellow AM family!
My wife and I just returned from a three month long journey around the U.S. It was fantastic. Our first night home (last night) we stayed up until four in the morning talking. It speaks volumes given that we were together for the past 90 days in a 25ft camper van. I struck gold in the spouse department:)
She recorded me playing the Black Mountain Rag on the beach in Carpenteria, CA (just south of Santa Barbara). I love that beach and we had fantastic weather. I played my guitar, rode my bike, drank beer and had fun. I did not want to come home.
Anyway, I love Doc Watson and although there is background noise, I think this video paints a picture of how much I enjoyed this months challenge. The audio is supplemented with background ocean noise so if nothing else, use it to help yourself go to sleep 🙂
For next months challenge, I will try to put together a vid that highlights our trip. It was just too much for this months challenge.
I hope everyone is doing well. Cheers. Pap

Serena C.

Hi everyone!
Here’s a very short (and not polished) contribution for this challenge, as unfortunately I’ve had little time this month. I played the first part of EP518, first loyal to Brian’s composition and then I’ve added some licks and different chord voicings. I have a lot to learn especially on acoustic guitar… cannot wait to get inspiration from your posts!
Enjoy the challenge weekend!
Serena

sunjamr Steve

Slap strum is a percussion technique which is almost like playing a backing track plus the melody simultaneously. I found that it works really well for reggae, because you can put the slap on beats 2 & 4, then weave the melody in between. Key of C is good, because your thumb can easily hit the low C, A, F, and G to add in a bass effect. As examples I’m playing “No Woman, No Cry” and “One Love” by Bob Marley. It’s easy, and I reckon it’s one of those styles that makes you sound better than you actually are.

Andy N.

Hi AM challengers,
I was intending to do EP358, which I’ve had on my list for a while, but when I went to look it up, EP354 A drop D blues caught my eye. In a blink of the same eye it completely hooked me! There’s something about that returning, droning D. As its pretty delta bluesy, I thought it would be fun to play it on a resonator too.
It’s a 12 bar blues and I play Brian’s lesson (more or less!) for the first 12 followed by a further 12 bars of my own invention.

Juxi

Hello AM family,
for my November 2023 challenge response I decided to play a lesson, I already knew how to play. I did this mainly because I knew that I would have little time this month, but also to get rid of my “Joker”: Now I will have to learn something new for future challenge responses. There is nothing of my active repertoire left, that I did not already post (well almost nothing 😉).
I recorded two lessons in one video, but my wife thought that to be too long. Some of you already have seen the discarded lesson (EP 323), which I put in the showcase forum. Here now is the lesson (EP 296) which was my wife’s favorite.

Laurel C.

Hi everyone, As this month’s challenge is all about acoustic, using fingers and no effects I decided to do an experimental style mini-version of Classical Gas, this is something that I have wanted to do for a while. Challenges always make things happen. I am using ukulele tablature with the addition of a few E and Am guitar chords.

JoLa

My initial idea was to learn EP357 but there is no way I could do that in just 3 weeks so … I started noodling around with some open strings ideas and that’s what came out of it, a dark soup of bass, solo notes, and … squeaks (eeek!) 😆😁🎶

André H.

It begins and ends with me on an acoustic guitar. Thanks to Brian I got much better on the electric guitar, but the acoustic guitar is where I got comfortable. A big reason for that was fingerpicking. Fingerpicking with a steady thumb made sense to me. After that, I got better in rhythm playing. Before that, not so much.
This is the Love version of ‘While my guitar gently weeps’. It’s such a great song. There’s some fingerpicking here, and the chord structure is great as is with Harrison’s best songs. Hope you like it. Played on my new Martin 000-18! Looking forward to hear everyone’s contributions!

Stephen

Hello All, this is my take on lesson EP534
I’m really enjoying the lessons and certainly the type of music that is being taught is really something I’ve been looking to learn more of, so thank you for that.

Guido

It has been a tough month for many reasons, so I didn’t have much time to prepare the challenge. Also I lost time trying to play something with slide, but the piece wasn’t ready yet. So at the last moment I recorded a very small composition I learned meany years ago from a method for acoustic finger picking guitar. Played with some little errors here and there, just in a pure spirit of participation and also curious to watch the other members submissions, which I’m sure are very interesting!

Sumanto Banerjee

Visiting home after a long time from my place of work; and so had to pick up my son’s Classical Guitar with nylon strings.
Tried playing my own understanding of EP 314, on my son’s guitar; always liked that lesson due to the Classical and Piano vibes of the piece along with its variable mood swings and technical parts. Enjoyed learning it; not sure how well it came out. Looking fwd to listening to all…

MrO

I do not currently own an acoustic guitar so I chose an amp with clean tone and no added pedals.
I also chose EP343 with guitar for the background track and played EP344 over the top.
Thank you for listening.

Pat

So many good submissions and nice playing! I’ve got a list of new pieces to learn. My piece is a 12 bar blues ( maybe 13?). Lots of licks/ideas from Brian. Thanks for listening:

James B.

I chose two classic blues tunes for this month’s acoustic challenge.
EP368 works well with ‘Come On In My Kitchen’ and leads into an easy transition to Brian’s great arrangement of ‘Key To The Highway’.
I had to tune the guitar down a whole step for the vocals and to make it a little easier to play the leads on an acoustic.

David G.

I chose, perhaps unwisely EP478 Ragtime Blues to have ready this month.I liked the sound of it but the technical challenge may be above my paygrade by a touch. This should perhaps have been more of a submission for something I struggled with. I need a little more work on it but I enjoyed getting as far as I did. I always seem to mess up in different spots each time I play through. Anyway here is my recorded effort and yes I didn’t chicken out and turn to my electric.

Livio M.

Hi AMers
For this month I tried to learn ep288 a blues that I would like to always keep ready to play when someone asks me to listen to a blues. I still need to work on it a little for an execution without hesitation.
Thanks for listening and for your challenges.

Joe D1

This month’s challenge was an acoustic blues challenge. Create a piece with just an acoustic guitar in a solo composition. No multitracking, just your fingers and an acoustic guitar. I opted for a simple blues shuffle in the key of E. I played on my Yamaha CG172SF Flamenco guitar. Recorded in GarageBand (with no added effects) using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface and a Samson Q2U XLR dynamic microphone.
I’ve listened to most of the other submissions and they were much more impressive than my submission but we all have to start somewhere! Happy Holidays everyone!

Javi

Long time fan of Brian, and lurker here. Wanted to get in on this one. Heres an acoustic blues with my trusted steel string lady.
This is surprisingly more terrifying than it should be:

Alan L.

I don’t play a whole lot of acoustic these days. At first I was going to submit an old favorite I knew pretty well. But I was having so much fun with EP543 Chicago Blues on electric, I worked up a little acoustic version.
Not perfect, but I always say that. Please excuse my comfy pants 🙂

Reuben B.

Well, I was pretty much unprepared for this challenge; I didn’t think I was going to be able to submit. But earlier this week my son excitedly told me a new (to him) song he learned at school and has been playing it over and over. Which got it stuck to my ear. So I thought I’d see if I could just play it for this challenge. So here’s my rendition attempt of “Tennessee Christmas” (originally by Amy Grant, I think) on acoustic, recorded in a rush and, unfortunately, without much practice …
Looking forward to see all the submissions (though likely it will take me the whole week to get caught up).

Bruce D.

Here’s one I’ve been trying to learn forever – the Hesitation Blues. Inspired by Jorma Kaukonen, one of the best.
Thanks to Brian for having us get out the acoustic!

Lights Meelis

Acoustic blues

Tremelow

I keep going back to Brian’s older lessons, because I like them just as much as the new ones. This one is a lesson I never touched before because I never thought I could do it justice. However, after about month of practice I am quite content with the result. It can always be bettre (faster!), but that may come in the future.
With that out of the way, please forgive me for the basic video. I had my condenser mic out and was ready to roll, when I noticed that one important part was missing (I think it’s called the spider). So I lost valuable time with looking for that thing which has only place where it belongs. I have no idea where I might have left it. In the end, I recorded with my iPhone 8 Plus with a iRig Field-mic attached. I tweaked the sound in Reverb by duplicating the track and panning both sides. Still not the sound I had hoped for, but still better than the original.
Thanks for watching the video, I hope you enjoy it. Now, I am quite eager to watch your folk’s contributions!

Adam H.

Hi Folks,
Here is my best attempt at the fingerstyle blues EP511 “Easy” thumb technique.
I found this surprisingly challenging. I like fingerstyle but this piece showed me a lot of my weaknesses. It took a lot of work (and there are still issues) to uncouple my thumb and three fingers to accommodate the rhythmic and strings. In some ways, this felt like my first guitar lesson! I have really enjoyed the great pieces everyone has been posting! Way to go!

Mark V.

Way out of my comfort zone but wanted to get something posted and contribute:
Acoustic, no backing track, no plan, just winging it with Blues in A.

Dermot M.

Hi and Seasons greeting all!
Somehow convinced myself this did not need to be submitted until next weekend??!. Ooops!!
I attribute my distraction to the allure of the Black Friday sales! :-)) GAS Anyone?! ;-))
I had started to work on episode 540 – 3 Fretboard shapes.
I think I have learnt the shapes and started to follow Brians solo piece to help put things into practice along with some scales.
Will keep working on this as I have learnt a lot from this lesson. Great the way Brian can give you so many golden nuggets in his lessons. Genius!
I welcome all your comments and I look forward to learning from watching the other submissions.

Aime S.

Hi Active Melody friends !
After exactly 1 year without posting any vids online, I am glad to say that todays is the day of my comeback on the AM challenge member response 😀
For this month’s challenge I choose the Chet Atkins Blues EP057.
Hope that you enjoy it ! Your comments will be most welcome.
Looking forward to listening to all the submissions. Cheers !

Andy Wright

Hi everyone, I hope you are keeping well and have enjoyed this months challenge. I had ago at composing a piece which is kind of blues / country inspired. It was quite challenging on the acoustic alone but I stuck to it and avoided going to the electric (much kinder on the fingers). I tried to connect the chord changes using the ideas and lessons Brian has been teaching. I tried to implement scales, pentatonic licks, arpeggios and triads. It was fun and also a challenging learning process.

Dave H.

When I picked EP336 it said Easy Finger Style Blues and it sounded great. Good something right up my alley. Little did I know how limited my time would be on this, grandparenting, vacation, and covid. I am posting this at the last minute trying to record something decent. But alas as you will hear lots of warts especially at the end. Oh well. Don’t spend a lot of time trying to say nice things. While appreciated, we all know it needs work.

Rich F.

Good day all…
Here is my piece for this month’s challenge… I have played an acoustic version of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”… based around the chords G D Em and C… please excuse the quality… my guitar room also has a tumble dryer in it…. That was going in the background… that’s why it sounds like I am playing under water! 😁

Paddyboy

HELLO AM ers
This is kind of a rush job but I love this microlesson ML069. It’s got 6 or 7 chords and it’s all done between the 9th and 12th fret. Brian didn’t have a backup track so I did one for it. Hope it comes out ok
Thanks for the listen