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St. James Infirmary Blues
by (traditional) • Lesson #216 • Feb 16, 2019
Instructional PDF 3 pages
Lesson Discussion
Slow Playthrough Videos
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Playthrough 1 of 4: Simple Strum
This shows me working through the “bass, down” pattern I teach in my main lesson — with tabs shown on screen. I include some additional tips & advice to get up to speed with this as well.
Playthrough 2 of 4: Adding Licks & Fills
This shows me playing the full progression with the 4 licks and fills I teach in my main lesson, zoomed-in, with tabs on screen. Again, some misc tips are included as well.
Playthrough 3 of 4: My “Secret Stash” Strum
This shows how I prefer to strum the song while singing. While it doesn’t have licks & fills per se, I do include some “chippy upstrum” flair during each gap in the lyrics. Zoomed in, with tabs.
Playthrough 4 of 4: Lead Guitar Melody Tab
This shows me playing the main melody to this song using a simple arrangement, zoomed-in and with tabs. This is all coming from the A minor scale, and most of it (with the exception of 1-2 notes) is coming the A minor pentatonic. I’m using the “Position 1” minor scale pattern, which is between frets 5 and 8.
Lesson Overview
In this lesson I’ll teach you how to play an acoustic version of the classic St James Infirmary Blues. We’ll be in the key of A-minor, and I’m going to make this as accessible and beginner-friendly as possible. I’ll teach the chords, the progression, some strumming tips, and show you some neat lead licks & fills you can add in between strums of certain chords.
In my zoomed-in playthrough videos, I’ll show you four different ways to work through the song’s 8 measure progression — tabs included!
Video timestamps for my main video lesson:
- 0:00 Playthrough & greeting
- 2:05 Chords shapes needed
- 6:20 Chord progression
- 6:55 Strumming patterns
- 9:39 Adv. strumming tips
- 13:40 Fills & licks
Play-Along Backing Track
Normally my backing tracks are members-only, but this is one I’ve made available to everyone! If you’re looking for more of my lessons with these tracks available, click to view the full list.
Audio Backing Track Also Available!
This is the same as what’s in the video above, but in an audio format. Members are able to download this and use it offline, as well as play it directly within this webpage.
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