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Needed.... Robert Johnson meets Barney

Posted by Wichita Sam on March 12, 2010 at 8:31am in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts

I'm doing a spring break workshop for kids next week at the Wichita City Arts Center and I've decided to have them build some of Diane in Chicago's Dulci-Blues Boxes.  I've worked out really cool and s-a-f-e kits (emphasis on safe) so we ought to be building quickly...

 

 

QUESTION:  What are some child appropriate blues songs? 

 

I would like a play list of 3-5 that I can teach and send home with the little rug rats...

 

thanks for the help.

 

the best,

 

Wichita Sam

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Replies

  • LittleBigOne May 19, 2010 at 12:28pm
    ok thanks :-)
  • Wichita Sam May 19, 2010 at 10:56am
    If you really want them playing "blues", try fretting some in a pentetonic scale... natural blues.... that's what I did with the workshop with one stringers and we were singing "Mary had a little Lamb" blues... just a thought...

    LittleBigOne said:
    Hi Sam, please let me know what songs you choose and where I can find the tabs, I am working on setting up
    summer workshops for some kids too, but I am more of a builder than a player. We will make exclusively 3 strings
    with dulcimer scale.

    So far I have hard time to find tabs for three strings guitars. I would love to have some
    of the blues played by Red Dog too, so I could show them the videos and then have the kids play the same
    songs, and when they come back home they could rely again and again on the Red Dog youtube videos... It
    seemed not so hard to play when I watched the videos, but without tabs I feel I'm not able to teach them...
    I also found a few Backporch Mojo lovely songs but I still have to found the tabs too...

    well, I hope someone can help with my "message in the bottle" :-)
  • Wichita Sam May 19, 2010 at 10:54am
    Here's a link the the McNally StrumStick song page.... http://www.strumstick.com/html_pages/sssongpagetoc.html While he's a little anal about the name "Strumstick", he does share a wealth of information......

    I think that will give you all you need ....

    the best,

    Wichita Sam

    LittleBigOne said:
    Hi Sam, please let me know what songs you choose and where I can find the tabs, I am working on setting up
    summer workshops for some kids too, but I am more of a builder than a player. We will make exclusively 3 strings
    with dulcimer scale.

    So far I have hard time to find tabs for three strings guitars. I would love to have some
    of the blues played by Red Dog too, so I could show them the videos and then have the kids play the same
    songs, and when they come back home they could rely again and again on the Red Dog youtube videos... It
    seemed not so hard to play when I watched the videos, but without tabs I feel I'm not able to teach them...
    I also found a few Backporch Mojo lovely songs but I still have to found the tabs too...

    well, I hope someone can help with my "message in the bottle" :-)
  • Brady Scott May 19, 2010 at 10:16am
    That's great man. Good to see you working with the kids and sharing the gift of music with them. Cool little guitars too!
  • LittleBigOne May 19, 2010 at 9:48am
    Hi Sam, please let me know what songs you choose and where I can find the tabs, I am working on setting up
    summer workshops for some kids too, but I am more of a builder than a player. We will make exclusively 3 strings
    with dulcimer scale.

    So far I have hard time to find tabs for three strings guitars. I would love to have some
    of the blues played by Red Dog too, so I could show them the videos and then have the kids play the same
    songs, and when they come back home they could rely again and again on the Red Dog youtube videos... It
    seemed not so hard to play when I watched the videos, but without tabs I feel I'm not able to teach them...
    I also found a few Backporch Mojo lovely songs but I still have to found the tabs too...

    well, I hope someone can help with my "message in the bottle" :-)
  • Diane in Chicago March 18, 2010 at 6:32pm
    Well done, Sam! Hope they keep playing and building! Maybe you should have an advance builders class next time -- returning students can make a 2 string dulci!
  • Richard D. DeRoin March 18, 2010 at 4:26pm
    Hey Sam, they look like some Hot Blues Ladies on there way to Stardom ! I think this is just the right age to get started. Job well done ! The kids are our future. Thanks for your good example !
  • Wichita Sam March 17, 2010 at 10:55pm

    Workshop yesterday.... here's a couple pics.

  • Wichita Sam March 12, 2010 at 7:38pm
    Hi Diane,

    Since this will be a younger group (9-13 year) I'm doing all the cutting (box slots, neck reliefing, etc.). I'm leaving drilling (by an adult at a drilling station) for the tuner, soundhole and the string termination, glueing up the toothpic frets and decorating the top. We're going to try to get the building done in 2 hours with 1 hour for making music...

    Seriously Diane, that dulci-blues scale is a stroke of genius.... not much for making melody, but you can blow up some killer solo's on the blues scale...... Thanks for helping me out with that.

    the best,

    Sam

    Diane in Chicago said:
    Sam, how much of the build work are you doing in advance for the kids?
  • Diane in Chicago March 12, 2010 at 6:47pm
    Sam, how much of the build work are you doing in advance for the kids?
This reply was deleted.