Mike Dowling – Bottleneck Blues and Beyond – 2 Volume Set

Guitarist Mike Dowling has made a lesson detailing the slide technique that he has mastered during his long and fruitful career. Whether you’re a fingerpicker ready to incorporate the slide or a slide player looking for new challenges, this set is a must. East coast style Piedmont blues is Mike’s forte, and in this comprehensive, articulate lesson workshop he helps you negotiate the pitfalls as well as the possibilities inherent in fingerpicking, bottleneck style.

Mike loves nothing better than making an old song sound new and he’ll teach you how to do just that with techniques that are guaranteed to add creativity to your playing. Using traditional blues examples as well as his own original compositions, Mike never loses sight of the melody as he explores often overlooked techniques that are sure to enhance your slide playing. You’ll learn how to incorporate fretted chord forms with your slide work and crisp right-hand patterns that will keep it all moving along. Mikes teaches new turnarounds and syncopations, damping techniques for the right- and left-hand, and refinements for vibrato that will make even the simplest lines sound musical. Using primarily D tuning, Mike teaches non-bottleneck tunes he’s adapted to the bottleneck, including “Mean Ol’ Frisco,” “Stranger Here,” and Tampa Red’s “Boogie Woogie Dance” in addition to his own “Swamp Dog Blues” and the haunting “Jan’s Song.”