How To Play Guitar Like Woody Mann
Woody Mann is a masterful American blues guitarist. He was born in New York and learned his early acoustic guitar chops under blues guitarist Reverend Gary Davis. From there, he has become a tour de force in acoustic guitar music, incorporating jazz, folk, and international music in his oeuvre.
Accomplishments include:
- 15 Albums including original and covered tunes
- Playing with famed artists like Lennie Tristano and John Fahey
- C.F. Martin company released a "Woody Mann" signature guitar
- Performed in Broadway music pits
- Co-producer of "Harlem Street Singer" documentary
- Conducted major workshops around the world
- Faculty member at New School in New York City
- Visiting artist at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA
If you're interested in playing guitar like Woody Mann, you're in luck. Because of his extensive career and teaching abilities, there's a lot of resources you can get with Woody himself teaching you.
Here are a few recommendations.
Woody Mann's Guitar Lessons:
Fingerstyle Blues Guitar by Woody Mann
This lesson illustrates how traditional country blues guitar techniques and styles can be extended and explored to create new textures and feelings. Woody demonstrates blues in the keys of A, D and E and shows how variations and improvisational ideas can be developed. The playing ideas of Blind Boy Fuller, Big Bill Broonzy, Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Rev. Gary Davis and Scrapper Blackwell as well as other blues legends are discussed.
Acoustic Blues Guitar
Woody Mann teaches the sounds and techniques of the classic ragtime blues guitar style.
The Art of Acoustic Blues Guitar: Handful of Riffs With Woody Mann
Learn five repertoire building songs arranged for the intermediate fingerstyle guitarist. Inspired by Woody Mann s favorite traditional blues tunes, these easy to follow arrangements teach a variety of acoustic blues styles and sounds. Each song spotlights a specific technique for developing fingerpicking skills, rhythmic grooves, and dynamics in your playing. Woody illustrates the syncopated fingerpicking of Blind Blake, the single-line style riffs of Lonnie Johnson, the melodic playing in open G tuning of Memphis Minnie, and the unique riffs in standard tuning of Rambling Thomas and Bo Carter. Woody shows how the riffs and techniques can be applied from one tune to another and illustrates practical ways to create variations within a tune.
Woody Mann's Discography
- Stories (1997)
- Stairwell Serenade (1998)
- When I've Got the Moon (1999)
- Heading Uptown (2000)
- Been Here and Gone (2003)
- Together in Las Vegas (2004)
- Waltz for Joy (2005)
- Road Trip (2005)
- First Takes (2009)
- Donna Lombarda (2009)
- Out of the Blue (2010)
- Originals (2012)
- Tribute to the Reverend (2013)
- Empire Roots Band (2014)