
Mary Flower is an award-winning acoustic fingerstyle blues guitarist known for her original tunes and smooth voice. With multiple albums and an impressive career, Mary strives to keep the blues alive.
Lesson 1
Mary Flower dives into the relationship of chords while looking at a piano keyboard for a better understanding.
Length: 16:39 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 2
Mary Flower talks about the major scale, its formula, and chords. She also briefly discusses barre chords.
Length: 15:43 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 3
Mary Flower shares a basic lesson on Travis Picking.
Length: 15:38 Difficulty: 2.0 FREELesson 4
Mary Flower talks about alternating bass patterns and how to incorporate them into your playing.
Length: 6:52 Difficulty: 2.0 Members OnlyLesson 5
Mary Flower talks about the CAGED system, the transposition process, and how to use a capo.
Length: 6:34 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
About Mary Flower
View Full Biography
Working in both the intricately syncopated Piedmont fingerpicking style and her own deeply bluesy lap-slide guitar, Mary has earned rave reviews from critics and audiences alike for her springwater-clear vocals and mastery of multiple guitar styles as well as her own compositions. Though she can create prewar blues and ragtime with the best of them, Mary draws on traditional, contemporary and original material to create something new: a sound uniquely her own that remains true to the timeless power of the blues.
Flower's elegant, funky and inventive playing on vintage guitars makes her one of a mere handful of women guitarists admired for their instrumental prowess. In 2000 and 2003 respectively, Mary placed in the top three at the National Fingerpicking Championship. Her career as an internationally known performer and teacher has spanned more than three
decades.
A recent transplant to the Northwest, Mary cut her teeth on the Colorado music scene where she played with the likes of Katy Moffatt, Pat Donohue, the Mother Folkers and more. Mary took a detour in the 80s to raise a family, all the time woodshedding and performing locally.
Mary's CD Bywater Dance, recorded pre-Katrina in New Orleans for Yellow Dog Records, has garnered widespread acclaim. An award-winning player with seven solo cds and 5 instructional DVDs to her credit, Flower is in demand for festivals, concerts and guitar workshops on both sides of the Atlantic.
"Unassuming blues heroine Mary Flower proves one again that she's one of
the nation's premier fingerstyle blues guitarists-- her technique is exceptional
throughout, and in the end, serves the highest purpose, the music--unfailingly
sweet, hot and sassy--every track on this album has something about it that will
give you the shivers... This is one of the most satisfying albums of the year."
- All Music Guide to Blues
"Her crisp, fluid fingerpicking sounds deceptively effortless, with flawlessly executed syncopation, the hallmark of a bouncing, upbeat Piedmont style. From casual listeners to devoted blues fans, Flower's music is accessible to everyone"
- Blues Review
"With her immaculate guitar playing and warm contralto, Mary Flower finds the
sweet spot between modern and rootsy in twelve tunes bred of back porches,
parlors, street corners, juke joints and country churches...one of the best blues based
singer songwriters working today."
- Acoustic Guitar Magazine
"Mary is one of those rare artists who manages to create a tincture of the aged
authentic with the freshly original."
- Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine
Our acoustic guitar lessons are taught by qualified instructors with various backgrounds with the instrument.
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Free LessonSeries DetailsIn lesson 6, Kaki discusses how the left and right hands can work together or independently of each other to create different...
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Free LessonSeries DetailsLisa breaks into the very basics of the electric guitar. She starts by explaining the parts of the guitar. Then, she dives...
Free LessonSeries DetailsLearn a handful of new blues techniques while learning to play Stevie Ray Vaughn's "The House Is Rockin'".
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Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.Very good lesson. We want more Mary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the box in the lower right corner is out of sync with the other part of the video. very good lesson though.
Thanks for the heads-up! This has been fixed.
what's your guitar?
Fantastic lesson Mary, thank you very much!
Welcome Back Mary. I've really missed your lessons. Looking forward to more. Regards H