what songs taught you the most?

[Charlie Bernstein]

For folk guitar, "Wild Horses."

It taught me dynamics, playing with feeling, not just strumming the right chords at the right time. I doubt it was the song. It was probably just the song I was playing when I made the leap.

For electric, "Strange Brew."

Clapton stole his solos from Albert King, and I stole them from Clapton. It was the first song that opened up the elegance of minor pentatonics for me. Again, I doubt it was the song. It was just what I was playing when I figured it out.

For open G: "Kokomo Blues."

Same story. Listened to Fred McDowell and decided to come up with my own alternating-bass arrangement. Since then, I've come up with a lot of Delta-inspired finger picking.

For mando: "Atlantic City."

If it's good enough for Levon Helms, it's good enough for me!

For blues mando: "Viola Lee Blues."

Not the Dead or Gus Cannon version. Just a simple twelve-bar that opened up the mando fretboard blues landscape for me.

For blues harp: "Baby What You Want Me To Do."

Same story.

For squareneck: "Going Back to Tennessee."

One of my favorite Commander Cody tunes. Don't sing it around a TSA agent!

 

[P Thought]

For me no question: Hank Williams.

Then Willie Nelson (Fred Rose, really, with "Blue Eyes Cryin' In the Rain") got me started expanding my repertoire of 3-chorders. 30 years later TDPRI began helping me understand why those songs are put together that way, and how to play them better, as well as exposing me to many more songs, genres and songwriters.


P.S. "Country Roads" is a great song!

 

[archtop_fjk]

For me it was Bach’s “Bouree in Em”. I learned it by ear from a version Leo Kottke did when I was a young teen. It taught me finger independence and classical right/left hand coordination. My fingerstyle approach is very classically influenced and this piece was the starting point.

 

[McGlamRock]

"Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin. The solo from that tune was the first time I saw 'patterns' on the fret board. It could have been any tune, but I think I just learned that one at the right time.

 

[danielreid27]

12 bar blues leads are my joys.
Country Roads & Green Onions my first chords.

 

[thebowl]

The House of the Rising Sun - one of the first tunes I learned.
Chuck Berry - all of it, but Memphis, Thirty Days and Sweet Little Sixteen in particular
Freight Train - the tune I used to learn to play finger style.
If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day/Walking Blues - probably the most important music for finger style bottleneck, for me