Example BLIND BLAKE STYLE

[Bar 1] This descending sequence is a typical Blake intro or fill. You will need a lot of speed to get the rolls accurate so work on them slowly using ‘pima’ fingering for each arpeggio. Blake was a fleet-fingered picker and these sequences are great exercises for speed development.

[Bar 3] A typical Blake ragtime-style chord progression. Play it with a ‘bouncy’ feel but make sure the alternating bass lines are tight all the way through. Ideally it should sound like two different instruments complementing each other.

[Bar 13] This is quite a tricky picking sequence. I played it with the thumb (p) picking the lowest string (solitary bass notes) of four-note chords. The fingers (ima) come next, picking the other notes in the chords.