Learn to play from Chicago Blues Masters
Learn to play Chicago Blues from the best. Our instructors are professional musicians who work, live and breathe the Blues. Most of our instructors and guest artists are Chicago Blues Hall of Fame Artists. We are honored to introduce to you the instructors and staff of Chicago Blues Network.
Learn MoreChicago Blues Masters are staying home.
You’re staying home.
How ‘bout some
At Home Chicago Blues?
The Faculty of Chicago Blues Bootcamp are offering online lessons of our entire Blues Network fakebook for you while taking shelter. For $23.95 per month, customers will receive up to 25 video lessons taught by Chicago Blues Masters. Each lesson shows techniques, riffs, chord changes and other insights which Faculty members use in Blues Clubs and Festivals around the country. Chicago Blues Bootcamp will donate 20% of each order to the Blues Foundation’s COVID-19 Blues Musicians Emergency Relief Fund.
About Chicago Blues Network
Who we are
July 2nd - Jimmy Johnson, Dave Specter, Johnny Burgin & friends. Chicago Blues Bootcamp/Delmark Trading 4s
The Chicago Blues Network is a global social impact community of interest in the art form Chicago Blues. We connect Chicago Blues musicians with those who have a passion for the Chicago Blues style of music to further the study and appreciation of this urban music discipline.
Our goal is to become the destination for all things Chicago Blues, actively supporting musicians, record labels, clubs, festivals, foundations, neighborhoods and individuals. Through our bootcamps, our web-based training, our live Chicago Blues shows, our blues letter, our podcasts, and our social media we seek to bring together women and men of all ages in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and The Americas.
We stand up for the dignity, respect and human rights of the global Chicago Blues community.
Brother Brett Champlin, Founder
(1947 – 2020)
When Brett was 13, he began to teach himself to play guitar on a used acoustic guitar that had only three strings. While in high school in Oakland, California, he played saxophone in a rock band but he switched to guitar when he was at Southern Illinois University, where he played in both a folk music duo and in a blues rock band. The band, originally named “OM”, moved to San Francisco in 1968 and changed it’s name to “Devil’s Kitchen.” Devil’s Kitchen Band played all of the major venues on the West Coast and especially the Bay Area, eventually becoming the “house band” at Chet Helms’ Family Dog Ballroom. They opened for and jammed with the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Taj Mahal, Santana, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Allman Brothers, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, Savoy Brown, Ten Years After, Lightning Hopkins, Big Mama Thornton, Magic Sam and many others. When that band broke up, Brett traveled around the world and eventually settled in Chicago, went back to school for his MBA, and worked as an IT Manager and Management Consultant in large corporations for the next 35 years before retiring to play music again. After retiring, Brett could be found at blues jams in the Chicago area or listening to his favorite blues players three to four nights a week. He also started going to harmonica and guitar camps that were fun but none that taught Chicago style electric urban blues. So he decided to start one and that is how the Chicago Blues Network was born.
Learn to play blues from the best
Meet the Chicago Blues Masters
Our faculty are professional musicians who work, live and breathe the Blues. Most of our faculty and guest artists are Chicago Blues Hall of Fame Artists. We are honored to introduce to you the instructors and staff of Chicago Blues Network.
Click right or left to view more Chicago Blues Masters
Upcoming Events
Admission fee is $5. Use coupon code 'Crew' for $5.00 discount at checkout.
At Home Chicago Blues Trading 4s Show – Thursday
December 17, 2020
What People Are Saying
Connect With Us
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: MIKE WHEELER
Photo by: Peter M. Hurley
Mike Wheeler; flash with substance. Mix scorching steel strings with a gospel throat and you're getting close.A warm presence who sings like a soul angel but plays with devilish chops when cutting loose. Sweet blues, ...raw funk, and a guitar sound from an electric playground of soul and r&b.
The Mike Wheeler Band is one of Chicago's finest late period blues practitioners and will be for decades to come. Tight and right, virtuosos all.
As a sideman, Wheeler has paid his dues. He has learned from the best and the torch has been passed by blues masters before him. It will not be extinguished on his watch.
Photo taken at Rosa's Lounge during a closed streamed set on August 4, 2020. The band was on fire.
-PETER HURLEY 12/2/2020
About: Mr. Hurley is a contributing photographer and writer for Living Blues Magazine and the staff photographer for Chicago Blues Network. His recent book Blues Legacy: Tradition and Innovation in Chicago, in collaboration with Blues historian and author David Whiteis, showcases his work in the field. His passion for blues music began with the Chess Studios’ sound of Bo Diddley and continues to this day. pmh1951.wixsite.com/blueportraits
Billy Flynn teaches "Just A Little Bit" by Roscoe Gordon, made famous by Magic Slim. Learn 16 Chicago Blues Standards from the Grammy-Award winning #chicagoblues Master, plus weekly live Zoom sessions with Billy, $23.95/month, perfect gift this month, ...https://chicagobluesnetwork.com/at-home-chicago-blues/
Dave Specter and Brother John play/teach Allen Toussaint's On Your Way Down, recorded by The Meters and by Little Feat, among others, https://youtu.be/6zmJtTWcz48
Remember, this is really a lesson more than a performance, but, since we have had several requests already to be able to ...send some love, here is the tip jar link to show your appreciation, https://chicagobluesnetwork.com/merchandise/#donate and thank you!
Chicago Blues Masters Dave Specter and Brother John Kattke perform the Allen Toussaint classic, On Your Way Down and then discuss what each is trying...
l.facebook.comWe teach #chicagoblues based on a 16 song set list, which you can view and listen to at any time from our website, https://chicagobluesnetwork.com/set-list/
You will study and learn each of these songs, and how they inspire or are inspired by so many other #chicagoblues songs, from the ...perspective of six different Chicago Blues masters. Sign up today https://chicagobluesnetwork.com/at-home-chicago-blues/
Looking for more information or just have a question, please fill out the form below, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible!
l.facebook.comLaunching Now! Song and Lesson, bBlues Note Volume 1, Issue 31 - https://mailchi.mp/0d4f39428800/blues-note-volume-1-issue-4755173
For your learning pleasure:
Three lessons of Big Bill Broonzy's Key To The Highway from Chicago Blues Network At Home Chicago Blues
Joanna Connor in D, https://youtu.be/eeWFknA1poE
Johnny Burgin in G, https://youtu.be/eeWFknA1poE
Brother John Kattke in A, ...https://youtu.be/ZtFr0SGc-9I
Which one is your favorite? Do you take nuggets from all three #chicagoblues masters? Sign up now for lessons on 16 Chicago Blues standards by 6 different Chicago Blues Masters, https://chicagobluesnetwork.com/at-home-chicago-blues/
This Week's Article: "The Dangerous Nickname Game"
by Marty Weil @ChiBluesHistory
Peetie Wheatstraw was known as "The Devil's Son-in-Law" and "The High Sheriff of Hell," nicknames he helped cultivate from the stage where he would tell tales of ...selling his soul to the devil and other not-so-nice behaviors. Of course, the nicknameless bluesman Robert Johnson is today more famous than Wheatstraw for his supposed dealings at the crossroads. Almost 100 years later, Johnson's legacy is clouded by ridiculous devil tales, which were, as likely as not, lifted directly from Wheatstraw's stage antics.
Johnson, relatively unknown during his lifetime, intended to excite small crowds in barrooms or on dusty city streets with his "devil-at-the-crossroads story." During his lifetime, he couldn't have known the permanent damage he was doing to his legacy. How could he have known of his unnatural death at 27? Or that his small catalog of songs would become the revered template for electric blues and rock-n-roll? Considering one in 10,000 men in the Delta shared the name Robert Johnson, it's incredible that Johnson is more closely associated with Beelzebub than the man who cultivated two devilish nicknames for himself.
Ironically, Robert "Jr." Lockwood, the only bluesman to have been taught to play directly by Robert Johnson, suffered professionally as a result of his nickname, which was designed to tie him to Johnson by blood. At the tender age of 15, Lockwood was already playing professionally at parties in Helena, Arkansas. In Helena, he often played with Robert Johnson, Sony Boy Williamson II, and Johnny Shines. On one occasion, he played on one side of the Sunflower River while Robert Johnson played on the other, with the people of Clarksdale, Mississippi, milling about the bridge, reportedly unable to tell which guitarist was the real Robert Johnson.
Lockwood relished the idea of being mistaken for the great Delta bluesman and took on the nickname Robert Jr. However, the association grew tiresome when Lockwood re-emerged during the Blues Revival of the 1960s. During the heady days of the Blues Revival, he grew weary of the attention he received because of his misleading nickname, as it connoted his being Robert Johnson's stepson, a fact that he rightly knew overshadowed his own achievements as an outstanding bluesman. His solution? He placed the Jr. after his given name, thus becoming Robert Lockwood Jr.
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Marty Weil is the editor of @CHIBLUESHISTORY on Twitter. Marty is a blues researcher, educator, and social media influencer. He is a contributor to bBluesNote the Chicago Blues Network weekly newsletter.
To sign up for the weekly e-newsletter bBlues Notes, just click right here: http://eepurl.com/gLr9yP
Inspired by the blues? We connect you with Chicago Blues Masters to learn how to play the blues in the Chicago style, and introduce new listeners to Blues with concerts - even in a pandemic! Enjoy At Home Chicago Blues Trading 4s. This episode featured Ivy Ford and Guy King:
...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut6DIJv9eKQ&t=172s
Stay inspired and take lessons with At Home Chicago Blues, sign up here: https://chicagobluesnetwork.com/at-home-chicago-blues/
Questions? just email info@chicagobluesnetwork.com!
Ivy Ford and Guy King perform live.
l.facebook.comThis is Johnny Burgin, instructor with The Chicago Blues Network, with a short lesson for you: Help Me/Green Onions https://youtu.be/9QM1aV86qbs
For twenty plus years I've gigged, toured and recorded with many of the Chicago blues greats, as well as pursued my own touring and ...recording career as a leader. Now it's my turn to pass on what I can by teaching the great works from legendary Chicago blues artists. A detailed look at Chicago blues classics, song by song, teaches students universal principles for rhythm playing, ensemble playing and solo-ing no matter what their skill or experience level. For complete info, check out https://chicagobluesnetwork.com/at-home-chicago-blues/
I hope you enjoy this sample lesson of Sonny Boy Williamson's Help Me. Based on "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MGs, this is Chicago-ized to the extreme!
I go through the song from the group up: first the bass lines, then playing the chords with expression and a groove, and finally how to create your own solo that tells a story, with a beginning, middle and end. Thank you!
Chicago Blues Master Johnny Burgin takes you through the bass line of Help Me, in F. Then, he moves to "little" chords and accents to give the song...
l.facebook.com
By Adam Lukach
Aug 05, 2020 at 1:34 PM
“Like virtually every other physical event in 2020, the Chicago Blues Boot Camp had to make a digital pivot due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The modest, four-year-old operation typically piggybacked on the international audience of the Chicago Blues Festival, and 14 of its 28 students in 2019 were visiting from outside the US.
The move to digital space has allowed for some expansion, however, with this summer’s launch of the “At Home Chicago Blues” series, including the Trading 4s concert series. Since late May, owner and manager Scott Weil has been organizing “pay what you can” bi-weekly shows on the first and third Thursdays of the month featuring Chicago blues musicians.”