Epitaph on a blues musician’s headstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”

Your course of 118 in-depth delta blues lessons

Stream pre-war blues lessons, Netflix-style, on the songs of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, and many others.

See the Catalog of Blues Songs You'll Learn

Full Length Lessons

Hours of Content

Check Out These 3 Sample Lessons

Cold Woman Blues

Blind Joe Reynolds

I've Got Trouble

Belton Sutherland

Tell Me Baby

King Solomon Hill

Why Ploddings?

The mission of this site of this site is super simple.

To spread the style of early blues guitar for future generations to learn.. by creating full-length lessons on every pre-war blues artist’s complete discography by the year 2040.

Since starting in December 2018, 118 full lessons are up and running, covering the complete discographies of Belton Sutherland, Geeshie Wiley, King Solomon Hill, Robert Petway, Peg Leg Howell, and many others; as well, the site covers all of Son House’s pre-war songs, half of Robert Johnson’s discography, and so on.

It ain’t quite perfect yet, but with each month it’s steadily plodding towards the big goal.

★★★★★ 5/5

5 Star Testimonials

Last year I discovered a lesson on how to play Blind Willie Johnson’s “Nobody’s Fault But Mine”, and Mitch of Blah148 and Ploddings. Not only was the lesson straight-forward, teaching you the basics of the song, the lesson went deeper, showing you how to actually play the notes and get the feeling.

And so my journey started. When I discovered that Mitch was developing a collection of Robert Johnson lessons, I was very excited. When the lesson pack came out I was probably one of the first one to buy it.

The lesson songs are grouped together based on their structure. Many of Robert Johnson’s songs have very similar structures, and as such if you learn the structure of one song, with a few tweaks of note changes, you can easily learn the songs’ brothers and sisters quite quickly and easily. I found this approach was different from other lessons on the net; different in that it hasn’t been approached this way before, which is odd as it seems much more intuitive.

The site promises that you can learn it all in 2 weeks, and if i didn’t have a full time job, two kids, a wife, and 2 cats I might have been able to learn them all in that timeline, but it did take me about a month. As such, it is quite amazing. By grouping the songs into families, it did make the whole process much, much quicker. And despite being burdened with responsiblitles, I learned more songs in a month than I learned in a year.

I would highly recommend this lesson set, and would also highly recommend past and futures lessons from Mitch at Ploddings.

There are a number of people out there who provide lessons for the old blues greats, but when you hear the final product and compare it to the actual recording they can leave a lot to be desired. For whatever reason, the playing sounds nothing like the recording.

This is what sets Mitch apart from most of the others. Mitch shows you what is actually played on the recording, getting the notes right without adding unnecessary flourishes and embellishments. His genuine enthusiasm and care for the music shows through his correspondence and his ability to capture nuances of the songs he teaches.

I had the pleasure of working with Mitchell for 3 years in my quest to play fingerstyle blues guitar and learn all about Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt and other legends.

Mitchell can not only play all the standards and classics flawlessly and with ease, but he has a knack of explaining the hand and chord positions in a manner that makes sense to the mere mortal guitar player. On top of the amazing chops and technical skills Mitchell has, he also has an amazing understanding of the musical history and impact on future generations each of the early masters has had on the blues genre.

Mitchell is the most talented guitar teacher I have met in my 40+ years of trying to improve my playing. Thank you Mitchell!

I initially dove into Mitch's course on Robert Johnson and the Delta Blues. I am a novice guitar guitar player, and found he made it easy to follow, use, and pick up the main licks and choruses of the songs. Also, it's easy to use and navigate the many songs that are available. I got this course at a very good price for what I've gotten.

Now that I've watched the lessons, it's opened my eyes up to a whole new perspective and appreciation for R&B, Blues, Country, and so on.

I hope to develop my guitar ability learning Robert Johnsons style. My life feels like a Robert Johnson story but learning these licks and basic chord progression has helped me grasp some of these classic blues sounds. Keep up the good work!

What You'll Get

1-on-1 Support

Hop on a complimentary 30min guitar lesson with me. Plus you’re always welcome to contact for 1-on-1 questions and support.

Lifetime Money Back & Access

Become a ‘Plodder’ for life! Just that one-time fee and you’ve got lifetime access. For reassurance, your money-back is guaranteed for life too.

Unique Content

The only place you’ll find step-by-step lessons on obscure artists like King Solomon Hill and Robert Petway.

Join & Support Ploddings

Decide to learn more than you ever would have during your guitar-playing lifetime
Get access to these 118 lessons now
For sure, this is the only place where you'll ever find this depth of lessons on rare artists like Geeshie Wiley, Robert Petway, King Solomon Hill, Peg Leg Howell, and many others
Get a complimentary 30min guitar lesson to get started off on the right footing
Money back guarantee will always be available; tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. If you have any doubts, contact me personally.
Lifetime access to the course (and all upcoming lessons and content) with this one time cost

(The button above will take you to an order page)