In addition to his work as a composing and performing musician, John Miller has close to forty years experience as a music teacher, having begun teaching privately while still in high school. He is available for private instruction in finger-picked Folk guitar, Country Blues guitar, Brazilian guitar, Music theory and chord voicing and composition. John offers private lessons in Bellingham and Seattle (see contact information), and can do lessons through the mail, as well. He currently offers audio-only Country Blues guitar lessons through the Country Blues website.
John has extensive experience teaching groups, with many years service teaching at such music camps as Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Georgia Strait Workshop, BC Swing Camp, the California Coast Music Camp, the Port Townsend Country Blues Workshop, Augusta National Heritage’s Bluesweek and the European Blues Association’s Bluesweek.
John has also done a series of instructional DVDs for Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop, as part of the 800 series focusing on Country Blues guitar greats. John has done separate DVDs on the music of:
Country Blues/Jazz Standards/Original Compositions: Transcriptions by Artist
Here is a list of transcriptions that I have done that are not available on my instructional DVDs. I now offer lessons in two formats: hard copy or virtual. For a hard copy lesson on a song I've already transcribed, the cost is $55 postpaid, in the USA, $60 international. Cost of a hard copy lesson that requires me to do a new transcription/arrangement is $65 postpaid in the U.S.A. and $70 international. A hard copy lesson includes TAB plus a CD on which I talk through the song in detail, including left and right hand efficiencies of motion, fingering and picking tips, etc. If you opt for the virtual lesson, it will be sent to you over the Internet, with the TAB on a pdf and the talk-through on an mp3. Cost of virtual lessons is $55.00 for a pre-transcribed song and $65.00 for a song that requires a new transcription/arrangement, with those fees applying worldwide. (NOTE: For the creation of arrangements of Jazz Standards, I reserve the right to quote a higher price for arrangements that I know will take hours and hours to create and transcribe. Where such an adjusted fee for a lesson is agreed upon, it will not be subject to further adjustments on my part.) I am always available for consultation/questions after you've received a lesson, if some aspect of the lesson or transcription is unclear. Payment for lessons must be made in advance either online at www.paypal.com (use my email address, john@johnmillerguitar.com) or by check sent to my address:
- John M. Miller
- 3115 Firwood Avenue
- Bellingham, WA 98225
Contact me in advance via email before ordering any lesson that will require a new transcription/arrangement of a song not included on the list below. Turn-around time on lessons is generally less than a week, if I'm not traveling. I will add songs to the lists below as I perform new transcriptions and keep the lists updated.
Skype Lessons
I now offer Skype lesson consultations to offer technical pointers and trouble-shoot problems you may have encountered in the songs you've been working on. This kind of feedback is invaluable, for it provides the kind of guidance a good teacher would normally provide at follow-up lessons after having given you a new song to work on. To take a Skype lesson, you will need to have downloaded the Skype software (it is free) and have a camera in your computer, so that we can communicate visually. The rate for Skype lessons is $55 for a 40-minute lesson, and $70 for an hour lesson. Send me an email if you would like to do a Skype lesson and we can figure out a time when we are both available.
Country Blues
- Babe Stovall: Good Morning Blues, The Ship Is At The Landing, Candyman, Going Away To Wear You Off My Mind, How Long How Long Blues
- Baby Tate: Hey Mama Hey Pretty Girl
- Barefoot Bill: Snigglin' Blues
- Big Bill Broonzy: Hey Hey Baby, Bull Cow Blues, Long Tall Mama
- Blind Blake: Playing Policy Blues, One Time Blues, Black Dog Blues, Rope Stretching Blues, Georgia Bound, Early Morning Blues, Goodbye Mama Moan, Walkin' Across The Country
- Blind Boy Fuller: Weeping Willow Blues, Untrue Blues, I Crave My Pigmeat, Catman Blues, I'm A Rattlesnakin' Daddy, Baby, You Gotta Change Your Mind, It Doesn't Matter, Baby, Blue And Worried Man, Mamie, Take 2
- Blind Lemon Jefferson: One Dime Blues, Shucking Sugar, Black Horse Blues, Matchbox Blues, Right of Way Blues, See That My Grave is Kept Clean, Prison Cell Blues, I Want to Be Like Jesus in My Heart, Big Night Blues, Dry Southern Blues
- Blind Willie McTell: Drive Away Blues, Dark Night Blues, Love Talking Blues, Razor Ball, Blues Around Midnight
- Blind Willie Reynolds: Third Street Woman Blues
- Bo Carter: I Get The Blues, Who's Been Here?, Get Back Old Devil, The Law Gonna Step on You, Sue Cow, Old Shoe Blues, Pretty Baby, Country Fool, She's Gonna Crawl Back Home To You, She Keeps On Spending My Change, Someday, Trouble in Blues, Twist it Baby, Don't Mash My Digger So Deep, Let's Get Drunk Again, Bo Carter's Advice, Tush Hog Blues
- Bob Campbell: Starvation Farm Blues, Shotgun Blues
- Buddy Boy Hawkins: Snatch It Back Blues
- Buddy Moss: Unkind Woman, Too Doggone Jealous, I'm Sittin' Here Tonight, Baby You're the One For Me, Someday Baby, You Need A Woman, Tricks Ain't Walking No More
- Carl Martin: Old Time Blues
- Charley Jordan: Hunkie Tunkie Blues, Keep It Clean
- Charlie Patton: Pony Blues, Pea Vine Blues
- Clifford Gibson: Bad Luck Dice
- Curley Weaver: Some Rainy Day, Trixie
- Ed Bell: Hambone Blues
- Edward Thompson: West Virginia Blues, Seven Sisters Blues, Showers of Rain Blues
- Emry Arthur: She Lied To Me
- Etta Baker: Dew Drop, Railroad Bill
- Funny Papa Smith:Tell It To The Judge, Pt. 1, Wiskeyhead Blues
- Gabriel Brown: Going My Way
- George Torey: Lonesome Man Blues
- Geeshie Wiley: Last Kind Words Blues
- Henry Johnson: Crow Jane
- Ian Buchanan: Too Close To Heaven, True Religion, How Long, Ramrod Daddy, Keep On Trucking, Winding Boy
- Ishmon Bracey: Woman, Woman Blues
- Joe Callicott: Frankie and Albert, Fare Thee Well Blues, Let Your Deal Go Down
- John Jackson: Steamboat Whistle Blues
- John Miller: arr. Bull Doze Blues, Titanic, I Never Cried, arr. Try Me One More Time, Muskrat Ramble, When We All Get Home/Ginny's Frolic, Wild About My Lovin', Motherless Child, Cool, Baby, Cool, arr. Rope Stretchin' Blues, arr. Dirty Deeds, arr. Who's Been Here?, Smooth Blues For E. H., This Old Hammer, arr. Longing For My Sugar, arr. Shady Lane, arr. How Long, How Long Blues, arr. The Athlete's Rag, arr. Viola Lee Blues, arr. Oh Mary, Don't You Weep, arr. Minglewood Blues, arr. Trouble In The Air
- Johnny St. Cyr: Guitar Blues
- Joseph Spence: Face To Face That I Shall Know Him, Out On The Rolling Sea
- Kid Cole: Hard Hearted Mama Blues
- King Solomon Hill: The Gone Dead Train
- Lane Hardin: California Desert Blues
- Larry Johnson: Keep it Clean, The Beat from Rampart Street, Four Women Blues
- Libba Cotten: When I Get Home, 'Til We Meet Again, Jesus Is Tenderly Calling, Sweet Bye and Bye, What A Friend We Have in Jesus, Look and Live My Brother, Ain't Got No Honey Babe Now, Mama, Nobody's Here But The Baby, Going Down The Road Feeling Bad, Ontario Blues, I Don't Love Nobody, Little Brown Jug, Ball The Jack
- Lightnin' Hopkins: Crawlin' Black Snake
- Little Hat Jones: Rolled From Side To Side Blues, Corpus Blues, Bye Bye Baby Blues
- Lottie Kimbrough: Rolling Log Blues
- Louie Lasky: Teasin' Brown Blues
- Lucious Curtis: High Lonesome Hill
- Luke Jordan: Won't You Be Kind?, Cocaine Blues, If I Call You Mama
- Mance Lipscomb: Goin' Down Slow, Silver City Bound, If I Miss the Train, 'Bout A Spoonful, Charlie James, One Thin Dime, Ain't You Sorry?, Shorty George, Wonder Where My Easy Rider Gone, Ella Speed, Ain't It Hard, Take Me Back, Babe, Casey Jones
- Mississippi John Hurt: Nobody Cares For Me, Got the Blues Can't Be Satisfied , Keep On Knocking, Coffee Blues, Cow Hooking Blues, Salty Dog, Trouble I've Had It All My Days, Casey Jones, Shake That Thing, Make Me A Pallet On the Floor
- Papa Egg Shell: Goin' Up the Country, Part 2
- Pink Anderson: Meet Me In The Bottom, I Got Mine, I'm Going To Walk Through The Streets of the City, Ain't Nobody Home But Me, Greasy Greens, Mutton Stew, My Baby Left Me This Morning, Every Day of the Week, Sugar Babe, Mama Where Did You Stay Last Night
- "Rabbit" Brown: James Alley Blues
- Rev. Gary Davis: Cocaine Blues, Candyman, Devil's Dream, I Decided To Go Down, You Got To Move, Tryin' To Get To Heaven In Due Time
- R. L. Burnside: Goin' Down South
- Robert Johnson: Teraplane Blues
- Roosevelt Holts: Little Bitty Woman, Prison Bound, She Put Me Outdoors, Lead Pencil Blues, Rocks In My Pillow
- Sam Chatmon: Frankie Jean, Ashtray Taxi, Hollandale Blues, Prowlin' Groundhog, I Can't Use You No More, Brownskin Woman, Black Nights, Stoop Down, Baby, Let Your Daddy See, That's All Right
- Scrapper Blackwell: Goin' Where The Monon Crosses the Yellow Dog, Trouble Blues
- Shirley Griffith: Meet Me In The Bottom, River Line Blues, Saturday Blues, Shaggy Hound Blues, Maggie Campbell Blues
- Skip James: Cypress Grove Blues, I'm So Glad, Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
- Son House: Depot Blues
- Sonny Jones: Dough Roller
- Tarheel Slim: No Time At All
- Teddy Bunn: Blues Without Words
- Tom Dickson: Death Bell Blues
- Tommy Johnson: Canned Heat Blues, Big Fat Mama, Lonesome Home Blues, Take 1
- Tommy McClennan: New Highway 51 Blues
- Walter Roland: Guitar Stomp
- Willie Trice: Good Time Boogie
- William Moore: Old Country Rock, One Way Gal, Barbershop Rag, Ragtime Millionaire
- Yank Rachell: Matchbox Blues
Jazz Standards
- Blackberry Winter
- Blue Moon
- The Blue Room
- Brazil
- Bye Bye Blackbird
- Hey There
- If I Only Had A Brain
- It's The Talk of the Town
- Manhattan Serenade
- Moon River
- My Foolish Heart
- My Time of Day
- New York, New York
- Patricia
- Pure Imagination
- Russian Lullaby
- Shine On, Harvest Moon
- Smoke Rings
- Song of Bernadette
- St. Thomas
- Sunday in New York
- The Nearness of You
- The Very Thought of You
- This Could Be the Start of Something Big
- Unforgettable
- When You Wish Upon A Star
- Young At Heart
John Miller Originals
- Amor de mi Vida
- Don't Wake Me Up I Might Stop Dreaming
- Jalapenos
- The Singing Moon
- Souvenir de Caracas