Improvising and Variations for Fingerstyle Blues Guitar

Many early blues songs from players such as Robert Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Blake and others were played using the basic "Cowboy" chords (chords played between the first three frets) that most beginning students have learned. Combining those chords with fingerstyle methods such as Travis picking (alternating bass) or dead thumb (monotonic bass) can be a joy in and of itself. But what if the student could take his/her knowledge of old blues tunes and learn to improvise with them? Using tools such as the CAGED system and using pentatonic scales we can open a new world of improvisation.