Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Learn the “L” Shape to play country and blues – EP440

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play both rhythm and lead using this simple “L” pattern as a visual guide. You can use this technique for blues, country, and rock guitar.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Practice Song

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  1. JohnStrat says

    Hi Brian,
    I think this was one of the first things I learnt way back when. But you enlarge upon t and make a great practice exercise to jam about with. It will be very useful for many I am sure.
    JohnStrat

  5. Biker13 says

    I’ve been playing long enough so that I can look at what you’re playing and play it back with relative ease. But if I were new to playing and new to ActiveMelody I would find this lesson really disappointing because it would really be difficult to figure out what you’re doing. And reading TABS sucks. Teaching your compositions note for note is what you do better than anyone else. Its your bread and butter. And it should be part of every lesson. There are far more site members who need that than don’t.

    • Gordon T says

      I think it is a very fine line between too much instruction and not enough. The video is already 21 min long. I agree that ActiveMelody can be hard for beginners but should Brian cater to the lowest common denominator. I am not a beginner but also not a good guitar player if I use soundslice and learn maybe 6 bars at a time everything is fine. I don’t know the makeup of Brian’s subscribers .

    • sunjamr says

      Dude! My 5 year old grandson learned to read tabs in about a half hour. You will never be a good guitar player if you don’t knuckle down and learn how to read tabs. Have patience. Just pick a rainy day when you’ve got nothing else to do and try to play one lick from tabs.

      • Jeffrey E says

        Completely agree with the others, the Soundslice with inset live playing combined with the tabs is as straightforward as it gets. Fabulous lesson for the advanced beginner to intermediate player like myself. I very much appreciate the combination of theory and practical teaching which each of these lessons. Keep them coming! 🙂

        • alfred c says

          Agreed. But I have always (50 years) thought tabs were garbage compared to sheet music & ear, but am learning (slowly) to expand my skills to using tabs too. The viewer is an ideal way to put ear to eye to fingers and Brian has the technique down for beginner to ?

    • Nick Ll says

      This is a very personal take Biker13. I would think there are thousands and thousands of beginner to intermediate guitar players for whom reading tabs does not suck at all. On the contrary, tabs are an easy way of visualising the translation of the physical neck onto some form of reference record. I really could not agree with your criticisms at all.

    • Rob N says

      Biker13 , I started playing with Stephan Grossman’s vinyl learn country blues guitar. Just an LP with about 12 great tunes on and a book of tabs. Play the track you want to learn and figure out the tab. You are not the only one to struggle, I know a few quite advanced players who can’t get on with tab, just depends how you learn. Brian doing note for note you can sorta get by slowing the videos down.

  11. Maxwell E says

    Oh shit Brian, never stretch my fingers so much , read some comments and for me , this is what I needed for a beginner.
    I have just been playing some chords in g doodling , but this is fantastic for me .

    Thanks once again Brian ps have been going thru your archives and playing some lessons with relative ease now and gradually getting into the harder ones as I have problems with changing back to chords after playing notes …just practice practice and practice will get me ,I know.

  13. Jean Jacques P says

    thanks a lot Brian !

    I love this ep and noticely the recent ep 437

    what pedagogue you are !! for people like me who want to progress without getting too involved in a technical game,

    never regret my subscription.

    My favorite ones are ep 268, 303,305, and those I forgot the numbers, anyway some blues stuffs I I play to brighten up my evenings !

    I like successive blues lessons which form a longer piece like ep 303+305.

    Have a good day,

    jjp

  15. alasdair L says

    This is what I’ve been waiting 12 months for. Putting everything together. So practical. More or less easy but it all sounds so good. When (?) I can manage this I will be able to stun my family and my Spanish guitar teacher and die happy (but not yet, I hope!). Re TABS, for me they are a vital part of learning as the vids are not 100% clear where fingers are. Re complaints that this is too easy (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) if you find this too easy I don’t know why you are watching ActiveMelody as it is to teach guitar. If you know all 440 lessons by heart you don’t need the site. If anything I would like a few more ‘easy’ lessons, but no real complaints, ActiveMelody has saved my life – almost literally. Thanks, Brian.

  16. Paul S says

    One of the reasons so many beginners quit is that they quickly find out how complicated this instrument is. I’ve been playing since 1964 (Beatles forever!) and I was taught that every time you pick up an instrument you learn something and this is a perfect example. He shows how easy it is to transition from one part of the neck to the other and that has been elusive for me over the years. I can see the scales on paper but when he actually shows the process as in this lesson it is a ‘light bulb’ moment. I might be an old dog but what keeps me going is new tricks! Thanks, Brian. Great lesson!

  17. Anthony I says

    For those who say the lesson was too long, you should remember that someone can take just the first part and have fun and learn at the same time. I have subscribed to many teachers. You are the best at allowing a student to look at it simply and/or investigate the more intricate parts. Some people don’t realize that what you give them allows one to play and enjoy quickly (which is great) and trick them at times to learning theory and often they don’t even know that you did it. I am a retired teacher and I appreciate how you make what might be tedious and potentially boring to most, fun AND secretly slip in some theory. That is not easy. When I found a way to teach a lesson like that I felt great. My students had fun (I got their attention) AND they learned at the same time. An other great lesson for both the beginner and advanced.

    • Mark N says

      Yes, totally agree and for me whilst I fully know the E shape and A shape 1, 4, 5 I did need reminding of the in between G and C shapes and now am practicing this for a while to drum it home. These chords should just come naturally especially when improvising but I can honestly say they wouldn’t have for those shapes before this, I would have had to really think them out. All of these small muscle memory tricks or go to’s make a huge difference.

  21. Lyn C says

    Great lesson Brian.. I too have been playing guitar on and off for a long time- mostly just cowboy chords. Since joining Active Melody I have learned how CAGED works and pentatonic scale positions, and am finally figuring out how to transition from one section of the neck to another. Recently, I have been trying to figure out TABS for some of my favourite tunes, and have kind of got stuck in one section of the neck, so this is really helpful.

  23. Francois M says

    The absolute perfect lesson for me! A way to have fun for hours fooling around on the guitar without the family complaining about the awful racket I’m making. Strumming 1-4-5 chords in different shapes across the neck, including some of that Jimmy Reed rhythm, interspersed with licks. No backing track needed. Electric or acoustic. Just plain fun. Easy enough that I could try screeching out some blues lyrics while playing. The little throw away at the end about the minor chords was very helpful as well. Your excitement comes through in the video. Glad to see you’ve got your spirit back. Thank you.

  25. Raymond P says

    Another great lesson Brian.

    I don’t understand why some folks have to complain, I wouldn’t change your lessons in any way. I always enjoy following your lessons with the sheet music in front of me so I can make notations as I watch the video, but I’ve also used SoundSlice which is an extremely handy tool to make notations with too.

    Thanks for all your hard work. I have learned how to play all over the fretboard with relative ease and can’t thank you enough.

    Keep up the good work

    Ray P

  26. JUSTIN D says

    Hay Brian, I was wondering if you could light up the tabs as you’re playing to make it a little easier to follow?
    Not to say that you’re not explaining things thoroughly, just another possible tool to use.

  29. Bill K says

    Enjoy all the lessons Brian and this is no exception.

    For those grumbling about the interactive tab, take the time to learn the tool. It is extremely useful, It loops sections that the user can create then slows those sections down so you can work on timing. I wish I had a tool like this when I started playing 50 some odd years ago. It would have saved a lot of vinyl! Great work Brian!

  32. Juxi says

    Brilliant lesson, Brian. I agree with Charjo: at first, one gets the impression that this is a beginner’s lesson, but the connection between patterns and chord-shapes is always very useful. And this is so much fun to play. Thanks! 👍🏽

  34. Phil67 says

    Hello
    I was a little puzzled at the start of this lesson: no ‘deep dive’ on the theory, no ‘catching melody’.
    but after 15 minutes, I stopped the video, I took my guitar and I walked around on the neck.
    this video + EP 436 form a perfect package as an “immediate playing lesson”.
    i only get back to listen to final part of the lesson end of the week, so much i was busy playing with the “L”.
    Thank you

  38. John C says

    Hi Brian, I’m an intermediate guitar player and initially thought this lesson was too basic but I let it play. I’m glad I did and got a lot out of it with the fills and moving around the neck with the chords. GREAT LESSON.

  39. Glenn says

    Thanks again, Brian. With over 400 lessons in your catalog, you can afford a few back-to-basics lessons. There is so much deep instruction on your site I have to say that anyone who has absorbed all of it should cancel Active Melody and begin teaching guitar. After playing for 4 years I still grabbed a couple of nice tricks out of the lesson, and the composition at the end is very slick. I am adding it to my bag of tricks.

  40. Chris White says

    Consider adding just a bit more on intervals. For example with your G shaped C and D chords the lowest note (it’s on the A string is the third of the chord the pinky can be placed on the E string to get the root and maintain the L shape) nobody typically plays the big six string G shaped chord up the neck but many use it as a reference. Brian I know you know this. Just saying it keeps the L shape in the mind. Thanks for the wonderful teaching

  41. Richard R says

    At first i thot ohhh pretty basic but it showed me how to use the minor and major scales as well as moving the rythem up the neck. I struggle of how and where. Using the A shape down two frets (minor)pattern one and the ESahpe pattern 3 (major)really opend things up for me. I like the licks too. Thanks again brian cant wait to jam with this with my buddies

  42. Peter m says

    Another super helpful lesson. I’m a beginner+ and, as with many of Brian’s lessons, some of it pushes me and some is over my head, but it’s always a growth opportunity and experience. Thank you, Brian! And love the t-shirt!! Happy thanksgiving to the whole Active Melody community!

  44. Jade says

    Great lesson 👍 initially thought I was going to just get to recap on the 145 patterns, which would be useful in its own right but this has given me plenty of other insight… now it’s time for me to get working on making it actually sound good!

  46. David E says

    Every video and explaination is a gem. Please keep doing what you are doing Brian. You are brilliant! I love being a subscriber, learning AND having a ‘LightBulb’ moment. You make playing guitar is so much fun.

  48. tonylolli says

    I’ll tell you why I like this “approach” so much. When I found Dave Keller (soul musician), I told him I wanted to learn the way the old timers learned. I didn’t want to play Twinkle Twinkle or Mary Had A Little Lamb. And, I didn’t want to read music. He started me out with barred chords and showed me the same kind of “position” concept you’re using here. It was good dtuff and yours is terrific, also.

  52. James O says

    This was a huge break through for me. I love the way this dovetails with other early acoustic videos you’ve done this year on finding the 1,4,5 anywhere on the fretboard

    Thank you very much

  54. Connor M says

    Great lesson however I don’t understand playing the g minor pentatonic scale over a g major progression near the end of video one. Should you not play e minor pentatonic. I’m confused. It sounds good but isn’t the wrong key?
    Thanks

  55. Simon d says

    Thank you Brian, another awesome lesson. You make it look simple and it feels easy playing along but it’s challenging when the videos are off. For me, this is the perfect mix for learning and improving.

  60. terry b says

    great lesson however hard to tell where your going on guitar I will stay with it but the other lessons were explained a lot better Im counting the frets on your guitar when you say right here Please dont get me wrong Your a great teacher but this lesson is hard

  63. Jim L says

    To me this lesson is more like an atomic light bulb. I’ll benefit from your exercises but I note that the L concept will be very useful in learning the fretboard (yes, I’ve not memorized the fretboard yet but) as the 1-4-5 relationship exists for every note, except when the B string is involved. A great tool for me because when most ever I want to find a note I want to find the 1-4-5 notes in the neighborhood. Thanks.

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