Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Dark and Spacey acoustic guitar lead – Ambient Guitar Lesson – EP617

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a dark and spacey sounding lead on acoustic guitar (think Pink Floyd).

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

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Slow Walkthrough

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Comments

  4. Theodore J says

    I like it, ..This composition should be in a movie…The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. I can visualize the bad guy’s on horse back appearing on top of the Bluff

    and all hell bout to break loose..

  10. André H says

    A fantastic lesson. I really like the chords and the variations. It took me a long time to go through the lesson because I immediately started playing each new section and ended up missing the rest of the lesson. 😀 Thanks for this wonderful lesson!

  13. Bob N says

    I’ve been a member for two years. I learn a lot of new guitar “stuff” and develop more skill (with practice) from every lesson, even though I’m not a good enough player to play verbatim what you, Brian, compose byway of teaching us (which is not your intention, I know). What sometimes happens, and it happened with this lesson, is that the multitude of “stuff” in it informed a composition of my own, a moody sort of ballad. Thanks for all the hard work. It’s obvious you like to teach. And I apologize for the steals.

  16. Dale G says

    Love the backing track! Sounds like something out of a movie.. Then topping it off with your lead fill ins gives it more depth. Probably closest I’ll ever come to playing along with an orchestra! Lol! Thanks again for a great lesson. Looking forward to diving in!

  19. Steve says

    Refreshing lesson with arpeggio based rhythms, it’s really like the counterpart to last week’s G major bluegrass but in the relative minor, and like how the same concepts from E minor blues are reimagined in this ambient atmospheric style and sounding fresh compared to the normal blues rhythm, I can understand how you were inspired to throw those harmonics in. These open based positions are fascinating to throw a capo on and just copy the same patterns. Perfect for launching off into my own improv.

  23. Georg B says

    Hello Brian,

    Until you released lesson ep617, I didn’t understand the structure of a natural minor scale. By that I mean that I didn’t know where the minor and major degrees of a natural minor scale are and where the diminished chord is. Thanks to you, I now know that I can simply start with the parallel major scale, namely G major, for the natural E minor scale. This concept can then be applied wonderfully to all other keys. Even though this is not the core of your lesson ep617, it was an enlightening moment for me, and I have taken another step forward.

    Here’s another thing that’s not directly related to your lesson ep617, but it makes reading the fretboard easier for me. There are the 5 positions for playing the pentatonic scale or there are the 5 positions for playing the major scale etc. These 5 positions are very helpful. However, in order to switch between the five positions more easily, I have now started to learn the four spaces in between. I don’t want to interfere, but maybe you could make these spaces the subject of a lesson.

    Thank you very much for your valuable input and the endless work you put into your lessons. Very precious!

    All the best,

    Georg

    • Brian says

      Georg, also remember that the 5 positions of the major and minor pentatonic scales directly correlate to the 5 positions of the CAGED System. So the C shape for example, contains the minor pentatonic pattern 3, and the major pentatonic pattern 4

  28. Jeremy F says

    This would be a great lesson for a beginner who loves Floyd. It’s easy, sounds great and demonstrates how you can make cool music without a ton of skills and knowledge. Very creative, Brian.

  29. Patrick J. G says

    I too, noticed how smooth you pick Brian. Looks like mandolin picking. I could also used some tips on how to develop smooth picking, and to learn not to press down so hard on the fretboard. I am getting better playing but when I get going , I get excited and really start to squeeze those strings. You look so calm and cool when you pick. Please advise. Thanks.

    • Brian says

      Yes, you have to remain relaxed – that’s the hardest part of it. took me a long time to learn how to not tense up – it gets worse when you’re playing in front of people

  31. Andy N says

    Enjoyed this Brian. Loved the ambient feel and it gave an insight into Gilmour’s rhythm and accompaniment style which is rarely discussed.
    Great shout out for “Animals” too. Brilliant album that gets overlooked being in the shadows of Dark Side and WYWH.
    By complete coincidence I was at Battersea Power station (the iconic building on the album cover) this week. It’s now restored as a fancy shopping center and apartments but there’s a little museum inside that covers the buildings eventful history, including its part in Animals.

  41. Doug F says

    Thanks so much for all the lessons and musical insights. This lesson really spun me off into some fun places. This may be of interest: you showed how to change tone color by changing the position of the strum hand on the strings. In the classical world playing towards the bridge is ponticello and towards the twelfth fret it is called tasto. Anyway, I look forward to the next lesson.

  44. michael f says

    Your range of styles is incredible. I found your running the E natural minor scale up the neck on the B and D strings really opened this lesson up to add dissonance using open strings very helpful. Thank you

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