Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Blues chord ideas – Spice up your blues with more interesting chords – EP445

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to improve your blues compositions by adding a few unique chords. Enhance the standard 1-4-5 blues chord structure.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walkthrough

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  7. Mr.Charlie says

    Weird Brian…. On last weeks lesson I was about to leave a comment asking if next week (this lesson) you would do a Stand alone blues composition on your ODELL (one of my favorite guitars you have)! The five other lessons you use your ODELL on are five of my favorites. So thanks Brain and have a great holiday

  14. Laurel C says

    Good one, this will be fun to play. Thanks Brian for another great year of weekly lessons, mid week vlogs and a new addition this year with the #shorts, don’t know how you do it week in, week out. Merry Christmas to you and your family and to the AM community for making this all possible.

  23. mark g says

    Merry Christmas Brian! I really got a lot out of this lesson, It really helped when you told me the chords you can use in the key of the song( like the maj 2ed and 6th back to the 5 then the one)I struggle with using other chords other then just the 1,4,5. Thanks again and have a great day.

  25. Robert G says

    Hi, Brian,
    Merry Christmas!
    Another great lesson with just enough theory to make it really helpful! I’ve heard you speak to the “Fifth of the fifth” concept before, but this lesson helps to clarify it even more.
    Excellent! Keep up the good work!
    Happy Holidays
    Bob

  29. Jeff H says

    Thanks for all the Great Lessons throughout the year Brian. I think these lessons were the only highlight in an otherwise dreadful year. Happy Christmas to You and your Family. Take Care, let’s hope that 2022 will be a much better year for everyone in the world.

  30. Rich F says

    I exho Jeff’s comments! Fantastic lessons week after week! Thanks Brian: I have learned so much from you this year.

    This lesson has an Eric Clapton “Key to the Highway” feel to it. Looking forward to learning it.

    Happy Christmas to all AM members!

  32. Keith S says

    Don’t worry about repeating parts of other lessons! Help to tie it all together. I play with a singer and drummer and these little embellishments really help me out using it in songs. Thx!

  34. Paul N says

    Any you lick you repeat Brian is find my me! And any Style you choose to teach is fine by me. Everything is of so much value! I really appreciate your service. I can’t get enough, no matter what you are teaching! Thanks!

  37. John P says

    Hey Brian, I looked for the Odell Vega, and never saw one like yours but I did find something pretty close to the sound. The DeArmond X 155, made by Fender under the Guild name. The body was made Korea shipped to the US and Fender put in DeArmond pickups specially designed to sound like the old gold foil pickups. I picked one up from Guitar Center for $500 last year.It is my go to guitar for everything Jazzy Blues.

  40. mritalian says

    NIce composition once again, Thanks for teaching the secondary dominates and how they work and the trick with using the guitar for a quick visual aid on the 5th and 6th strings, what an insight. Well its after Christmas but thanks for enriching all of our lives. Happy Holidays Brian to you and you’re family.

  43. Gregory B says

    Hi Brian,

    Great video. I also have a Vega from the 1950’s. It was my father’s guitar. Acoustic. He loved listening to blues/jazz. I have a lot of his old Joe Pass tapes. The guitar is in the original old, beaten-up hard case and I think it still has the original strings because it feelings like playing on barbwire. I want to get it cleaned up, but I’m a little afraid to mess with it much.

  44. Anthony (Tony ) W says

    Brian, Not the first time I have submitted a comment. Never critical – or not grateful for the opportunity to learn and both enjoy and , as you so often say ” a takeaway to add to your playing ”
    This gem is both a really sweet sounding tune and a whole fund of licks and tecnique ideas. Yet again Brian, Thank you so much for a real nice Xmas present of a lesson.
    Regards from the UK and best wishes for 2022. STAY SAFE ! ! Tony

  48. Robert Burlin says

    Jewels in abundance it seems this Holiday Season. Top shelf stuff as usual. I am Happy we get a new lesson on new years eve. Maybe you can give us something really bright and sparkly with lots of booms and bangs.
    I am finally starting to see some of the things you have been teaching me in real time. I noticed it playing your shorts without any disc ription of what you are doing. It is coming and I am getting better at lightening speeds now.
    Say Alive and Happy
    and
    May you have a spectacular year Brian!

    sure hope you are working on a book
    It would be the Bible of the guitar world!

  50. Ray R says

    I think the chord progression C#, F#, B, E (video 1, 13:30)is also known as a “Circle of 5ths” progression. You start with any chord on the circle, go back any number of steps and then walk back to the starting chord one step at a time. It’s less confusing for me to think of it that way than as fives of fives of fives. Visualizing the Circle of 5ths makes it easy to transpose to any key. Great Ragtime sound!

  53. Rich F says

    Hi Brian,

    I have just watched the end of the second half of this excellent lesson, having learned and practiced the first half. I love your comment at the very end that you feel that this guitar has mystical qualities, guiding you to play in a certain way, as the previous owner may have played that way…

    I agree with you! As i get older I too think there is something in that: “There are more things in heaven and earth than our dreamt of in our philosophy”!

  56. PDD says

    Hello and Happy New Year to you all. I joined last week and thoroughly enjoyed this lesson/composition. cant put the guitar down. Would love to see some more of these with some complex chords thrown in. Had to go back to my theory to figure out the A# Diminished 7 – or is it also the F#7 flat 9 (which is how I had learnt it)! Great lesson. thanks!

  58. James B says

    Thanks, I just want to say love the stand alone. I could go one and on about the course. The mix of genre and the breakdown of theory. I will say seems no way to catch up on the material but man just dive in. Thanks your doing great things!

  60. David says

    My advice is to show the entire bar(red) A#dim (root 6) so students see the rest of the chord just like the root 5 chord you introduce. Then talk about why most only use the chord fragment (E,B,G,D strings) in this style of song. The reason is then students can identify the A# root and thus know where the chord is located. Sorry if this was long winded. I am sure you have a good reason for not doing this. I imagine playing the smaller fragment on the 5th and 6th frets as you do is good enough. I had to learn the full bar to orient myself when I got to the point of using these chords a lot.

  61. Robert M says

    Brian,

    Great lesson! As I’ve been studying and practicing I realized I couldn’t tell if this is 8 bar blues or 12 bar or whether that even matters in this style (which I love by the way). You gave us 20 bars in this lesson which doesn’t fit nicely into either 8 or 12 bar format, but there is a turnaround at the 8th bar and repetition in the next 7 bars and instead of another turn around there’s an extended turnaround thing (maybe an ending line?) that I don’t understand and maybe don’t need to. Am I overthinking it or is this important to know?

    Rob

  62. Michael G says

    Great lesson. Easy, useful and didactive. Question: I seem to recall another lesson where you did something similar but I thought that it was the 4rth of the 4rth to do sort of a southern gospel sound. If so, would you find it the same way as you showed for finding the fifth?

  63. Paul B says

    Hey Brian,
    Once again, thanks for the superb teaching you provide to guitarists around the world. Your dedication and approach is like having you in the room.
    I’m just coming back to this lesson – as I’ve forgot parts of it. Unfortunately, the Active Tab segment is not working correctly. As soon as I try to loop a section, it appears to try to load, but the play icon simply spins. It appear to be just this segment as I looked at your other Active Tabs and they play fine.
    Hope you are able to fix this.
    All the best from your fan in BC!

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