Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll pick up several new improvising ideas by learning how to play a bluesy Call & Response style lead over a jam track that has just 1 chord.
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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back to the basics i like it one chord is all ya need
Why not tske it into Dm and E7 ?
Great lesson! That would Not be Eric Clapton’s axe, would it?
No. That’s a 335. The Clapton guitar is a Byrdland.
Great phrasing with the great Otis Rush’s influence, and all over a one chord blues. Right up my street, thank you very much!
Nice ideas for jamming over the Am chord and be able to apply it all over the neck. Thanks Brian!
Basic but very helpful.
This one went straight into my Favourites folder. A Minor, my favourite chord, and love this area of the neck, it is so familiar to us all, and gives me so many ideas for expansion. Great job Brian, Thank You.
Great Blues Sound Love It
Fantasmic Lesson! Building blocks of great foundations
But it’s not really A minor guys. The minor third isn’t played that much, as Brian says at the beginning. I tend to think of this material as A modal. The I and the V are always present, the minor third is played in the background, if at all. Which leaves you free to throw in intervals that are from both the major and minor. Basically you’re playing over a “power chord” backing. In other words it’s neither major or minor.
This lesson is just a bunch of fun! Thanks, Brian. It wasn’t so much of a lesson as it was a jam-along kind of deal. I think you’re teaching me to improvise, not memorize…though I do some of both. I so much appreciate what you do and furthermore, you make a huge difference in the guitar-playing lives of so many people who may not even be premium members because you teach so much in your free lessons on YouTube. Kudos to you and thanks again; you’ve advanced my guitar-playing skills dramatically.
Great ideas and licks, Brian. For me, observing your technique is often the best part of the lesson, don’t underestimate that, and you did it in spades here. I learn so much from your dynamics, phrasing, where and how you do your vibrato,slides and bends. The emotional, triple bend was a lightbulb for me. That’s the kind of audience pleasing device that I put in the category of fast repetitive licks.
John
I agree. His phrasing and dynamics are the best! I strive to copy them and they seem to just flow out of his fingers.
Thanks so much for answering my? about Zager guitars last week, what would you recommend me to look at in that price range ? (under 2,000.00) I am 63 yrs old and having a hard time with some bar chords on my Yamaha APX8A . Thanks again and have a nice day. PS I know you live in Nashville TN, do you have a guitar store you would recommend I live in Hendersonville
Thanks again and have a great weekend.
I took a trip to Nashville a couple years ago. The stores I enjoyed were Gibson Garage, Carter’s Vintage Guitars and Gruhn’s Guitars. I believe Gruhn’s is where Brian bought Clapton’s Gibson Byrdland! Undoubtedly there are plenty more stores in Nashville area that Brian might suggest. Maybe a private email to Brian would work best.
Great light bulb moment at minute 3:30 Part 2. That lick is so simple and accessible but it never occurred to me. It reminded of the Talking Heads … lol!
I am still struggling to release memorizing licks and to embrace the fact they live in the chords shapes (which are memorized) and the intervals of the relevant scales (also memorized). But your lessons, Brian, get me closer every week. I am gradually releasing mindless sequential runs of a scale as a lead. Also, your musical introspections at the end of most of your lessons are valuable and this week was no exception! Please never underestimate the pearls of guitar wisdom you offer at the end a lesson! Thank you Brian.
Personally, this was a great reminder to me that “keeping things simple” and “remember the basics” are vital to my continued improvement. You always seem to hit the right themes at just the right times every week for me. And I could not agree more with Daniel H’s comment on “pearls of guitar wisdom”. Thanks Brian!
Great back track-love the rhythm. Nice licks .
Can you check the 2nd call in the pfd print out.
I came here to see if anybody else saw that too, As a beginner it had me like huh??? Great lesson and I am getting this down. Glad to know I was not trippin,
What a great lesson on how to use just the key of A to make so much music. Thanks Brian.
Like it. Simple and makes fun
what is that l p on display in background a loving spoonful l p ??
Booker T & the MGs
AH !! Crooper Thanks
Great! Lots of good ideas with the pentatonic. Thanks.
I like the licks and I am motivated by how fast I am picking this up. Great after a long week at work to grab the guitar and forget about everything else for a moment.
Love this lesson, Brian!
This really is fun to practice, you are an excellent instructor.
80’s power ballad soloing techniques would be amazing since most of that stuff is tough for me to figure out.
Thanks again Brian for another inspiring lesson.
Great lesson Brian
Hi Brian just had a look at this weeks lesson, looking forward to it plenty of takeaways on it just what I need
G’day Brian,
It seems to me that the minor key (Wow, there’s a line from a song right there!) Just opens up the board to to a lot of places to go. I’m probably by my own estimation, around about an intermediate level player by your standard anyway, but it’s seems so easy(there’s another line to a song!) To effortlessly follow this and have a fair dinkum ball doing it. Active Melody has given me this gift. Thanks so very much.
M.J. ,Kilmore, Australia.
Very nice. Love this stuff. Back to basics with a cool little tasty funk groove. Thank you.
Brian Good lesson. I think there’s a mistake in transcription in second half of measure 7. down one string. Am i correct ?
Loveeee it! Man just play the guitar.Add some of you own stuff if it ain’t right you’ll be able to hear it.
Thanks
I love lessons like this. It’s great to see lick ideas in one area of the fretboard broken down and explained. That allows me to then modify, or expand, or move them around. It’s nice when cool is actually fairly simple (if a bit fast for me).
I can’t wait until I can work thru EP545. So much in a “confined” area! Amazing.
I’m just here wanting to browse that album collection in the background… 🙂
(But I love this one: constrain lead/soloing to the no-excuses bare minimum — sounds great!)
Sounds like a 60s 70s surf jam
Come up for breath… Good point I often forget! Thanks for the great lesson.
Hi Brian, I just bought a loop station. Can I down load your stuff on the loop station?
i don’t see why not
I have to confess — I get into Brian’s lessons just enough to grab the concept and run with it. So, I like these simplistic lessons a lot .
Thanks Brian. Good lesson👍
Great lesson, love the back to basic blues notes – always great to fall back on – makes a huge difference. It’s a song I can play all day with increasing the creativity.
Very cool – reminds me of San-Ho-Zay by Freddie King
As always,
Brian you seem to post the right lesson at just the right time for me
this was just the lesson I needed today
thank you
i have started a long activity of learning 12 bar blues. decided to go in small steps. so i looped the 1st 4 chord set of the progression. its in key of Gm. while trying to solo over the 4 sequences of the same I chord,which is Gm, i found that nothing much is coming from me. i seem to repeat the same notes with same style. so decided to browse through AM database for simple stuff and stumbled on this. Got some cues now. will adopt this and try tonight. Slowly, i will bring in the remaining bars of the progression. May take weeks or months but i will keep this going parallely to ensure that one activity of step by step learning is in motion.