Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Creating simple guitar phrases with minimal notes, instead of playing up and down the scale! EP528

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to create simple phrases when improvising lead guitar, as opposed to just playing up and down a scale.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

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Comments

  4. blues46 says

    Wow, I have just pass my 10th year with Active Melody. I look forward to Brian’s post every week.
    Sometimes it takes awhile for the lesson to sink into my head but it’s been a great journey and I look
    forward to another 10 years. Thanks Brian. As usual, another great lesson.

  6. V A Maxwell says

    Thanks for this & EP527. The way you’re comparing guitar notes to vocal phrasing is a fresh insight. I’d focused too much on playing scales mechanically. Learning to appreciate how playing is like singing makes a difference.

  8. Steven B says

    The last few weeks have really helped me to start seeing the links between the chord shapes and the scale. I’ve been concentrating on learning the notes of each string which has helped me to see which note to land on instead of just practicing the scale and not associating it with the notes I’m landing on. “Seeing” the compartmented scale sections that I have learned for each chord shape as one right up the fretboard has eluded me forever. I’m starting to see more easily where they overlap and how I can know where I’m going next. I hope you can continue to find simple ways to express this as you have been doing. I so appreciate your great ability. Thank You

  11. Dick S says

    Hey Brian,
    Another great lesson for me because one of the mistakes I always seem to make is playing too much and chasing notes all over the fretboard. This lesson brings me back down to earth. Thank you.
    Dick

  12. Mark W says

    Thank you for responding to the call to build on last week. This is exactly what I was after. You inspire me to keep building my improving skills with these type of lessons. I always love the sound you can produce from just a simple chord sequence, I love the simplicity of staying in the key of the song it just frees me up to work on my phasing in the hope I may one day make this stuff sound half as good as you. Many thanks Mark.

  13. Mark V says

    Brian – I just got back from a week at guitar camp with 75 students and 17 instructors. I was able to improvise solos over dozens of songs using techniques I learned from you (and others). I’ve only been able to improvise freely and easily for about 3 weeks. It was pretty cool when the leader of the jam pointed to me and said “Take it Mark” and I was able to do it. I was even good enough that I could look up from the guitar to get some body language feedback from the other people and see that they were really digging what I was doing.

    Thanks for all you do. Great lessons.

  14. Jeff H says

    Another Great lesson Brian, I love the lesson each week. It is so refreshing to see and hear you talk about letting the music breathe with space and thoughtful phrasing. I see so many modern guitarists who just want to play faster than everyone else, and try to play a million notes in a bar, generally it is just going up and down the scale. They don’t understand melody and phrasing. The Great Blues guitarists understood this, and we can learn so much from them. This is one of the reasons you are the best Guitar Teacher on the net. Every week’s lesson is an Inspiration. Thanks Brian.

  15. Max d says

    Hi Brian, great, simple lesson and mind-blowing to follow your teaching. Following on from you previous lessons, I have begun to experiment and used the ‘Jerry Garcia” C# Aeolian scale at the tenth fret to respond to a scale run on the Em Pentatonic on the twelfth fret. It/I sounded great, I must say so myself. Thank you, Max
    PS. I will also post this remark on UTube for you!

  19. charjo says

    Brian, you are such a wonderful teacher, I’m always glad I found you.
    In part 2 where you discuss going to the A minor pentatonic, I think of that as manipulating the key of E’s B.B. box over the IV chord. It amounts to the same thing but keeps it in the context of the key of E.
    John

  21. Peter R says

    For me this lesson is spot on for where I am in my learning process. For a moment I had to wrap my head around the E (incl E shape) in first position and the pattern 4 combination. Then realised that pattern 4 is obviously linked to the C shape for E and I was back. I could use a few more lesson with lick examples for the different patterns in following lessons.

  25. houliAK says

    As a side note: I was working on the Dillard and Clark song the Eagles do, “Train Leaves Here this Morning ” and this lesson (EP528) gave me great ideas for solo improv with the E and C#m reference. Cool! Thanks!

  31. Patrick J. G says

    I’m having a hard time following the
    Rhythm track. I can play the lead but missing when to change with the rhythm. If I know a song it’s easier , but if I have never heard it before it is tough to follow. Trying to figure out a way to make it easier but could really use some suggestions.

  32. Norman D says

    Brian. This may be the single most important concept you have given us so far. I dragged my wife into the studio and improvised over the track. It brought tears to her eyes. She is not very musical, but she could hear how “it sings.” And how far my playing has come under your guidance. Thank you.

  35. Alan S says

    just beautiful Brian. Reminds me Very much of Bonnie Raitt’s style… One of my favorite singers. Are used to be a writer in Nashville and the simple little track has got me riding again… So just keep them coming. You are awesome.

  36. Phil D says

    “I could hear the note before I played it.” – the essence of improvisation.
    Some people are born with a natural instinct that allows them to do that. How do the rest of us get there – can it be learned by noodling for long enough, or any other method? Thank you as always Brian.

  37. Frederic D says

    Hi Bryan,
    First of all thank you so much for the great classes you offer!
    However sometimes the button play from the soundslice doesn’t work. It would be amazing if this could be fixed 🙂

    Thank you so much in advance,

    Fred.

  39. nostril says

    Thanks been in what to do slump.So love your cord progression and your backing track they have seemed to improve. It does make difference to me when executing the lesson.

    All the Best

  40. Craig J says

    I love how my mind went straight to and tried to connect with the “The Triangle and Square” lesson EP380. I really like how you form the simple building blocks and then build out with new themes but the same tools…..

  46. Peter W says

    This came at just the right time for me. A nice reminder to keep it simple. As I try to work my way through learning “fly me to the moon “ jazz style, I very much appreciate a lesson to slow down the pace and have fun.
    Thanks

  47. R S says

    Another excellent lesson Brian, thank you! The last 5 lessons all mesh perfectly with the last two such an important reminder to keep it simple, focus on a few key notes and to leave space for the riff/call and response time to breath. Using the riffs from the CAGED system in EP524, EP525 and EP526 and applying the concepts in EP527 and this lesson (528) to those riffs is an incredibly library of soloing ideas that are all connected in 5 efficient lessons. You obviously put a huge amount of effort creating these thoughtful lessons. Thank you.

  48. Werner L says

    You are truly a treasure! I continue to be amazed by how much you know in terms of how things relate, be it chord families, intervals, and where it all is on the neck. Your ability to simplify the content and technical connections makes you the best. Many other teachers can recite the technical but you help us to UNDERSTAND it. I can’t thank you enough. It took me about ten minutes to understand your use of the circle of fifths (408) when I’ve avoided it for so long because no one makes it so simple to understand and use! I’m 75, and learned more from you than anyone else.

  49. Ronald L. M says

    Brian, you’re probably the greatest teacher I’ve come across. I’ve studied many different things from martial arts, languages, machanics etc. The biggest lesson was no matter what you always have to go back to basics. This reminded me of things I had heard from a long time guitar instructort who got me in to theory: “don’t play anything you can’t sing.” and ” You’re using too many notes!” I study many complicatd things but this is the stuf I use, it is fun & easy to practice. I learned many songs I played and wondered what was “wrong.” With these lessons I’m playing my guitar well! Thank you so much. These are life lessons.
    Ron

  53. Andrew A says

    Brian, as was said earlier these last two lessons ,527 and 528,flow from the Caged lessons you did starting with 524 . What they seemed to have done for me is to start to take my intellectual u derstanding of the lessons and begin to turn my playing into something more intuitive and instinctive. It’s a very great feeling, and I thank you for the care and intelligence you put into every lesson. Andrew

  54. Claus J says

    Brian, thanks. This lesson got me completely out of the bad habit of being all over the place and the faster the better. The lesson forces you first of all to listen to each note and make it sing, cry or argue in different patterns. Fantastic !!!

  57. Peter R says

    Hey Brian, this is a truly great solo. Low key intro, building body, addition of the remaining key of E chords towards the end, and a nostalgic ending. Plus it’s all held together by the repeating 5th position phrase that is home base. Absolutely one of my favourite short pieces of music. Reminds me of some of JJ Cales’ best, with the E to C#m move.

  59. Peter B says

    Great Lesson again Brian; I’ve been premium member now for 6 years, best guitar investment I ever made!

    I just hear Mark knofler in almost every note in this lesson.

    Thanks again

    Peter

  60. Sean H says

    I thought I recognized some B.B. King licks in video…and it’s so nice to know I don’t have to worry about about going up and down the Fret Board, that is, until a better time comes per dexterity issues I often have to adapt to when playing. Especially the case when I have been trying to somehow get through my course curriculumn but there’s often so much going on around me, it seems. Now I indeed have some increasingly more focused options to think about and actually consider as part of my own playing style I have been practicing toward these past few years. Awesome as always…Thanks Brian!!!

  61. Thomas D says

    Great lesson Brian. I have just recently decided to learn how to play lead, after 35 years of cowboy chords. I originally learned to strum to have an accompaniment for singing. Your lessons are what I need and context learning so I can do my own thing is much better for me. Things are finally starting to jive in my head thanks to you. Keep ‘‘em coming !

  62. Nicolas T says

    Thank you for this lesson Brian, this is awesome. I had a question : i love the sound coming out of your amp, i would love to know what kind of settings you used for this lesson? thank you again!

  64. Paco says

    New arrived on this Website , this is my Second lesson !! …and i’d already Boosted my LVL …This is ‘The PLACE’ i ‘ll pass my Free Time …
    Thank you BRIAN for all the Work very accessible …even if my english is not perfect …all supports of courses and Backing tracks ‘re High Level.
    I’m Fan 😉

  65. Tom B says

    This sounds a little like the world of Mark Knophler. I can’t help hearing “You get a shiver in the dark….” That aside, I put these chords to some of my lyrics and they came to life! Thanks!

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