Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

James Burton Style Lead Guitar Lesson – EP161

Description

In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a lead on electric guitar that is made up of several signature James Burton licks. James Burton is a good combination of country and blues. He’s a fantastic “chicken pickin” style player, but he also injects a lot of soul which gives him more of a bluesy tone. He’s played with just about everyone you can think of, but is probably best known for his work with Elvis Presley. I’ll provide all of the background information in this lesson, including how to harmonize the Mixolydian scale.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walk-Through

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

    • Angelo I says

      absolutely love this style using double stops…similar to EP156. I was a little intimidating playing a lesson that had a lot of double stops at first but I picked it up quick and now I’m hooked on learning more about 3rds and 6th harmony. It also makes a novice sound more advanced playing double stops. Look forward to more lessons like this in the future.

  2. JohnStrat says

    Brian this sounds great. i just get further behind each week because you keep pilling on the fantastic lessons and i cant cover the ground yet but this goes on the list..keep em coming. Ha John Strat

  3. Don D. says

    James Burton is a great subject! Excellent lesson! Looks like a finger-twister, too. Thank you, thanks especially for the slow backing track.

    One of the high points in James Burton’s career was playing the gittar part on “Suzie-Q” when he was about 16. He came up with those classic E riffs; it’s said they were inspired by Hubert Sumlin’s gittar parts in “Smokestack Lightning, ” but I’ve been looking for verification or refutation of that, either from him or Dale Hawkins, and I haven’t found it.

  9. brian-belsey says

    James Burton is a terrific player so this lesson is really welcome. Obviously Elvis rated him very highly. I read somewhere that he had really wanted to work with James for many years before they actually did, from right back in the 1950s.

  11. charjo says

    Harmonizing the myxolydian mode! I feel like another piece of the puzzle has been handed to me. I was never a country music fan but now think it’s mandatory to learn mixing the major and minor pentatonic and playing leads around chords. Active Melody’s the best!
    John

  12. kubrider says

    Brian it seems you grow as we grow, difficult to imagine these lessons getting better but every Friday you have another gem. I’ll probably never get to them all but I guess there in lies the beauty of Active Melody!
    Rob

  13. Manley says

    Great lesson again this week. At first I was thinking you was over explaining the lessons. But no. The more I listen the more I’m finding those light bulb moments. Best money I’ve ever spent on guitar tutoriall.

  15. cehcehceh says

    Help me. During your explanation, when you play the third in the Key of A on the fifth and sixth strings, you play an A and C#. When you play what I guess is supposed to be the same thing on the 1st and 2nd string, you play G and E. What am I missing?

    • sunburst says

      yes you can identify the third as a C# or D flat in key of A ..the first or root note which is on the 6string 5th fret ..Brian, explains it well enough..just keep reviewing it and it will sink in… you can practice 3rds 4ths 5ths 6ths on up to the octave ..notice 7ths sound like jazz ?.. try some 7th chords ! 4ths and 5ths sound like hard rock bar chords..thirds fourths and sixths are used a lot in blues and country..but yes double stops are a two note chord i guess

  18. David H says

    This lesson alone, is worth the cost of this month’s premium Membership. I can’t express how valuable it is for you to take the time to explain what you call the “take away” of the lesson. Explaining what the harmonized 3rd and harmonized 6th means, and how to adjust those to the key you’re playing in, etc is what truly makes these lessons such gems.

    Brian, I recognize the time it takes for you to stop & explain this stuff, but that’s what separates you from all the other slick edited & otherwise well done lessons available on the internet. Teaching licks or runs are well worth the time for a player to learn. But to go that little bit extra to explain the how’s & why’s is what makes your lessons so valuable.

    Thank you so much for what you’re doing! Keep up the awesome work. You have changed my playing for a lifetime!

  20. sunburst says

    What a great lesson,, I got it going 125 speed after about three hrs today lol.. going swimming now ! hot diggiddy dog! nice here in a/c on my GE smith tele .. and who ever asked it is flat white pick guard not pearl..but ge smith nice radius neck and wide spacing between strings..trying Ernie ball slinkies 9s once I feel good playing this along with jamtrack, i’ll show some hybrid chicken picking country style.. i bet this lesson would sound great at faster tempo ..but i’m not complaining..this is awesome to learn!!! thank you once again Brian for all your 5 star lessons! cheers

  22. Bill F says

    Terrific lesson!!! Do you have a downloadable tablature view of the mixylodian and Dorian scales for the key of A? If it is somewhere here, just point me in the right direction.

    Thanks!

  26. wrightclick says

    What a solo i’ve nailed it bar the speed lol , now for patience and practice and surely it will come over time .This site just gets better all the time fab tune when i first see Brian play it i thought i so want to be able to play like that . Great walk and talk through the two lessons as well .

  30. David A says

    Hi Brian, this lesson was the one that made me join – Your lesson (and playing) was so awesome I had to do the rest. Hope you do more of James and this genre in the future. Love the country lessons also. Ahem, thank you very much, Dave

  32. Rodrigo M says

    Started yesterday with this lesson!! Now I have bubbles in my fingers, and I’m loving it!! lol… Just kidding
    Great lesson, I’m in the middle of it. and doing great till now.

    Can’t wait to get home and start it all again.

  35. Anton D says

    When I first heard this, I thought this sounds nice but should not be too hard to play. Little did I know. The first lot of descending double stops threw me completely. Then I realised that there was a slide down (not written as such in the tablature) and it is true it is a lot easier to do with hybrid picking. Still haven’t got that part up to speed yet. Could anybody tell me what song this lead would fit with? I am used to more conventional changes. Standard blues or chords changes in rock and roll tunes like Roll over Beethoven.

    Anton

  36. Roger H says

    love this one… joined just for this one… (haven’t listened to many others cos been busy with this one) … was always a slow blues fan but got really turned onto country guitar (which I’d hardly ever listened to all my life) … and this lesson seems to incorporate some great stylistic elements… a very nice gutsy composition.

  37. wrightclick says

    Absolutely brilliant i first learnt this with out any fretboard knowledge not long after signing up when i was a rookie i was just desperate to have it under my fingers and yes it was a struggle (learn to walk before you run syndrome ) but it does helps to push yourself . Now i am going over it again as this tune slipped from my radar and after a year or so with Acitive M and i can’t believe how easy it comes and not only that i understand where everything comes from . Master of the Telecaster Brian thanks i just can’t get enough of this .

  39. Chris says

    I’ve been playing in bands (as a bassist..new to guitar) for 40 years and for an apparent straight forward 4/4 with a 1-4-5 sequence
    it’s really strange.

    The 6 bars of “A” at the beginning follow by 4 of “D” , 2 of “A” , 2 of “E” then 2 of “A” (OK it equals 16) is unusual to me.

    (maybe it’s because I’m so used to 12 and 8 bar formats.)

    Does anyone else find it hard to get head around it.

    Can’t think of a song with the format offhand.

    If anyone knows of one let me know so I can listen and get comfortable with the sequence.

    • Chris says

      OK… I kinda answered my own question when I realized I was talking about 12 and 8 bar blues
      and I added bars up to 16.

      I never came across 16 bar blues before so proves you’re never too old to learn something new.
      Learning this alone is worth the annual sub.

      ……………………………………………………………………….http://www.fretjam.com/blues-chord-progressions.html

      Now I must get comfortable with this format. (Still sounds off to me but I’ll persevere for a bit).

      • Chris says

        OK…OK…OK… before everyone jumps in on me (maybe I deserve it)

        …….to elucidate……

        Of course I’ve played 16bar Blues format (and 32 bar blues formats) BUT

        I need to hear a 16 bar Blues tune that has a similar format.

        That is a tune where the 1 chord starts with 6 bars and continue to do so.

        Sorry for wasting anybody’s time but please help if yoiu can.

        I love the guitar on this and would love to be able to churn out this someday.

  42. Matthew M says

    One thing I keep picking up from these great lessons is the phrasing/leading where the last bit of a measure is always jumping the next. It happens over and over and has really helped my sense of timing and thinking about where the rhythm all fits. The first Chuck Berry riff in this one was just so perfectly placed. I would always start in a new measure and it sounds so predictable but this has really helped me out. It’s not just the notes but where they are skilly placed in these lessons. Thanks again Brian for the great work curating all these licks in single artist lessons. I’ve wasted a lot of time on a riff here and there but fitting it into a piece like this makes all the difference. And I like the 16 bar thing too because it it just a bit different.

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