Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to convert a standard blues composition into a much jazzier sounding progression (for both rhythm and lead) by working in the 2-5-1 chord progression in various ways.
Part 1 - Rhythm
Part 2 - Lead
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Slow Walkthrough
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Video Tablature Breakdown
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Love this and can’t wait to dig into the lesson!
Very cool sound. I have a Gibson 335. Could you mention the amp you use to get that sound and how it may be dialed in?
I second that request for information on amps, and tone.
I love this lesson. It makes me sound like I am a real guitar player. More like this please!
Very hip jazzy blues, Daddy-o.
Wow! The Byrdland is out of the cage! This is going to be a great week.
Now there’s the Byrd. Got to learn this one.
So Brian,
You really know how to play guitar…
I’ll be working on this a few weeks.
Great work.
I love this piece. I’ve been hoping for some Jazz lessons and this one is perfect. Thanks Brian
I also want to thank you for putting the chord shapes about the tabs and notation sheets. That’s so helpful too.
You have a tremendous gift to keep it together while you are explaining a complex idea. Over the years I realize I don’t have to totally absorb and implement everything you demonstrate but I am encouraged that I can now follow the conversation and will take away several ideas. My head might explode but I love the lesson and the jazzy blues sound!
I love this one! Thanks Brian
Awesome Lesson! You have the talent to explain abstract theory in a way that makes sense to the average Joe. Thanks for taking us along on your musical journey!
Hi Brian, another interesting lesson. I see the Tab shows the Chord Boxes for half the composition. Would it be possible to show the the chord boxes for all compositions in future? I find it’s easier to see where the notes come from. Thanks Brian.
This is my favorite lesson for a long time. Lots of takeaways that aren’t that hard to remember, but this kind of ties it all together.
Excellent lesson Brian … great explanation and really great piece of music. This is a style I love – so happy for more like this!
Great level of Jazz to me. This will fill my guitar playing for months!
This will be one of my favourites for a long time
Excellent, Brian. One of your best yet!! I’m stoked to learn this!
Larry
I am so excited!!! To now have the tools to build a jazzy sounding rhythm.
Just what I needed to help up my jazz mood Thanks for another great lesson
Brian, Thank you for chord diagrams in the tablature!!! This helps so much to visualize chord voicings. This should become a staple in your tablature.
Very interesting. Love the Blues with a little Jazz particularly with the extended voicings.
It’s always interesting Brian! Thanks for your serivce!
Brain, what kind of strings do you use on your jazz/blues guitar (Byrdland )?
great lesson!
Awesome lesson Brian, these are the jazz chords I want to get better at and this is the perfect melody to tie them together. I hope to see more in the future….
Great lesson Brian this will help so many people.
Quite challenging but great insight into melody and sliding jazz into blues, appreciate your knowledge.
Really good to see a Jazz style blues lesson again and all these 2-5-1 ideas. It’s a very refreshing sound, I’ll be diving into this one.
A treat to see the Byrd back on show too 🙂
G’day Brian,
This whole thing is just excellent! Thank you just doesn’t seem to cut it. But thank you anyway!
M.J.
Really like learning the different ways of chords so many good lessons tks
A bit difficult at fires but well worth practicing. Love the fingering diagrams with the tabs, it helps me a lot.
Are you related to Billy Sherrill?
Wow. Can you say, T-bone Walker? Two huge advantages in this lesson: 1) 2-5-1 explained in context with a chord progression, 2) tab segments & chord block diagrams as pop-ups on the screen. Love the mix of “jazzy” chords with clichéd blues figures. Great stuff. Thanks.
That cool Byrdland looks just like a great guitar even Eric Clapton would proudly own and play, Brian!! Jim C.
Yes! Exactly the lesson I was looking for…
GREAT Lesson,
You are working me pretty hard. Love the chords
Have learned a lot from you
Wayne Owen ,,, Minnesota
Thanks Brian, nicely done
If you seriously love this lesson (and style) nicely done here by Brian, then I highly recommend one of Brian’s earliest ActiveMeleody gems that has a truckload of phenomenal material and shines right along with this one…..Robben Ford style jazz/blues EP031!! Try it. You’ll love it…………Brian’s fighting a cold and all!!
Thanks. Another early useful lesson along the same line as this one. You can hear how much more precise Brian’s playing has developed in 10 years.
Love Love Love this lesson. Lots of great take aways. I’m going to master this one in my favorite keys. thanks !
Great as always – you wouldn’t happen to have a transcription of the just as great walking bass that accompanies it by chance?
On vacation so no guitar for a week, but man, this is so timely for me. Love the precise explanations. Time to stop in a local guitar shop, maybe even buy a travel guitar. I learned a lot just listening. I know nearly all the chord positions, now it’s a matter of putting them together. This will be fun to write out on a chord sheet. Did I say “fun”. Thanks Brian!
Abstract Theoretical question. How do we know it’s a 2-5-1, in A major, and not a song in B minor in Dorian mode? It’s an abstract question, because the 2-5-1 is buried inside the song which starts at the 1. But the 2-5-1 raises this question in my mind. Obviously you could read the tablature, or someone could tell you it’s a 2-5-1, but those responses evade the issue. How does the ear know what the tonic center of a song is. Expectations are kind of standardized with a 1-4-5, but we are talking about leaving said expectations behind.
Wow, I love this.! I am going to have a go at this right after I finish that little EP524, 525, 526 series. It always blows me away how you manage to produce such a variety of wonderful styles.
Wonderful ! Looking forward to working on it. Thanks Brian
Putting those chords shape boxes on the tabs is a great helper initially. Thanks for taking this route.
This is one lesson which I ay I’ll never get but keep coming back to the really har ones like this.
Superb
Cool, Rat Pack vibe. Hey I’ve been going back through the “Artist Series” collection, so many great lessons. I’ll never catch up on all the lessons I wanna cover. Thanks again
Another totally awesome submission, Brian! They come faster than I can keep up with them, but my playing has improved exponentially since I became a subscriber. Thank you so much! @Jeff E, I believe Brian uses a Kemper Profiler rather than a traditional amp. He runs his guitar into it and then straight into his DAW. A very cool setup!
Add my thanks for the chord diagrams and request to include them on future lessons.
My favorite lesson so far! Thanks for your interesting ideas!
I have been playing this one for 2 weeks. It has some juicy chords. I love jazz chords, extensions, and the melody movement that goes with them. Then you give us some tasty single lines as well. Please more like this for sure. Thank you Brian!
, The D9 you play you play on the 9th fret doesn’t contain the note D . And if you choose to only play the top four strings of the D9 in the 5th fret it also does not have a D note. Is if often that in Jazz the root notes are implied?
I forgot to mention, you usually tell us how to find the location of the chord. Since the 9th fret chord doesn’t have a D, how do YOU find it? I guess I’d put my middle finger positioned on the fret where the 6 string D is.
opps! my fault, you did do it. sorry. You explain the whole thing .
Huub from the Netherlands I love this so much ,, please more of this..
thank you Brian you are the best,,,,,
Brian you are the best teacher,,, I Ihave so much pleasure to gett better on the GUITAR. and it works great thanks to YOU. !!!!!!!
Huub
Really great lesson. For a while now being trying to understand diminished chords. This lesson has put it into context plus it’s a really cool tune. Cheers.
What really amazes me about you is your productivity, churning out new creative song/lessons week after week. I really enjoy the sound of jazz chords and always, dovetailing with your timing stretches my mind as well as my fingering! I wish I could keep up with each of your lessons, but I would say, really understanding them may take 2-3 weeks. Playing them well, perhaps longer. Thanks again for a great lesson.
Pourrait-on avoir les notes associées aux tablatures? Ce serait très utile pour certains d’entre nous. Merci
Definitely the best yet, for me. I don’t know how I overlooked it so long… This is a really well done piece!! 5 stars!! Jazz/jump blues rules!
On a slightly different track….
Have you ever thought about a breakdown of Chuck Berry licks??
That guitar is just beautiful.
Brian, thanks for this one- very cool. I’ve been working on it for a few weeks. WHEW! it’s a lot to take in conceptually