Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Slow and easy blues lead – focus on phrasing – Guitar Lesson EP414

Description

This week’s guitar lesson has a fantastic minor blues jam track that’s provided by Quist. Here’s a link to his YouTube channel. In this lesson, you’ll learn a slow and easy blues lead using the D minor pentatonic scale and will learn about simple phrasing. You’ll also be learning how to touch on certain chord tones to create a more melodic sounding lead.

Lesson Video

Slow Walkthrough

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Comments

  10. alasdair L says

    Brian, I thought you might be interested in this. I was included in an article in a British national newspaper The Guardian, about objects important to us during lockdown. As i couldn’t have my in person classes I looked online and discovered ActiveMelody, which is brilliant and perfect for me. Love your classes as the explanations are so clear and it’s the kind of music that I love. So the ‘Brian’ referred to in the article is you, of course. Anyway, thanks again. keep up the great work – this weeks lesson looks as if it was made just for me, nice and slow!
    ‘Long live my Stratocaster’
    Alasdair Lambie playing his Stratocaster
    I took up the electric guitar in March 2020, almost the same day that lockdown was declared in Spain. Despite never sticking with other hobbies – gardening, learning Italian, stamp collecting – I’ve managed to maintain a regime of two hours’ daily practice with my two teachers, Ignacio and Brian. I have even reached the point where my wife recently told me: “Some of that was listenable.” It has kept my head in the right place most of the time, despite being operated on for cancer and having my first ever epileptic fit, all in this past year. Long live my Stratocaster. Alasdair Lambie, 72, retired teacher, Huércanos, La Rioja, Spain. There is a photo too

  21. Chuck W says

    Knocked this one out of the park Brian! I could listen to slow blues for hours. No need for lyrics, let the music and the “space” say it all! Thanks Brian! Great job!

  22. David G says

    Terrific lesson, Brian (and a great jam track from Quist too). One think I particularly appreciated was having some material in pattern 4 to work with, as I have a tendency to keep going back to patterns 1 and 2. Working through the lesson made me go back and revisit all the patterns, which was really instructive and helpful. Some absolutely great classic licks, as always. Thanks for this!

  23. Shaun M says

    Amazing phrasing Brian! So much to learn from this about timing and feel.
    Your soloing lessons are the best! Not too busy, plenty of space, and it’s all about the note choices.
    Perfect lesson – but it’s going to take me a while to get this one sounding as good as you play it.
    Thank you – and more blues/swing/jazzy soloing lessons please : )

  24. David W says

    Becoming a premium member (mainly for acoustic blues) was the best thing I ever did. Lessons like this are the reason I just had to go out and get myself an electric guitar. Love these lessons, so informative and simply explained. Don’t know how I find the time to be retired nowadays.

  27. Norbert says

    “T & R” – A Song for Brian

    (This song might be a little present for Brian.

    Brian, thanks for the last seven, eight years!!!!!)

    Well, on weekends and all other days
    My baby ‘s with her mum
    I active practice melodies ……

    ———–

    It is early Friday evening
    I’m sitting here and wait
    “Ey, man” my angry baby shouts
    Did you forget our date

    It is true, it’s true, I forgot it
    But so sorry I will stay and have to fight
    Why don’t you call for your lovely mum
    and spent a ladies night

    Excited staring at the promising screen
    A hard week, done, no peace
    And all I just can think about
    Is tension and release (T & R)

    You learn B-flat, you know C-sharp
    Make small steps, keep your frets
    Then you’ll get light bulbs more and more
    His sidebars: your front door

    Your thumb says “go”, your pinky “no”
    Try hammer ons, built chords
    Your steel strings shiver, kinda cheer
    your mind clears up, oh dear

    —————–

    When I´m studying the triads
    even all the shapes
    My baby ´s fine, she ´s with her mum
    so I don´t really care
    There are lots of different rhythms
    Jazz and funky styles
    Oh Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy
    I could cry

    On weekends and all other days
    I deadly can´t get bored
    So many songs, so many tricks
    All these incredible licks

    Well, on weekends and all other days
    My baby ‘s with her mum
    I active practice melodies
    Come, Brian, let’s go on
    Hey, Brain, lets go on ….

    https://youtu.be/SnmFUB1BrZ4

    P.S.
    Fortunately my baby is still with me; for nearly 42 years …….

    Take care
    Norbert

  33. Tom D says

    Hi Brian.

    Thanks for a great lesson. I found you playing it on the Quist web-site and played along with it as well as your web-site. There are a lot of blues tracks to play along with and the thing I like the best is he puts the chords up as well. So you can play along using the minor pentatonic scale and when appropriate use the notes in the chord combined with the minor pentatonic scale. You can also use the natural minor scale. which is the relative major scale starting on the root note of the minor scale. Quist is a great web-site and thank you very much for bringing it to our attention.

  34. chris b says

    Good medicine…each week is such a musical gift…long may you prosper.
    i will never get enough sweet and soulful blues, and cannot wait to get this one under my fingers, dreams realized.
    as always, many thanks Brian, and Quist.

  36. Kim Hall says

    Hi Brian. Beautiful and soulful. I always struggle with setup of my amp. Any clues on how you’re getting the sound on this one please?
    Thanks
    Kim, (in a very cold rainy UK)

    • Vince J says

      Maybe I am just lucky, but I have that tone using an American made Tele through a Vox tube amp. I turned the reverb to 1 o’clock, bass to 3 o’clock, treble at 12 o’clock and the guitar 1/3 down. Then I only use the neck pick up. No pedals.

  39. Vince J says

    I just signed up for Active melody on the strength of the lesson on Youtube. I had expected that on the premier channel Bran would have finished the piece, but he just stops dead after 1:08. Major Bummer. What do I do, after 1:08?? I am kind of dead on the water.

  41. dave m says

    This lesson sums up my biggest problem with Brian’s teaching – I get so hooked into the melody, and his enthusiasm and style I forget it’s a lesson and just close my eyes really enjoy the music!

    This is a ‘must learn’ for me – even if it typically takes a month to get something sort of like it with my aging fingers

    Perfect

  43. Robert S says

    Hey Brian,

    Is there going to be a part two (continuation) of this slow blues lead? Right at the end of the lesson, it looked like you were kicking it into the next gear as you started heading up the fretboard. I would love to hear where you were looking to take this next.

    I’ve only been a member for a couple of months, but I’m really loving your lessons. It’s gonna take me a little bit to work through this one, but I’m looking forward to putting in the time. Really great stuff.

    Regards,
    Rob

  44. Charles C says

    Is there a diagram somewhere on your site of the minor pentatonic scale patterns you are using? I know the scale by position (position 3, position 5 etc) but the pattern 4 you are using seems to move through multiple position.

  45. Robert K says

    G’day Brian.
    Some of your lessons just make me pick up a guitar and have a crack.
    This one is definitely one of those Mate, this is a heck of lesson, nice and easy, so someone like me can really get into it.
    I can’t get enough of these.

    Cheers Mate

  47. San Luis Rey says

    I like how the last verse of the mp3 ” with guitar” drops the guitar and lets you fill in. Don’t know if that was intentional but it sure works! This is an easier transition to play the lead that you just heard and played along with about 5 times.

  49. Brian Canadian in the UK says

    What I love so much about your lessons is there is always some theory thrown in, so your not just put your finger here, I mention this before Brian, I make recordings of most of my practices, I have come a long way, and even my wife is tolerating my playing, even said you are getting better, lots has to do with Active Melody, there has been other great teachers, but this site is clear and concise, the video tablature is brilliant, I highlight a section try to master it the best I can, the go to the next, you can even see the fret board with the notes brilliant,
    There is so many great teachers on You Tube but Brian’s Active Melody in my opinion has the edge, there is so much and the cost is so little, well worth the money,
    But you still need to work at it,

    Cheers Brian

  50. Joe S says

    I know it’s slow, but is it really that easy? Yes, the phrases are pretty simple, but in this slow tempo, it’s a challenge to get the timing right. I’m struggling to count this.

  51. great1 says

    your in the wrong profession Brian you keep knocking them out of the park perhaps you should
    consider baseball ass your gig lol thanks your site is by far the best thing out here slow blues
    just so relaxing to play what a great B track been here 5 yrs and counting

  52. Rich F says

    Hi Alasdair!

    Being a Brit, I will check out your Guardian article. Sounds interesting… and a nice mention of Brian and AM. I do hope that Guitar is providing the relaxation and ease of mind for you… stay well my friend!

    Guitar is my release: my ofher release is that I write poetry/blues lyrics, so I really liked Norbert’s Tension and Release song!

    Brian: your excellent lesson reminded me of “Bird of Paradise” by Snowy White… I just checked out the chords online… I think it is in D minor too… so I am wondering whether I coukd try to learn it and play it over Quist’s backing track?

    Here is A brilliant instrumental version of the song…

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XYTyyqg_NDw

  54. Bluesman57 says

    Being a beginner at eGuitar it was a really nice lesson, really enjoyed the tempo of the slow blues; chord changes using the flatted notes of blues scale and the relative major chord really helped me understand phrasing and pulled together my theory learnings over the last year. Thanks!!!

  55. John M says

    I have been watching your You Tube Channel for quite a while and took the plunge today. The site is so intuitive to navigate and full of really usable material. Great Job Brian!

  56. Brian S says

    Newbie question.
    Is there a way to get the backing music + tab to play without the lead guitar on the video tab breakdown?

    I can see there is a separate tab pdf and backing track without the guitar, but the moving cursor is really helpful, rather than have to juggle two separate documents.

  58. Rich F says

    Just to say again: brilliant lesson, Brian and Quist!

    And Larry, many thanks for pointing out Brian’s early lesson EP022. I have just had a look at that one. That’s a brilliant lesson too: very cool!

    That is what I love about this site… you can start by looking at one lesson, but you often find unexpected pathways through to other great lessons!

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