Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to improvise a slow and soulful lead over a non-conventional jam track (this is not your typical 1, 4, 5 chord format). You’ll be using the G minor scale to play over the entire jam track track and will be playing this fingerstyle to slow things down a bit.
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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It seems you make these lessons specially for me each week because they just what I want to play. I had a blast learning the lesson last week and can’t wait to learn this one. Thanks Brian
Great sounding composition. Thanks for putting so much into this piece and then teaching us the theory behind it. This is truly the type of musical instruction I need.
You’ve got your guitar gently weeping with this piece.
This is new style of playing and a totally different sound which I really enjoy learning. Its can be challenging learning how to use your fingers rather than a pick.
Thank you Brian
Love it
Hi Brian, very good content in this lesson, and good backing track.
Myra.
Loving it too!
Been toying with this sort of thing myself so this lesson is very welcome thanks.John
As always, very nice and most of all useful.
Great lesson, thanks Brian. Great tone, is that the four position on the pickup selector switch.
middle pickup
Really cool harmony sequence.
Thanks for doing this! Very cool sound, a la Mark Knopfler perhaps.
Wow, my kinda lesson.
Many thanks Brian, exactly what I have been waiting for.
Mark Knopfler meets Eric Clapton.
Thanks again 🎸
Ssssssweet $$$
Great vibe,JJ and Clapton in one lesson
think you had some cool Mark Knophler feel here.. very nice!
Nice chord progression, great jamtrack, easy to play….who could ask for more?
Wow! LUV this one Brian. Any chance we could get a longer version of your backing track (without guitar)?
1:48 is just not enough…. 🙂 I could play over this all nite!!! Thanks again. WONDERFUL!!!
agree!
fixed
I have fixed this – my bad! I didn’t have the full thing selected when exporting.
Awesome – Awesome!!
Thank you.
As a a second now that I played along,, it’s more like Peter Phantom.. very fun easy and a lot of room for improvisation!
( trusted windows spell check ) Peter Frampton
Great lesson Brian with some new ideas.
Thanks
Ray P
Brian, you have confused me again. Right away. Around 10:18 you start showing the G minor scale, but you did not start with the G root note. Instead, you start with the b3 (Bb) then you paused on the b3. So to me, it sounds like a Bb major scale, and not like a G minor scale.
Ooops. That G minor scale is around 4:18.
Keep doing what you do Brian, it is working so well. Great sound with simple approach is so helpful for motivation.
Don’t know how you came up with this progression and idea for the lead, Brian. I notice you never really assigned a key to this lesson in the tabs as it really doesn’t fit one. The strangeness started with playing the G minor scale over the G major chord, but that’s the blues. The notes of the G minor scale or G aeolian are the same notes as D# or E flat lydian, as you mention, and will fit over the D#/E flat chord. They are also the same notes as F myxolydian and, therefore, fit over the F major chord as well. The notes are also those of C dorian which would have a minor 3rd or E flat. That is where you had to adjust the scale and play an E to fit over the C major chord (G minor scale would have fit over a C minor chord)
I guess you could look at this as the key of G minor with the G major and C major chords borrowed from the parallel major scale and with the scale adjustment for the C major chord. Any way you look at it, it’s different from any other lesson you’ve done. Interesting and sounds great. Apologies if I’m overthinking this, just trying to make sense of it for improvising. Short form, play G minor/G minor pentatonic and hit the E note ( avoid the E flat) on the C chord (and find chord tones).
John
well said John – that’s pretty much exactly how I would describe this – it is strange… and I was improvising over it without thinking about it… it wasn’t until after the fact that I realized those notes are all just the G minor scale – I hadn’t considered F mixolydian but you’re right – so your final conclusion is spot on – play G minor, G minor pentatonic scale and try to work that E note in over the C chord and you’re set 🙂
i also struggled with what key this is in; I agree with John’s analysis, but for me the whole thing seems to really resolve to the C chord. That feels like “home”. The F and G chords fit the key of C, and the D# would be a bluesy minor 3rd.
I’m playing it like you both say, using G minor pent and G Aeolian (that’s where those Knoffler notes are), but also really digging into the C major chord at the end as the home base of the whole progression.
I haven’t recorded in a while but this one seems to be calling …
yeah, that riff towards the end resolving on C reminds me of “Wicked Game” a bit. 🙂
I agree with John’s analysis but came the conclusion that if we treat the
Key as Bb with the G and C as major chords instead of the minor they should be as John said.
Then the modes all fit and it is why the D# (Eb) Lydian works as well as fitting the other notes that make up the chords, such as the D# that has a Bb in it.
The only avoid note then is the Eb.
Really the same thing but gives you a key centre to orient to.
Gminor is the relative minor to Bb major, so it really is the same thing.
Now that you mention….yah!
I’m always amazed how these things always come back around.
Scary thing is it is beginning to make sense to me.🧐
Love the play by play commentary, John. Maybe you can do one each week. Way cool! While I am here might as well ask Brian for Part 2 for this week’s lesson.
All the knowledge of the modes is very fascinating but simply put just play the Gm relative minor scales over the chord progression. Works very nicely.
Sorry, Natural Minor scales.
Natural minor scale. Sorry.
Great sequel to EP 318. Like Ep 318 this continues that free spirited adventure along the Arizona highway on some movie set. Such an emotion of freedom in the ambience of this composition. Leaves you wanting a third instalment. A trilogy perhaps.
HI Brian this is my first time in commenting a great lesson as always. Do you ever use any of the blues scales for youre solos. You seem to use lots of pentatonic scales. Dont get me wrong they all sound fantastic. I have a little query the other day i was going through some of youre old lessons and i found one that i liked. I thought i had downloaded it but to my regret i had not. It was in the key of a but started with 2 13th chords can you help? George from a rainy Cornwall England.
well, the blues scale is basically the same thing as the minor pentatonic scale (in my mind) – the only difference is that one extra note (the blue note) – I play that note often, so I suppose that I do often play the blues scale.
Killer good Brian! Thanks for continuing to push us with content that out of our comfort range. I love playing something that is slightly off the grid – G minor!
Cool, I like this Mark Knopfler style
Beautiful composition! I’m really enjoying this and adding my own touch to it! I love that slide into C near the end. Reminds me of ” Wicked Game” a little bit. Sounds as if you have a lot of Warren Haynes influence in your playing, Mark Knopfler too, as you stated. Warren uses a lot of those bent diads as well. Love it!
Great lesson. Nice to have one full minor scale with same twang stuff too!
Love the music. Love these lessons. I was a member for a year, but don’t play well enough to benefit from the extra stuff you get as member. There’s enough free content until I really start playing and learning. This lesson screamed Mark Knopfler to me. I read a bunch of comments and no one mentioned it until well down. Then a few mentioned it. Funny – I don’t think Brian has replied to any of the MK comments. It’s all I hear. Great music. I wish I could consider playingsomething at this level. Thanks Brian.
I wasn’t really trying to do a Knopfler thing – it just sort of ended up that way… but I think as I was fine tuning it, I probably heard that too and ended up subconsciously throwing in a few of his licks. I originally wanted more of a J.J. Cale type vibe… fingerstyle, laid back.. soulful 🙂
Super lesson Brian, love this!
Interesting fact: You mentioned Ry Cooder.
I actually took a few guitar lessons from him when he was ~17 years old – around 1965. Yep I am that old!!!! LOL
It was at McCabe’s Guitar store on Santa Monica Blvd. in Santa Monica, CA. Fond memories!
Great Stuff Thanks.
JohnK from down under
BEST lesson since the JJ Cale lesson. So glad to get this one. My 2 faves. Also enjoy the way you remind & include tips & takeaways to reinforce licks and lessons from the past to reinforce them. Great stuff, man.
Brian, Great lesson. Has the same flavor as 318 that I still play 2 or 3 times a week.Love this style. Keep up the good work. Dave
Fantastic lesson, yet again. Many thanks!!!
Reminds me of the theme for Law and Order on TV.
A bit anyway
Fantastic, as ever, Brian! I often vaguely wondered what gave Knopfler his signature feel – and I suspect you’ve hit the nail – the (full) minor scale. Your lessons are always so inspiring. Top man!
Englisch
think I’m crazy, but …. the first thing that came to my mind was war:
OMG is relaxed and decelerated ..
laid back is exactly what it reminds me of. I can already see Brian jumping out of the plane with a guitar and performing relaxed in the camera.
the feeling & the mood is awesome ….
less is more!
OMG, like most of the other lessons… I love this lesson. It’s such a cool sound. And the way you give us the context for each riff… I feel like I’m sitting down with my cool big brother(even though I’m about 20 years older than Brian), and he’s cutting through the junk and showing me the magic. I get a glass of wine in me, and I start to feel the magic. I love going between pentatonic and 7-note scale.
I agree Richard, Brian’s lessons are incredible. What a resource. If only I was twenty years younger and could remember all the licks.
Wow!! Love this lesson in G minor pentatonic etc. Sounds just like Mark Knofler’s licks at times.
Brian, I am right in thinking when you are using the G minor pentatonic scale and adding those 2 extra notes ‘A’ and D#( Eb) you are actually also playing in Bb major scale? Hope I’m not confusing myself!
Anyway, another brilliant lesson and using some Caged triads. Brilliant!!
Dire Straits reborn, thank you for this Brian.
Hi Brian
I love this lesson. I struggle to saty focussed learning off youTube but your lessons are always so cool. This one is probably my favorite in a long time and has me invigorated all over again.
You’re the man!
All the best
Tim
Thank-you Brian. the mood fits perfectly with the times. Just perfect.