Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Steal these soulful lead licks! – Mixing a little blues and country in this lead guitar lesson – EP473

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn a slow and (easy to play) soulful lead that incorporates blues and country licks over a fun jam track.

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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Comments

  6. Mark N says

    I love those little double stops and hammer ons. Reminds me slightly of stuff that John Mayer does regularly and it works really well. Less about scales and more about the chord tones and shapes on the higher strings.

  9. San Luis Rey says

    I don’t remember a 1-5-6 1-5-4 progression in any past lessons but it sounds awesome! I don’t remember the green strat either but the memory ain’t what it used to be. The tone must be from a secret Kemper setting which is equally awesome. Many thanks Brian!

  13. Derek W says

    Hi Brian. I’m on holiday and wasn’t able to learn last weeks lesson. However, got up early this morning and had a look at this weeks lesson, for me it’s the best so far because ( after building on previous lessons) I’m beginning to understand the structure of the chords/voiceings. Can’t wait to get gone on Monday and try this one out. As ever great lessons, cheers Derek

  14. brian-belsey says

    A very attractive composition, melodically beautiful.

    The Danocaster sounds and looks great. It would be very interesting if you would comment sometime, Brian, on how you see the differences in sound and feel between this and your 65 and Custom Shop Strats.

  19. Dale G says

    Thanks for another great lesson.! Love the chord progression as well as lead part with steel parts mixed in. Very awesome as well as timing that’s not crazy fast to keep up with. Very relaxing to learn and play. Definitely goes to the favorites queue! Still amazed how you can keep cranking these lessons out!

  24. David D says

    Just beautiful. Easy is relative. Getting clean pitch on those double bends is challenging for me, but oh man when I get it, it’s going to add a lot to my playing. You see Brian is tricky.

  25. Daniel H says

    Great lesson. The note bending and pedal steel licks are a technique I have been striving to learn. I like how you break them into manageable bites to teach them.
    I have been listening recently to Tab Benoit (a Bayou blues player) and he uses this technique a lot… and it sounds so cool in the blues.
    Many thanks Brian!

  31. Andre H says

    Excellent lesson. Learning it now. Love the minor pedal steel licks. New for me. Brian as a side lesson: maybe do some videos how you record the backing tracks? I am interested to learn more about this.

  38. Dan S says

    ANY Chance we could get a backup audio using just one chord, like you did in the 471 lesson ? It would be a good way of learning the different sounds and patterns within just one chord.
    I suppose there’s such a thing out there on the internet somewhere and I admit I’m a little slow to catch on. These would be great great to have. Maybe do a bunch of them.
    Dan

    • William H says

      I think Danocaster had 4 guitars for sale today 8/6/22. You can sign up for their emails and they’ll let you know when some come available. $3500/ea regardless of what type of guitar. FYI

      • Mike H says

        Hi Brian, (and the Bald Assassin)

        I was a 10er too until I watched Rick Beato and Rhett Shull do a comparison between all the gauges. Counter-intuitively it turns out that 8s and 9s sound just as good as the heavier gauges for the most part… A light went on, or to use your much loved oxymoron, Brian, “a light bulb went off” :-). So I put on a set of 9s…OMG as the young folks say, I won’t be going back any time soon. Everything is easier and I need all the help I can get. My advice to anyone struggling with those bends is just go to lighter strings. Unless you play for a living and have developed the required muscle strength, bends can be hard on your hands and rob you of the pleasure of a well executed pedal steel lick :-). I really enjoyed this lesson and got a couple of super useful tips, thanks.

        PS. Now Brian, about this “light bulbs going off” thing of yours :-). My English teacher would have frowned at me and said, “Michael, you are mixing your metaphors! (apparently this is heinous crime to English teachers) A light bulb goes on to illuminate a situation, thus giving clarity of vision. A light bulb going off leaves nothing but darkness.” I suspect you are mixing the “light bulb”, metaphor with the “bomb going off”, metaphor. When a bomb goes off it reorganizes reality. When we use the metaphor” A bomb went off” we mean that everything about our understanding of a situation has now been re-ordered, usually in a good way. Thus, I suspect you have mixed the two metaphors, taking the first part of one and adding the second part of the other. But if you think about it – What you are saying is not what you mean. So, from now on you can say, ” a light bulb moment, or ” a light bulb went on”, but never say a light bulb went off (Unless of course, that’s what you mean 🙂 )

        Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. I can probably stop the counseling now – whew, back to playing guitar at last.

        PPS. Did you buy a new house? The new layout looks great and I’m loving the stack of vinyl.

        Mike

        • dbaldassini@att.net says

          Thanks Mike for the input. I’m going to try some 9’s on my Strat. I like the feel of Ten’s, but pending to get that pedal steel sound is difficult for me. I’d admire Brian for being to pull that off. It’s not easy to do

  43. alfred c says

    So much to work with in this lesson. I might not agree that it’s simple, but I agree with the other comments on how good this lesson is. Tried rockin’ it with a Strat and it plays fantastic that way too.

  44. Brian Canadian in the UK says

    Another brilliant lesson I hear a bit of Dire Straits , I was watching Documentary on the Stones here in the UK , part of it was Keith Richards, man is great writer, player , I seen the Stones live a few times, he is one of my guitar idols, straight up no bs player, what I learned started playing the guitar Brian you don;t need to be complicated when playing to sound good , but you must have the feeling for the song,the vibe, its not a easy lesson there is certain techniques, , that we will carry with us, when we we do improvise and that’s pretty much the ethos of Active Melody, to create , to improvise , learning someone else songs is great its fun but creating your own is even better Thank you Brian for the lesson !

  45. Peter H says

    Great lesson and beautiful guitar, Brian. These types of lessons are why I keep coming back. Have made huge leaps in my playing since I’ve been a part of activemelody.com and I am greatly appreciative. Keep up the great work.

  47. Jeff ("Jeffro ") J says

    This particular lesson stands out! Really awesome!
    But I think that every week it seems.
    I only wish I could see this thin, light-colored font better. Wish you’d change it to something easier to read. I know it wouldn’t be that hard.

  50. Barry H says

    Hi Brian,
    I know this has been around a little while. I have to say I have loved trying to improve my technique on this, the melody is great ( what else would we expect ) I found the bending and timing quite a challenge, however it is starting to come together. I had my first Jam last week after ******* years and it was great. Thanks again as it must be very difficult to come up with something each week.

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