In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a blues lead that doesn't require any rhythm or accompaniment because you'll be "playing the chord changes". This is a technique in which you outline the notes in the chords with your lead, resulting in a more sophisticated sounding solo. This is perfect for those of you that feel stuck in the pentatonic scales. … [Read more...]
(Easy) Slow, Country Guitar Lesson – Learn to play the chord changes – EP291
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a slow (and easy) country lead by playing the chord changes. This lesson is designed to show you a different way of playing lead, by focusing on chords and arpeggios instead of scales. This technique works especially well over slow songs where the band stays on each chord for extended periods of time. … [Read more...]
Learn to play the chord changes in this Western Swing guitar lesson – EP287
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a Western Swing style lead by playing the chord changes (changing scales to match the chords). This is designed to teach you how to play more melodic and interesting sounding leads when improvising. … [Read more...]
Adding Arpeggios and Chord Tones To Your Lead For a More Melodic Solo – Guitar Lesson – EP241
In this week's guitar lesson, we're going to be straying from scales when it comes to playing lead, and instead we'll be focusing on using arpeggios and highlighting chord tones for a much more melodic sounding lead. The best part is that you'll also have a stand-alone blues composition that you can play (in any key) that sounds great on it's own. … [Read more...]
Minor Key Blues – Using Minor Arpeggios To Connect Chord Shapes – EP205
In this minor blues guitar lesson, you'll learn how to think outside of the pentatonic boxes (an easy place to get stuck) by learning how to use minor arpeggios to connect chords in different voicings up the neck of the guitar. You'll learn the E minor, A minor, and dominant B7 arpeggios, as well as how to play the chords in multiple neck positions. … [Read more...]
Western Swing Style Guitar Lesson – Lead Guitar Lesson – EP171
In this guitar lesson you'll learn how to play a jazzy sounding, western swing lead over a I, IV, V chord progression for a much more melodic sounding lead. I'll show you how to play a few jazz runs by targeting the notes within the chord. This gives you a much more melodic sounding lead, and you'll find it's really not that difficult to do! This works on acoustic or electric guitar. … [Read more...]
How to use a Diminished Scale and Chord in a 12 Bar Blues – EP170
If you're looking for a simple way to add a little jazz to your blues rhythm or lead, then you'll love this lesson. I'll show you how to use a diminished arpeggio and chord over the 4 chord in a 12 bar blues. This is a simple technique for adding a jazzy flair to your blues. The first time through I'll show you the rhythm part, the 2nd time through I'll show you how to add fill licks to that rhythm. … [Read more...]
Creating a Melodic Guitar Solo Using Chord Voicings and Arpeggios (PART 2) – EP166
This lesson is a follow-up to EP164, which you can view here. In this guitar lesson, I'll show you how to create more melodic sounding leads by incorporating chord voicings into your solos. This is meant to be additive to what you already know, but hopefully allows you to view the fretboard in a different way by visualizing the chords and using them in your lead. This lesson includes both a practice exercise as well as a melody, and the jam track is in 3 different keys to help you practice … [Read more...]
How To Create a Melodic Guitar Solo Using Chord Voicings and Arpeggios – EP164
In this guitar lesson you'll learn how to create a more melodic sounding lead by playing chords in different voicings up the neck of the guitar, and connecting those chords with arpeggios. It's not difficult to do and will help you connect leads to chords, so that you play a more sophisticated sounding lead. This lesson includes a practice exercise to help you easily start connecting the different chord voicings. I created a follow-up to this lesson which you can view here. … [Read more...]
Dominant 7th Arpeggio – How To Use In Blues – EP150
This lesson was designed both to explain what the arpeggio is and how you can use it when playing lead. The arpeggio can be an extremely powerful tool and can give your leads a more sophisticated sound by mirroring what the chords changes. In this lesson, you'll see that arpeggios can be created out of any chord voicing, so if you already know how to play a chord, you can easily convert that chord into an arpeggio, which you can use when playing lead. I'll demonstrate with 2 chord shape … [Read more...]