In this week's guitar lesson you'll learn how to play the Christmas classic "What Child Is This?", which is the melody of the song "Greensleeves". I'll show you how to play this solo guitar (no accompaniment) with a pick. … [Read more...]
Rockabilly Rhythm and Lead Guitar Lesson (in the key of A) – EP226
In this week’s guitar lesson you’ll learn several classic Rockabilly style techniques including embellishing around an A6 chord. You’ll also learn an easy way to play chord changes by picking notes out of chords instead of thinking of scales. … [Read more...]
How To Improvise Lead By Visualizing Chord Shapes – Guitar Lesson EP223
In this week's guitar lesson you'll learn how to improvise a melodic lead (includes a harmonized lead) by visualizing chord shapes. You'll learn how to play the same licks in different places on the neck, thus playing the chord changes. I've also included 2 versions of the MP3 jam track (normal tempo, and a slow version). … [Read more...]
Soulful R&B Style Lead Guitar Lesson – Using the Major Pentatonic Scale – EP222
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to improvise a soulful R&B style lead using the major pentatonic scale. I'll explain which patterns the notes come from and how to connect them back to chord shapes so that you can start to visualize leads like this when you're improvising. … [Read more...]
Simple Blues Lead Guitar Lesson Using Just 6 Notes and Phrasing – EP219
In this week's guitar lesson, we're going to be eliminating complexity that is often associated with improvising lead guitar by focusing on only 6 notes (4 fretted notes and 2 notes that are bends). We will create an entire 45 second solo with those notes while putting the emphasis on simple phrasing. This lesson includes 12 versions of the same MP3 jam track (one for each key) so that you can practice playing this lead in any key. … [Read more...]
Acoustic Blues Guitar Lesson in A – Solo Composition – EP208
This week's guitar lesson is a solo acoustic blues composition in the key of A. You'll learn how to alternate between a shuffle rhythm and harmonized leads. You'll also learn how to relate each of these licks back to basic chord shapes so that you can use them when you improivse or write your own music. Lots of takeaways in this one :) … [Read more...]
Chord Embellishments and Hybrid Picking Guitar Lesson – EP204
In this guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a solo blues composition using just 5 basic chords. Instead of just strumming the chords, I'll show you how to use hybrid picking to help embellish the chords. You'll essentially be playing extra notes with each chord to create a more sophisticated sound. I play through this arrangement 2 times, playing it different each time to give you a variety of embellishment ideas. … [Read more...]
MicroLesson: 001 – Enhance Your Blues Shuffle in A
In this MicroLesson I'll show you a simple enhancement to a blues rhythm shuffle over an A chord. … [Read more...]
3 Essential Chord Shapes on the Guitar – Chord Inversions – EP199
In this guitar lesson, you are going to learn 3 triad chord shapes (a triad means just 3 notes). I'll show you how to play these chord shapes up the neck of the guitar and how to play a 1, 4, 5 chord progression with them. You can use them both in rhythm playing and when playing lead. This lesson contains both a rhythm pattern, and a lead - which is created by adding embellishments to the chord shapes. This lesson is a MUST learn! … [Read more...]
Jerry Garcia Style Guitar Lesson – Grateful Dead Style Lead – EP196
In this guitar lesson, I'll break down several Jerry Garcia style licks and explain how to play them and where they come from. Jerry was really good at playing the chord changes (which means switching the scale to match whatever the chord was). I'll show you how to change scales to match the chords by visualizing chord shapes and linking the licks you'll be learning to those chord shapes. … [Read more...]
