In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn several useful embellishments and fill licks to play over basic chords in first position. You'll also be learning a stand-alone bluegrass style composition that is the perfect exercise for practicing synchronization between left and right hand. … [Read more...]
Jazz up your blues rhythm and lead by using 2-5-1 turnarounds – Guitar Lesson EP371
In this week's guitar lesson, we'll continue our look at Secondary Dominant Chords (from last week, EP370), and add the minor 2 chord, so that we can now play a 2-5-1 chord combination for any of the chords in the chord family of the key we're in. You'll learn how all of this applies to a 12 bar blues in this lesson. … [Read more...]
How to write a simple stand-alone composition on guitar – Guitar Lesson EP360
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a simple melody and chord composition while also learning how to create your own stand-alone compositions like this on guitar. I happened to record the genesis of this composition, explaining my thought process as I began to create it and share that in the video. … [Read more...]
Funky Blues Rhythm and Lead Guitar Lesson – EP359
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a funky rhythm and lead over a minor key jam track. This is the same jam track that we used for the April 2020 Site Member Challenge - Check out the consolidated posts from site members and see how they approached it here: (Page 1, Page 2, and Page 3). Keep in mind, everyone that submitted recorded their own versions before I did, so you can see the many different ways that this jam track might be approached! Also, (as always) thanks to Don … [Read more...]
Slow Country Lead Guitar Lesson – Pedal Steel Licks and Harmonies – EP355
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a slow and easy country lead that is full of pedal steel licks (bends) and harmonized 6ths. Even at full tempo this one is easy to follow along with and easy to play. Learn how to use these licks in your lead when you improvise. … [Read more...]
Ragtime Blues Guitar Lesson – Solo Composition (No Jam Track Needed) – EP351
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a ragtime blues composition by yourself on guitar (no jam track). As you play through the chords, you'll learn a fill lick that corresponds with each chord. This sounds great at any tempo and works on acoustic or electric guitar. … [Read more...]
How to USE the CAGED System to play a Country Blues Melody – EP346
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to actually USE the CAGED system (in a practical sense) to play a country blues composition that requires no accompaniment. You'll be killing 2 birds with one stone by playing a really fun song, while learning the CAGED chord positions. All played using triads. This will be a break-through lesson for a lot of you. … [Read more...]
Slow and Easy Country Blues Lead Guitar Lesson – EP333
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a slow and easy country blues lead that works on electric or acoustic guitar. This one is full of classic Western Swing, 6 chord ideas (like the ones Don Helms would play in those original Hank Williams recordings). … [Read more...]
Soulful, Gospel Style Rhythm and Lead Guitar Lesson – EP330
This week's guitar lesson is a good example of the CAGED system in action. You'll learn how to play chords in multiple positions on the neck and how to connect them to the pentatonic scales so that you can easily create fill licks. This lesson is full of "takeaways". … [Read more...]
Blues Phrasing Mini-Series (3 of 3) Playing The Chord Changes – EP313
This is Part 3 (of 3) of a blues phrasing mini-series for guitar. If you've ever struggled with not knowing what to do with all of the scales and information that you've learned for guitar, this mini-series will be perfect for you. It's designed to give you some essential tools to get you improvising right away. This lesson builds on the information that you've learned in the first 2 parts of this mini-series (EP311 and EP312) by adding "playing the chord changes", which is when you change … [Read more...]
