In this week's guitar lesson, you'll be playing in the key of the song (so no worrying about following chord changes). You'll be playing everything out of 2 basic shapes (a triangle and a square) - and you'll be going back and forth between major and minor pentatonic scales using those shapes. A fun and easy way to play blues lead. … [Read more...]
How to Use Modes (Part 2 of 2) – Modes (The Ultimate Explanation) – Guitar Lesson EP375
This is Part 2 (of 2) of a lesson series on Modes. In this lesson, you'll learn what the modes are, what they sound like, how to find them, and how to use them when you play lead guitar. This lesson includes to examples (one major and one minor) along with tablature and MP3 jam tracks. … [Read more...]
How to Use Modes (Part 1 of 2) – The Major Scale in 5 CAGED Positions – Guitar Lesson EP374
This is Part 1 of a 2 Part lesson series on modes. You'll not only learn what modes are, but you'll learn how to find them and use them when you play lead to create different moods. In this first part, we'll start with the major scale and how to find it in 5 positions on the neck (connecting it to the CAGED System). … [Read more...]
Laid-back, J.J. Cale style lead on electric guitar – Blues guitar lesson EP373
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a slow, laid-back lead in the style of the great J.J. Cale. I'll show you how everything starts with the minor pentatonic scale and how you can add 2 notes, converting it to D dorian mode. This one is easy to play from a technical standpoint and can be played fingerstyle or with a pick. … [Read more...]
Acoustic Blues Lead – Playing the Chord Changes – EP369
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a more melodic sounding blues lead by targeting notes within the chords... "playing the changes". This jam track is just 2 guitars (rhythm and lead) and I'll show you how to play both parts so you can play this with another guitarist. … [Read more...]
Using Minor and Major Pentatonic Scales in the Blues – Blues Guitar Lesson EP368
In this week's guitar lesson, I'll explain how to easily find the minor and major pentatonic scales, and how to connect those scales to basic chord shapes. You'll then learn a stand-alone blues composition that uses both of these scales so you can understand how they relate to the blues. … [Read more...]
Solo over the chord changes by yourself and incorporate diminished scales – Guitar Lesson EP358
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to incorporate 3 different diminished scales when playing lead over chord changes. There is no jam track needed for this, you'll be able to play lead by yourself and target chord tones, giving you a lead that works on it's own. … [Read more...]
Connecting Chord Shapes to the Pentatonic Scales – Useful when playing the changes – Guitar Lesson EP344
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to visualize the chord changes when playing lead, by connecting pentatonic patterns to chord shapes. This uses the same jam track from last week (EP343) … [Read more...]
Slow, Rock Blues Guitar Lead That You Can Play By Yourself – Blues Guitar Lesson – EP334
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a slow blues rhythm and lead that alternates between a major chord, and it's relative minor (E and C#m). You can use the same pentatonic scale to play over both of these chords, making it fun and relatively easy to improvise in this style. … [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...]
