In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a slow (and relatively easy) blues rhythm and lead over a trio backing track (just bass and drums). Playing in a trio forces you to be on your game as you're covering all of the rhythm and lead parts in real time. This lesson also makes good use of dynamics, and knowing when NOT to play. … [Read more...]
Minor Key, R&B Style Composition – Using Call & Response Technique – Solo Guitar Lesson EP293
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a fun, minor key R&B style composition on acoustic guitar that is designed to give some different ideas for approaching rhythm. You'll be using the "Call & Response" style technique to alternate back and forth between rhythm and lead. … [Read more...]
Soulful Blues Lead Guitar Lesson – Using a Major Chord and it’s Relative Minor – EP290
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a soulful blues lead over a C chord and it's relative minor (A minor). I'll explain how you can play the exact same pentatonic notes and they'll work over both of those chords, making it very easy to solo. You'll also learn how to easily integrate chord shapes into the lead to create a more melodic sounding solo. … [Read more...]
Slow, Dark Blues Lead Played on Acoustic Guitar – Blues Guitar Lesson EP282
In this week's guitar lesson you'll learn to play a slow, dark lead on acoustic guitar (although this could be played on electric as well). I'll show you a few easy ways to connect notes to chord shapes so that you can start improvising in this style. You'll also hear several classic Mark Knopfler style blues licks in this. … [Read more...]
Use chords to create a slow and melodic lead – Guitar Lesson EP280
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a melodic lead by using chords (instead of scales). By playing out of these chord shapes and targeting chord tones, you will be creating much more meaningful sounding solos when you write and improvise. The best part is that it's relatively easy to do. Lastly, this technique takes advantage of the CAGED System (which was covered in lessons EP273 and EP275). … [Read more...]
Soulful, Blues Lead Played Over a Gospel Style Chord Progression – Blues Guitar Lesson – EP252
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a soulful, blues lead over a gospel style chord progression. This is played in the key of G, but I'll show you how to relate all of the notes / licks back to common chord shapes so that you can use these licks in any key. Mp3 Jam track available in 2 tempos. … [Read more...]
Soulful Rhythm Guitar Lesson With Fill Licks – EP225
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a slow, soulful rhythm that includes several bluesy fill licks. This lesson is designed to help you improvise in this style, by learning how these licks are created and to help you with timing. Even though this song is technically very easy to play, it can still be very difficult to play a slow song like this because you'll often find yourself playing ahead of the beat. Practice playing along with the included jam track to help improve your … [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...]
Soulful Blues Lead Guitar Lesson – Using Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales – EP216
In this blues guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a soulful lead in the key of F#. I intentionally omitted any open string notes so that you can transpose any of these licks to other keys. In fact, this lesson comes with 2 MP3 jam tracks, one is in the key that is taught (F#), but the other is in G# so you can practice playing everything in a different key on your own. You should be able to do that by the end of this lesson! … [Read more...]