In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn a Dave Rawlings inspired acoustic lead that is played with a 2nd guitar on rhythm. Learn how to accompany another rhythm guitarist using a combination of dissonance and slow bluegrass licks. Here's a Spotify playlist that I put together with 6 songs of Dave and Gillian on guitar in this style - just 2 acoustic guitars. … [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...]
Secondary Dominant Chords – What They Are And How To Use Them – Guitar Lesson EP370
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn what secondary dominant chords are and how they can be used when writing chord arrangements or when improvising lead. I'll also show you how to easily identify them by connecting them to basic chord shapes that you already know. … [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...]
Chord Embellishments – How to make basic chords sound better – EP367
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to take a simple chord progression with 3 chords, and make it sound more interesting by learning several must-know embellishments around those chord shapes. You can use these embellishments when jamming with others, or for when playing by yourself. … [Read more...]
Combine the Pentatonic Scales with the CAGED System to play blues – Guitar Lesson EP356
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to combine the major and minor pentatonic scales with chord shapes from the CAGED System. You'll learn how to easily jump from the major to the minor pentatonic scale in three main neck positions AND how to play the 1, 4, 5 chords in those various positions. This lesson comes with 3 diagram PDFs, tablature, and the MP3 jam track so that you can practice everything that you learn. … [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...]
Improvising Rhythm Guitar Lesson – Using the CAGED System – EP343
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll up your rhythm game by learning how to improvise various rhythm parts using the CAGED System. This also makes use of triads and harmonized 3rds in multiple neck positions. … [Read more...]
“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” – Guitar Lesson and How to Compose – EP337
In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a solo arrangement of the Christmas song, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear". In addition to showing you how to play it, I'll explain my thought process for creating a solo composition like this so that you can create your own. … [Read more...]
Blues Phrasing Mini-Series (1 of 3) Easy 4 note box – EP311
This is Part 1 (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 focuses on a very simple 4 note box that can be played in both minor and major pentatonic scale to give you a lot of variety from just a few easy to play notes. … [Read more...]