Description
In this MicroLesson (ML110) you’ll learn some fun Blues rhythm ideas that can add a nice twist to your Blues and make it much more interesting. These are easier than you think!
Free Guitar Lesson
Rhythm Slow Walkthrough
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Lead Slow Walkthrough
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Video Tablature Breakdown
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Another great one. You know, with the back catalog of great lessons, I am never going to catch up!
Me too
Sounds great Brian. Will have fun with this one.
Those tabs and fretboard graphics that accompany the videos, along with your explanations, are so helpful.
A passionate presentation of simple but important content ,Thanks again Brian you always amaze.
I always look forward to your lessons for playing lead guitar and I am learning new things every week. I’ve been waiting for this lesson. I need lots of help with my rhythm playing. Being able to play and associate both lead and rhythm in one lesson is great for me. Learning rhythm strum patterns with the lead tabs help me hear the meter of the song and I think helps me with my timing. Does that make sense? I feel like it makes me a more rounded guitarist. THIS IS A GOOD ONE!
You make so much out of so little all the time, it always impresses me. It really is not what you do, but how you do it that sounds so good. Thanks for putting so much soul in a simple progression. Just goes to show how phrasing is so important. Thanks for doing another rhythm piece. I think I am starting to realize more that I have to know the rhythm part well and memorize the progression before I can see the CAGED chords well and the lead that can follow. Hope all is well in Brian land.
Thanks Brian. Always expressing affection for the tune, a pleasure to listen and learn from😊.
When I first subscribed to your site Brian, I picked lessons to add as ‘favourites’. Now I find I am adding them every week as they are all favourites!! Many thanks again for this one 👍
Whenever I play lessons 303/305 for others, they always ask for more. Listening to this week’s lead makes me feel like I’m young, back in my living room watching Eric Clapton, MTV Unplugged. Love how you make us work to learn the lead – just good old ear training, a tab and a video to watch.
Brian, I think it’s worth mentioning that A7 to D7 to G7 to C is a version of a 6-2-5-1 turnaround that is so common in blues, especially in those old classic 8 bar blues like Peter Green’s “Need Your Love So Bad” and throughout Freddie King’s 16 bar “Someday After a While (You’ll Be Sorry)”.
Cool observation. Spot on.
Nice examples!
Always in the mood for this! Thanks Brian
Good stuff Brian. Always interested in spicing up rhythm. What I find challenging in this is making the full F chord C position. I usually do it without the bass on the 5th string. Something to practice
Great lesson. An idea for a future lesson is to expand on the idea of ‘minimalist’ or ‘shell’ chord voicings, similar to what is common in jazz. I think too many guitarists in their early stages only think of full voicings and don’t realize the power of these ‘partial’ chords.
Enjoyed learning this. Is it me or is the rhythm down load not set up right. It horizontal rather then verticle and the print is too small to read. Thanks
Yep, I had the same problem. Something amiss in the formatting.
this is fixed now – you may need to refresh the page.
cool – cool – cool –
I like this style of playing. Pick the bass , a little strum and a little chromatic walk up/dowm. I will enjoy learning /playing this piece and adding some licks too! Thanks You.
Brain, this guitar is your Martin CEO7, isn’t it?
yes
Brian
What a great way to learn music! Understand the music structure via the chords, which is enough to stand on its own; then learn a lead to play on top of it, you really understand the piece your playing over so the combination of rhythm and lead has meaning. This is my favorite way to learn. I have a looping pedal that I have been using to lay down a simple rhythm for each of your lessons which has been allowing me to understand the structure & context for the lead; now this lesson allows me to learn a very cool rhythm structure to lay down on the looper & then learn a lead to play over it; this fits my learning to a tee. Hope it works for others. Love to see more of this lesson style!
Brian, I appreciate the occasional new chord shape (i.e, the 7 chord using the 6,4, and 3 string .. new to me anyway) and reminders of other chord shapes you have taught us. I find it helpful to understand how chords get their names and where the root is in the shape. It helps communicating with other musicians. Another great lesson. Thank you!
Hi Brian,
You encourage a perfect community-formation within the ActiveMelody fellowship, but also beyond that. The fact that your latest lesson has a rhythm part and a solo part, too, as PDF files, makes it a joy to play together with your guitar buddy; one the rhythm and one the solo part. That’s just great!
Thank you for what you are doing.
Georg
”…from the five chord, to the five chord, to the five chord, to the one chord…” The dominant chords make this blues rhythm wrap-up very interesting.
Great lesson Brian. Thanks.
What happened to the full screen tap player? I really enjoyed this feature.
it’s still there – just click the square icon in the bottom of the player
It’s still on my phone and pc but don’t have on my iPad.
I keep picking up things or re-learning things that were taught before in a slightly different way. I love the fact that a lot of lessons overlap and reinforce each other. I noticed today that my wrist position tends to collapse (bending back) when doing that C-Shape F chord. This is clearly not the way Brian is doing it, so that’s an area I need to improve on. I did some songs around the fire pit last night and my left hand was shaking so badly, I could barely get through any of my well practiced songs.
Just a heads up Brian: opening up the tabs are not opening up a new window (or tab in chrome). The TAB replaces the lesson page, meaning the need to open up another lesson window to be able to follow along with both. Hope that makes sense
this is fixed now – you may need to refresh the page.
You never disappoint, Brian. Thank you for another great lesson.
Another well explained lesson. I’m getting there, it seems to come together week to week. Great lesson, great teacher.
Great lesson! Exactly what I was hoping for as really enjoy the solo rhythm guitar lessons as it’s great being able to just pick up your acoustic and play a full and interesting song.
Throw in the lead and you’re in a smoke filled Speak-Easey in the wee hour’s …..
Hi Brian,
Great lesson. Is that a 000 Martin?
Excellent ! J’arrive enfin à comprendre et appliquer cette combinaison rythmique et solo. Merci Brian !
The monkey and the engineer by the GD uses a secondary dominant to add a nice layer to a 1,4,5 in G. “The 5 chord of the 5 chord” as Brian says. Here the 5 chord is a D and its 5 chord is an A7. Have a listen if I’m able to post the link; here it is; otherwise look it up and play along on you tubed.
. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ocmTE_J3Ac
Woops I mean here it is again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQGbsMHIOI0
Teaching of the highest order…enjoyed this lesson alot. This is an eight bar blues. Is there a particular tune this piece is modeled after?
I enjoyed this lesson and picked up some great tips. It is great how you support the idea that, of all the notes on all 6 strings when you are making a chord, they are all options and you do not have to play them all providing you have the key notes. Thanks again, Brian!
I have been finally getting the value of the CAGED system and finding my way up and down the fretboard. I find a good practice for me is to do a I IV V progression in all the CAGED positions, along with all the major scales using the pattern of running up the scale four notes at a time . This lesson adds great value to the previous base I have of CAGED by giving me an actual progression I can apply it to -,which is the goal, entertaining yourself and not just running scales. Thanks to others who have posted comments – they help as well.
Great lesson and that lead sound so classy !
just getting back in here, love the lessons.
great lesson. thanks
Hello Brian. Let me first say that I really enjoyed this lesson. But it would have been reinforcing to hear your thought process as you played through the lead . Am I correct in assuming that you are playing out of C Maj Pent.pattern 1 and2 and extending that to pattern 3 on the second pass rather then think in the minor pentatonics…….or does if really matter?
This wasn’t a lead lesson – it’s a rhythm lesson. so i wasn’t thinking “scales” per se
Yes I do appreciate that……but there was “ gold” in the lead as well. I did learn a lot just trying to put together how YOU would have presented the lead. ……… descending C harm.3 rds form B mi to E mi, a good lick going from the caged “E” of C to the caged “G”.of C. Etc. It took me a while to work it all out….i learned from the process as time consuming as it was….but it was well worth the time. I am trying to “ think” it through the way you would.
Brilliant, Brian.
great great lesson
I’m really enjoying these (this) micro lessons. I really appreciate your efforts to reiterate concepts we have learned in previous lessons, e.g. 6th to the 9th. It is so helpful to hear concepts over and over again. Sometimes I don’t quite get it the first time.
Great lesson Brian – It gives me just enough to work on that I don’t get overwhelmed. There is a lot of good stuff going on that I can use moving forward. This helps tremendously in opening up the fretboard.