Description
In this MicroLesson (ML113), you’ll learn how to find Blues harmonies within 3 Triad shapes (all played on the top 3 strings). You’ll learn how to play a 1-4-5 Blues progression by yourself (no jam track needed) using these harmonies – a great way to practice them!
Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson
Part 2 - For Premium Members
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Slow Walkthrough
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Video Tablature Breakdown
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I love the D7 idea in Part 1 at 11:25!
Indeed. and it repeats on the 4 chord which helps when you are trying to play over the changes.
Great stuff!
You make it look so easy. Great lesson. thanks Brian
Love it !!!
Been doing pieces of this for a long time, but you just tripled the number of pieces. Thanks very much Brian for leading me beyond my old path. Great stuff.
“Just bring the third along for the ride.” Never have I heard it so simply. That was a game changer for me. So easy to wrap one’s head when put that way. Thank you!
G’day Brian,
Me, Im 1948 vintage, so by comparison that there guitar is travelling pretty well!
Thank you so much for your great work.
M.J., Oz.
Brian, Just when I am thinking I know my triads inside and out you show me some novel combination of notes that were right under my nose yet I never saw! You never cease to surprise me with new ideas in what initially looks like a new lesson rehashing previous musical ideas (which by the way is perfectly OK). Every week I pick up new ideas. Bravo and thank you!
The slides + the walkdowns are very interesting. Great addition to our improv toolbox.
After 3 years of your lessons Brian, I finally get it. Thank you. I feel good!
A+ Brian! What I believe I saw for the first time fro me anyway, was that walk down on the G and B strings, where you hold the note on the 5th ftret on B, and walk down on the G from 5th to 3tf fret. Then later on you did it higher. Very cool and useful! Thanks!
It starts on the 7th fret and walk down, then goes to the 5th right away and walk down. My bad. But still very cool !
A very helpful lesson…
I am curious how other students study these lessons. I usually print them out and review them, then I watch the video. Afterwards I pickup a guitar and try to play it from the printed copy. If I try to play the guitar while watching the lesson, I find I am continually stopping and starting the video and I seem to only learn fragments. Sometimes I will go back later and study certain parts to improve my understanding or my execution.
I realize we all learn differently, but what methods have other students found helpful.
Thanks
I used to print them all out too. But now, I play them from the full screen mode. If I feel I need to make notes, I will print it out.
I will give that a try. Thanks for the suggestion.
Use an exercise book and pencil the tablature in the ruled lines. Listen to the lesson and make notes as I go. Highlight with a colour pencil anything in the tab and add any tips or diagrams at the end of the lesson pages. A bit more work but worth having the resource at hand with all the lessons and note material.
I am going to do this. Probably not for every lesson but definitely for the ones I find most relevant to my situation. Thanks
I only use the video to make sure I get the fingering and right and left hand techniques down properly to make sure everything flows well. Of course watch the video to learn the idea’s behind everything being played, but I usually go to the sound slice player to learn the material.
If you are not using the Sound Slice player, you are seriously missing out on a great learning tool. If you are using the sound slice player, be sure to explore all of the options on the configuration page (icon looks like faders on a sound board). The setting I always change is the Keep Playhead In Middle of Screen instead of at the top. I wish that was the default setting. I always turn the video portion off if not in full screen mode so there is no lag in the playback, but there is a setting in there to adjust for that if desired.
One of the best features of sound slice is the ability to select any measure and loop over the measure. You can do this by dragging your mouse over the measure or multiple measures to select the parts you want to loop. Set the playback speed to a comfortable tempo and finally, use space bar to pause/start, or ENTER to go back to beginning of selected portion. The list of all the shortcuts are at the bottom of the configuration page.
Always identify the parts of the song you may be having difficulties with and focus on those parts. Get them down in perfect rhythm at a slow tempo and this will speed up your progress. Once you learn the whole piece, if there is a slow backing track provided with the lesson, use it to dial in your rhythm at a slow tempo.
I use Microsoft One Note to keep notes on various songs, I also learned how to write music in Musescore over a few weekends to facilitate creating my own idea’s or adding variations to the one’s in Brian’s lessons.
I’m a big believer in learning your intervals, scales, and making the connections to the CAGED shapes as Brian teaches throughout all of these lessons. When I go through any scale during practice, I count the intervals from each root note because once you know the interval pattern, you can play it from any root note on any string all over the fretboard. It takes a little work, but I love how much more things make sense after learning my intervals.
I really appreciate your advice. You have opened up a many new options for me to explore.
Thanks a lot!
Brian, if you’re reading this, maybe consider adding a lesson or to on how to use the tools and improve our understanding.
I’m going to try your approach of counting the intervals from the route note when playing scales. Thanks for sharing this.
That sounds like good advice. I get the most out of these lessons by listening to them over and over. Finally, I get enough technique to get into the lessons deeper. This brings out all my weak areas and I repeat everything until the new lesson comes out. I wasted too many years memorizing stuff…… Plus, I just like to sit back, relax and listen. No pressure and a great way to kill time.
That sounds like a good way to train my listening skills so I can recognize ways to improvise. At some point theory and technique have to provide a pathway to versatility and uniqueness.
I initially started with the same approach as you. However, when I realized that I couldn’t recall certain parts of the lesson, I decided to change my process I began taking notes after going back and watching the video again. This method was particularly helpful for documenting music theory and finger placement. It was a game-changer for me. My notes are attached to the printed PDF files for each lesson. By using this method, I found that note-taking enhanced my learning experience and improved my recall.
I watch the video one shot and try not to interrupt it. A day later, I watch it again and this time I will interrupt it. Then I download the audio and .pdf. I use the interactive partition and use the looping feature intensively to learn the composition as quickly as I can. And it really does help me to learn faster. I have created a playlist on this app called “Ableton Live” with these jam tracks. I use that playlist to play everything that I learn here in order not to forget it. Sometimes I try to play the solo from one jam track with another jam track or parts of it. In order to decouple the embellishment from the jam track and make my brain see them as independent tools to solo with and to be repurposed. So I end up with a repertoire of Brian’s jam tracks that keeps on getting bigger over time. Good luck.
I appreciate your advice. I should try to alter my learning methods to gain a better understanding. You are much farther down the guitar playing road than me. I may never get to where you are, but it’s the journey not the destination, right?
I find the the video especially helpful for his fingering which I generally copy. I will enlarge the video of his playing the lick and play along without the notes which at that point I can hear.
I also use the notation not for the names of the notes so much as I don’t really read much beyond the treble clef, but more for counting out the timing. For me that solidifies the memorization. His arrangements have so many tasty bits that I want to commit to memory and counting out loud quarter, eighth notes, triplets and rests helps alot especially at the end of measures. In my practice routine, I’ll count out aloud until I can play it without counting.
I sometimes use sound slice to try to play it in a different key if I can memorize and play the lesson as is, but that’s a lot to do before the next lesson drops. If I get that far into the week, I may go back to his categories and look at his other arrangements in that key.
This thread on how people practice was useful.
Other than printing it out, I use the same technique… stopping and starting the video to get the cadence that Brian is using. i also use the tab section the same way. I’ve been playing, mainly noodling for 30 years until I started taking these lessons here. Brian is really a great teacher.
Just when I think you can’t surprise me…. Great lesson, with several “lightbulb” moments for me. Thanks!
Pulled out my Baritone Uke for this and having a ball. Now I know what those old timers were doing on the Tenor guitar!
if I want to learn the lesson and be able to play it as a song I watch it over and over til I get it. Always playing along. if notI pick the techniques I want and move on. this was a great lesson! I want to learn it complete. I attack most lead on songs thru triads. this gave me a lot more ideas. thanks Brian!
are you holding the pick differently?
Brian, I rarely comment however this lesson really pulled a lot of your teachings together in a highly effective manner. I love how once i got the basics, the pieces can be fitted together like lego into very melodic jamming which sounds creative almost without effort. Thanks!!
Nice lesson, good for improv, am trying not looking at the fretboard while playing to get more natural.
On a tangent, can you show the use of the flat 7 chord in blues or rock rhythm progressions? it’s the basic mixolydian ‘diatonic’ progression, in C incorporating a Bb chord. So instead of 1,4,5, you might use a 1, b7, 4 perhaps?
I ordered one of those Tonewood picks to test out. Should be here on Monday. This is a nice straight forward lesson this week to add to the arsenal.
I was just able to get to this lesson today. Great lesson on using triads. I can use this in so many ways now. Thanks Brian
Another great lesson using triads – thankyou Brian!
I just have one question – do you have any tips for targeting the correct strings? Maybe this just comes with practice but I struggle to hit strings 2 and 3 without catching the 4th string…..and it sounds horrible!!
Any suggestions (other than practice!) much appreciated, thankyou!
Well, with those 2 shapes we can play any song. A ton of ideas on those 2 shapes means a ton of ideas to play any song. I can drink to that. cheers.
love how you keep reinforcing the chord tones and how they relate to the line. every time you teach it in a different way, and it keeps sticking just a little more. Two note lines are just so much tastier than one note lines!!
Great lesson.
I’ve been a member for a couple of years and really enjoy your perspective.
Thank you.
Wow! I think THAT was my breakthrough lesson. After nearly 10 years with Active Melody, and hundreds of great lessons, this one really hit a homerun for me.
I’ve been searching for a way to play rhythm chords with the melodic flexibility of single notes and this sure feels like it might be it.
Many thanks Brian 😊
Great one Brian. I’m am all for your thought at the end of pt. 2 for doing a course based on visual cues for playing. Theory is good but , visual landmarks, ear and muscle-memory are what I seek/need. Sign me up for that one.
WOW! Traid 2.0, sometimes you play stuff blinded, nerver realizing all full potential laying at your finger tips! Thank you for creating such videos allowing extending our playing to new heights and full potiential.
Those triads nice feeling in growing our playing potential always!!!
Richard
A lot of cool and easy licks here. Thanks a lot Brian. I’ll definitely be keeping these up my sleeve.
I just listen to Brian play the song one time, then I turn off my computer and play it.. Yeah right! Ha ha!
So much to learn in these lessons. Thanks for your explanations of where things come from.
The mud is finally starting to stick to the wall after throwing it a thousand times. I love the way you keep working in thirds and sixes into your lessons . For the first time I was able to watch the video without stopping bc I finally anticipated where you would go. You are really helping me get better. Bravo!
Love the harmonizing lessons as they always unleash a lot of creativity that I can’t seem to get at without your video. Once I see and hear it, it seems so simple, and so easy to use. Thanks again…
A+ as always Brian. I really appreciate the transposition to the higher frets of the same ideas because my fingers have to mechanically adjust and learn, which in turn, gives me a greater degree of mechanical and in turn, creative flexibility.
Hello Brian, or can anyone answer please? Is Brian resting his palm on lower strings or hovering above? Thanks for any information, Jay
A relative newcomer to the website but I’m really enjoy the in-lesson explanations. Here and others, like soloing from a target note or mixing major and minor pentatonics, it can sometimes get a little overwhelming but sticking with it and things are starting to click a bit.