In this week's guitar lesson, you'll learn how to play a really fun blues rhythm composition that you can play on your own (with no need for a jam track). This is full of classic rhythm fills that are designed to spice up your rhythm chops. I'll also explain how to play them in any key. … [Read more...]
Learn 3 Classic Blues Rhythms That Can Be Played In Any Key – EP247
In this weeks guitar lesson, I'll show you how to play 3 classic blues rhythm patterns that you'll be able to play in any key. These are the main chord voicings I use when improvising rhythm. This lesson comes with 12 jam tracks so you can practice playing in multiple keys and at multiple 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...]
Country Blues Rhythm Guitar Lesson With Fill Licks – EP220
This week's guitar lesson is a country blues style rhythm with fill licks. I'll break everything down note for note and show you how to play this rhythm (explaining the strum pattern in detail). I'll explain where all of the fill licks come from so that you can start to improvise in this style. … [Read more...]
(Part 1) Muddy Waters Style Blues Guitar Lesson – Solo Composition – EP213
In this week's guitar lesson, I'll show you how to play a Muddy Waters inspired blues composition that's played solo guitar (meaning no accompaniment). This composition is made up of several classic Muddy Waters licks. Muddy always played with a slide and even though I'm not using a slide for this, I'll show you how to simulate his slide technique while playing everything in standard tuning. This works well on acoustic or electric guitar. … [Read more...]
Tony Joe White Style Rhythm Guitar Lesson – EP212
In this week's guitar lesson, we'll take a look at the bluesy rhythm playing of the great Tony Joe White. He's the songwriter behind "Polk Salad Annie" and "Rainy Night in Georgia" and several other great songs. He also happens to be a fantastic guitar player and his blues rhythm style has always fascinated me. He makes it look so effortless. In this lesson I'll break down a rhythm similar to what he does in "Polk Salad Annie". … [Read more...]
3 Blues Rhythms with added Fill Licks – Blues Rhythm Guitar Lesson – EP168
In this blues guitar lesson you'll learn how to add fill licks to the 3 blues rhythms that were taught in last week's lesson (EP167). Here's a link to last week's blues rhythm guitar lesson. I'll show you how to play the same fill licks over all 3 rhythm patterns so you get a feel for how it works. This lesson comes with the same MP3 jam track that was used last week (includes 3 different keys so you can practice playing this in other keys). … [Read more...]
Learn 3 Unique Blues Rhythms, Played Over The Same Jam Track – EP167
Playing rhythm in a band doesn't always get the respect that it deserves. Rhythm is essential to any ensemble of musicians and is the glue that holds everything together - defining the parameters of the song. This blues guitar lesson is made up of 3 very different sounding rhythms that you can be played over the same 12 bar blues backing track. Notice how the feel of the song completely changes depending on the rhythm that is played. … [Read more...]
Basic 12 Bar Blues Rhythm (Easy) – BLG005
I received an email from a site member this week stating that he was recently at a jam session and wasn’t sure what to do when it came to playing rhythm. He knew the key the song was in and new how to make chords, but didn’t feel like he knew how to play a blues rhythm, so I’ve decided to create a very simple blues rhythm guitar lesson in the key of E with two variations, so that you can mix and match them. I wanted to make the MP3 jam tracks, tablature and all lesson content for this lesson … [Read more...]
Hybrid Picking Blues Shuffle – Guitar Lesson – EP120
In this lesson, you'll learn how to play a blues guitar shuffle in the key of E, played using a hybrid picking technique. Hybrid picking is when you use a pick to play the lower (bass) strings and you use a finger on your right hand to play the higher strings, either playing a melody or harmony. The jam track comes in 2 tempos (there's a slower version for those of you that are just starting this style). … [Read more...]