Blues Guitar Lessons

Completed

Watch Later

3:20 Free Spicing up the Blues - Sliding 9th Chords Instructor: Nick Granville Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues Hi everyone! In this lesson, I'm going to show you a basic way to slide 9th chords to create colour when playing the blues. I use this sound often as it is very colourful, yet also very simple and powerful. See the notation below for the voicings. W...
Completed

Watch Later

4:30 Free Spicing up the Blues - Soloing with Arpeggios Instructor: Nick Granville Level: Intermediate Topic: Scales Style: Blues Now I'll show you a simple way to play arpeggios for each chord change over a 12 bar blues. Using arpeggios when soloing over a blues is a great concept as it allows you to 'spell' the chord changes but also creates more colour than using just the mi...
Completed

Watch Later

2:26 Blues Basics - The Chords Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues Welcome new guitarists! In this tutorial, I want to focus on getting your first blues progression under your fingers. We'll start by examining three chords (E5, A5 and B5). "5" chords are commonly referred to among guitarists as power chords. These c...
Completed

Watch Later

0:32 Blues Basics - The Progression Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues So let's stick these chords together into an eight-bar blues progression. 1) We start by playing our E5 chord 16 times using a down picking motion. Remember here, the only two strings that should be sounded are the top two. Count "1 and 2 and ...
Completed

Watch Later

1:24 Blues Basics - The Riff Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues So the goal here, is to play the exact same chords, for the exact same durations of time with a slight variance. But before we do that, let's examine this variance... Below, we see the tablature of the repeating E5 chord, however, on beats two and f...
Completed

Watch Later

1:25 Blues Basics - The Blues! Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues So now that we're rockin' the blues riffs, let's stick it back into the blues progression. The same riff variance applies to all three chords. NOTE: The B5 requires a two fret stretch while maintaining the power chord itself - for those having issue...
Completed

Watch Later

0:23 Abusing The Blues - Introduction Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Welcome back IGers! This month, I wanted to break down and analyze a few of my "go-to" licks within the blues scale. But before we do, let's expand our harmonic spectrum of the blues scale, to spice things up. First, let's play through the regular o...
Completed

Watch Later

0:49 Abusing The Blues - Lick 1 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues So this first lick is pretty "twisty" in that it highlights a fair portion of the first position A minor pentatonic scale while adding hints of the major third (C#) through out. This is a great mechanism for adding a more "Down South" kinda vibe to y...
Completed

Watch Later

0:51 Abusing The Blues - Lick 2 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues In much the same descending motion, this lick makes use of the second and third position pentatonic scale. Again, be sure to keep an eye on the techniques involved and execute the lick as cleanly as possible.
Completed

Watch Later

0:43 Abusing The Blues - Lick 3 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 3 approaches the blues scale from an ascending perspective. With three notes per string, our intervals are spread up to six frets apart. The main "purpose" of this lick is to highlight the #4 (D#) in a pretty blatant way. Be sure to note that th...
Completed

Watch Later

0:53 Abusing The Blues - Lick 4 Instructor: Chris Feener Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues And last but not least, lick 4. This one is very "pentatonicy" in the sense that we see a ton of two-note-per-string-ness. Note the heavy use, again, of the major third interval (C#) on both the D and B strings. I hope you enjoyed playing through th...
Completed

Watch Later

0:44 Robben Ford Style Blues - Intro & Rhythm Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Intermediate Topic: Rhythm Style: Blues Hey IG, We’re here with the second installment of my little blues series. This time we’re dealing with a more sophisticated Robben Ford/Larry Carlton type blues. The phrases in this will be more advanced from both a melodic as well as...
Completed

Watch Later

1:02 Robben Ford Style Blues - Solo Example Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Blues So let’s get started with the lead playing! I’ve come up with a blues chorus that features some typical licks for this type of playing. Most of these lines are based on both the major and minor blues scales. I switch back and forth even w...
Completed

Watch Later

0:34 Blues Rock Etude - Introduction Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Beginner Topic: Improvising Style: Blues Hey IG! This is the first installment of a three-part series on the good ol’ Blues. We’re going to take three steps, so each of the three tutorials will deal with a different type of blues, increasing in difficulty. This very tutorial is...
Completed

Watch Later

0:57 Blues Rock Etude - Rhythm Part Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Beginner Topic: Rhythm Style: Blues This is a 12-bar shuffle blues rock in E. The rhythm is based around a riff that repeats over and over and is put of every chord of the form. Be sure to internalize the 12-bar form perfectly until you can play through it in your sleep before attempti...
Completed

Watch Later

1:09 Blues Rock Etude - Solo Example Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Beginner Topic: Improvising Style: Blues Now on to the lead playing! The lines in this solo etude are based around both the E major (nicer sound) and minor (dirtier, bluesier sound) blues scales. They lead you through several positions over the neck, use different type of rhythms as well as...
Completed

Watch Later

1:21 Blues Rock Etude - Backing Track Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Beginner Topic: Improvising Style: Blues This is the backing that fits both the rhythm part and the solo example.
Completed

Watch Later

0:36 Sweep Picking as a Tool - Example 2 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Intermediate Topic: Technique Style: Blues This next lick falls into the key of C major, and is also very simple. I have chosen to sweep the first two notes, and 'hybrid pick' the third note. This is purely for tonal reasons, and can just as easily be played with three down strokes. I won't ...
Completed

Watch Later

1:06 Exploring the Sixth - Blues Application Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Beginner Topic: Scales Style: Blues Alright, let me show you a pattern now that is really useful for your blues repertoire. Since your average blues is made up of only dominant 7th chords you can apply the pattern over each chord equally. I also added a few chromatic passing tones (not...
Completed

Watch Later

1:05 Exploring the Sixth - Blues Solo Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues To conclude our lesson, here are sixth intervals in an actual “real life” soloing situation. It’s really important to apply these things but mix them up with your other concepts and licks, in order to not sound like you’re pra...
Completed

Watch Later

1:29 Exploring the Sixth - Backing (fast) Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Intermediate Topic: Improvising Style: Blues Here is the backing track at normal speed. If you need it slower, head on over to the next page. Have fun!
Completed

Watch Later

1:49 Exploring the Sixth - Backing (slow) Instructor: Martin Miller Level: Beginner Topic: Improvising Style: Blues Here is the backing track slowed down.
Completed

Watch Later

0:46 Adding Interest to the Blues - Example 1 Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 1 The first example uses a chromatic run and legato. Use it to break out of the traditional blues box. The chromatic notes add interest and stretch the listener. The tempo is quite fast, so practice it cleanly. Make sure you're hitting all of t...
Completed

Watch Later

0:35 Adding Interest to the Blues - Example 2 Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 2 This is a unique way to turn ordinary lines into head turning slide emulation. Heavily influenced by Jimmy Herring and Derek Trucks, it uses only a few notes, but wrings every possible sound from them. By staying on only one string and using ...
Completed

Watch Later

0:57 Adding Interest to the Blues - Example 3 Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 3 This is a lick in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Nothing says blues like an occasional nod to one of the greats. Many players try to emulate Stevie to the point of unoriginality. Be careful to become your own player. This lick is fun to pla...
Completed

Watch Later

0:41 Adding Interest to the Blues - Example 4 Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 4 This lick is built around an Am arpeggio played over G minor. It sounds fairly outside when played in context due to the first notes in the pattern. Don't overdo it though. An occasional departure from the diatonic key can add interest,...
Completed

Watch Later

1:27 Adding Interest to the Blues - Example 5 Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Lick 5 This lick requires you to master the art of raking the strings. It's a good transition lick to set up your favourite blues runs. It is derived from the F# Blues scale. Don't let the fact that it's short fool you - it takes work to make this e...
Completed

Watch Later

1:23 Finger Tone Part 2 - Lead Lick Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Technique Style: Blues The following is a simple lick at first glance, but contains a number of elements which require attention to detail. The lick, which is derived from a Gm Pentatonic scale uses only the right hand fingers. By not using a pick, we are able to anticipat...
Completed

Watch Later

1:56 Finger Tone Part 3 - Funky Chord Vamp Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Chords Style: Blues This lesson builds on what we learned in the previous video. It vamps on a Dm7 chord to achieve a funky rhythmic sound. Although we are only using one chord, the percussive stops and staccato feel give it an interesting flavour to be used across a nu...
Completed

Watch Later

1:24 Joe Bonamassa Style Lick Instructor: Jody Mac Level: Intermediate Topic: Technique Style: Blues Hey there! In this video we'll be looking a blues lick inspired by Joe Bonamassa, a modern blues player. Remember to learn it slowly in parts. The lick is played over an Am7 chord. Be sure to execute the 1/2 bend precisely, as it gives the lick its s...
Completed

Watch Later

1:41 Funky Blues - Intro Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Hey guys! This tutorial will focus on a beginner 'Funky Blues' riff, and will also include a modified example, as well as a short lead run! As mentioned in the above video, some techniques that may stand out are: Staccato: Characterize...
Completed

Watch Later

1:16 Funky Blues - Example 1 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Here we have a riff that follows the notes of a minor pentatonic scale. If you are unsure of what that is, there are several tutorials available that will help you get the grasp of it. For this lesson, its not entirely necessary to know; though, it w...
Completed

Watch Later

1:14 Funky Blues - Example 2 Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues For the second example, we will play the riff over dominant 7th chords, and will slightly change the idea, adding a major 3rd. If you get this down fairly easy, try switching your techniques, from alternate picking, to legato, etc. Move on to the t...
Completed

Watch Later

0:29 Funky Blues - Simple Lead Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues This lick works well with both example one and two, and follows the E minor blues pentatonic scale. Try picking every note in the run, using mostly legato, or combining both techniques to achieve what may be the most comfortable for your playing. Y...
Completed

Watch Later

1:39 Funky Blues - Outro Instructor: Steve Hubbard Level: Beginner Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Remember, be creative, and use your own 'voice' in music! As always, send questions my way if you have any. Thanks for checking out this tutorial!
Completed

Watch Later

2:13 Slide Guitar - Introduction Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Beginner Topic: Reference Style: Blues Welcome to this introduction to slide guitar playing! First of all, this will not be a song tutorial, where you learn to play riffs or solos. Rather, this is a technical overview and reference guide to help you make the most of your slide playing, r...
Completed

Watch Later

3:17 Slide Guitar - The Tools of the Trade Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Beginner Topic: Reference Style: Blues Which type of slide you choose to use are largely a matter of taste. Different materials produce different tones. If you lay acoustic (Dobro, lap, regular acoustic) might mean you choose a copper or metal slide, depending on style. A glass slide is p...
Completed

Watch Later

4:55 Slide Guitar - Choosing your Slide Finger and Muting Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Beginner Topic: Reference Style: Blues Which finger you choose to use your slide with, also affects your playing to a large extent. Traditional blues players often used their slide on their pinky, perhaps not because of technical considerations, but perhaps more because almost all slides ...
Completed

Watch Later

4:57 Slide Guitar - Open Tuning pt.1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Beginner Topic: Reference Style: Blues In this segment we discuss the open D-tuning and how this is used in slide guitar playing. We also discuss the issues with tuning the major third to equal temperament pitch, or to a harmonically correct pitch.
Completed

Watch Later

3:19 Slide Guitar - Open Tuning pt.2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Beginner Topic: Reference Style: Blues In this part we discuss how the intonation of your guitar is affected by raising the string height. As I mentioned in my setup tutorial about string height vs. intonation, the pitch of a string raised it the string height is too high, or if the truss...
Completed

Watch Later

2:42 Slide Guitar - Pitch Accuracy Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Blues Pitch accuracy is together with correct muting the most important aspect of slide technique. Having bad pitch is like a violinist having bad pitch, it just won’t do! The similarities with violin players do not stop there. When using a slide you...
Completed

Watch Later

3:05 Slide Guitar - Separating Lead Lines pt.1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Blues In this example we take the muting technique a step further by adding individual finger muting techniques in our right hand. This is the key to creating clean and singing lead lines with the slide. It will be difficult in the beginning to adjust from...
Completed

Watch Later

5:24 Slide Guitar - Separating Lead Lines pt.2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Beginner Topic: Technique Style: Blues In this example we are covering more strings but using the same right and left hand muting technique as in the previous examples. Try using this technique in any type of scale or arpeggio shape to further your technique. And once again, higher ...
Completed

Watch Later

0:52 TT-Zop - Performance Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Summer-greetings Guitarslingers! In this song tutorial, we will play through some texas-style blues-rock. As you might have guessed by the title alone, this track is rather inspired by a certain bearded texas-trio named ZZ-top. However, during the ...
Completed

Watch Later

4:33 TT-Zop - Intro Riff Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Let's begin with the intro riff. Here we have a classic type of texas-riff, which lends heavily from country guitar playing, but is played in a shuffle beat. Many country ideas can be used in rock and blues, it's just that most of these country line...
Completed

Watch Later

2:02 TT-Zop - Main Riff Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Ok guys, in this part we're looking at the main riff during the solo. Pretty much the same thing as the last riff, same chords, just with distortion and more "edge". Don't be afraid to "dig in", this is supposed to be played with a fair amount of att...
Completed

Watch Later

2:19 TT-Zop - Solo Part 1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues In the first part of the solo, we begin with a classic Texas bluesline, a minor third with some heavy víbrato. It's all in triplets, to keep that groovy shuffle feel. The second part includes an almost country'esque little idea. As ment...
Completed

Watch Later

3:49 TT-Zop - Solo Part 2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues In the second part fo the solo, we start out with a more Blackmore-styled ide. The key here is to get that small, but quick and agressive bend going in the first finger. It is easy to slip of the string, especially on a vintage radius tele-neck, so k...
Completed

Watch Later

3:39 TT-Zop - Solo Part 3 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Ok! This final part introduces a technique of playing harmonics that I personally love! What I'm doing is playing the harmonics with the side of the nail and the flesh of the side of my fingertip (middle finger). This is a technique that guys like J...
Completed

Watch Later

1:15 TT-Zop - Backing Track Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues And finally, here's the backing track for ya! I've made it a bit longer than the actual song snippet itself, so that you can use it as a practice track for improvisation as well.
Completed

Watch Later

1:55 Free Shell Voicings - Introduction Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues Hi there everyone and welcome to this tutorial on Shell Voicings. Shell voicings are chords which contain the minimum number of voices or notes required to outline a particular harmonic sound. In other words, if I wanted to play a Cmaj7 chord for ex...
Completed

Watch Later

4:30 Free Shell Voicings - Roots on the 6th String Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues So let's map out these shell voicings on the guitar. The nice thing about these chords is that they only contain 3 notes so they are pretty easy to play. If you're a beginner trying to figure out blues and jazz chord progressions on the guitar then ...
Completed

Watch Later

3:56 Free Shell Voicings - Roots on the 5th String Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues Now let's do the same thing but for shell voicings rooted on the 5th string - A. Again, we'll do all these voicings from the note G which is located up at the 10th fret of the A string. Learn each voicing as listed below and in the video and then ex...
Completed

Watch Later

2:42 Free Shell Voicings - Applied to the Blues Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues Now let's apply these shell voicings we've just learned to a chord progression and specifically a blues pattern. The blues is a great place to start for this as it usually only contains three chords and they're all dominant 7ths. For our example he...
Completed

Watch Later

1:22 Free Shell Voicings - Enhancing our Blues Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Intermediate Topic: Chords Style: Blues Our second chord progression is again based in the blues genre but now sounds a lot more like a jazz progression. As you can see from the TAB below we've added another chord type into the progression in the form of some minor 7th chords and added so...
Completed

Watch Later

1:55 Minor Blues - Introduction Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues Hi everyone! Welcome to this tutorial on the minor blues. The minor blues is much like our beloved standard blues in many ways. It contains 3 primary chords, is generally 12 bars long and doesn't follow our standard ideas of music theory - in other ...
Completed

Watch Later

2:08 Minor Blues - Progression 1 Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues Okay, here we go! In this first progression we'll only be using our three minor chords in their most basic open string form. All the chord shapes we'll use throughout each progression are given below each example in TAB, standard notation and chord ...
Completed

Watch Later

2:38 Minor Blues - Progression 2 Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Beginner Topic: Chords Style: Blues The transition from progression 1 to progression 2 is a simple one. It's more usual to play minor 7th chords instead of straight minor chords when playing a blues in this way. This is much the same as with a major blues where we'll play dominant 7th ...
Completed

Watch Later

3:01 Minor Blues - Progression 3 Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Intermediate Topic: Chords Style: Blues Let's make our chords more sophisticated for this 3rd progression. Open string chords aren't going to cut it any more. In this version we still use minor 7th chords but we're going to move up the neck a little and use shapes more usually associated w...
Completed

Watch Later

4:16 Minor Blues - Progression 4 Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Intermediate Topic: Chords Style: Blues In progression 3 we had very full sounding chords where we were playing the root note as the lowest note or bass note in each shape. This is fine for solo or duo performances but is a bit of a problem when playing with a bass player. If we have the r...
Completed

Watch Later

3:05 Minor Blues - Progression 5 Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Intermediate Topic: Chords Style: Blues Right - we're at the final stage now. Our final alteration will occur in bars 9 and 10 of our progression. We're going to use a classic blues trick using two chords as substitutions for the Dm9 and Em7 already in those bars. In bar 9 we're going to...
Completed

Watch Later

6:35 Minor Blues - Backing Track Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Intermediate Topic: Chords Style: Blues Here's the backing track for progression number 5!
Completed

Watch Later

2:08 Open String Blues Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Technique Style: Blues Holiday Greetings guitar slingers! In this final tutorial of 2008, I will leave you with a blues tune that focuses on combining open strings and hybrid-picking. Pay close attention to the synchronization between the left and right hands, and also on...
Completed

Watch Later

2:31 Open String Blues - Breakdown 1 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Technique Style: Blues Okay then, time for the first breakdown. This part covers the first 6 bars of the 12-bar blues. Once you've got the first 2 bars down, the rest should be a breeze. Also, pay attention to my choice of picking in the end of bar 2. I find that starting ...
Completed

Watch Later

2:08 Open String Blues - Breakdown 2 Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Technique Style: Blues The second breakdown covers bars 7-12. Here we have a slightly different outro-line that is a bit faster, and uses less hybrid-picking but more hammer-ons and pull-offs. Try it out, and make sure to start on the upbeat or you'll run into problems get...
Completed

Watch Later

1:05 Open String Blues - Backing Track: 100bpm Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Technique Style: Blues Here's the backing track, in the original tempo, 100bpm. Get right to it, or start with the slower, 60 bpm version.
Completed

Watch Later

1:47 Open String Blues - Backing Track: 60bpm Instructor: Richard Lundmark Level: Advanced Topic: Technique Style: Blues And here's the slightly slower version, at 60 bpm. I decided not to go any lower than that, since even though it might be technically more comfortable, too slow a tempo will make it very difficult to keep a good shuffle-groove going.
Completed

Watch Later

1:18 Blues Cruise - Performance Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues I hope you've packed your suitcase, because we're about to leave on the Blues Cruise! Okay maybe not, but let's learn a cool blues song while we're here. :) I was in a bluesy mood the other day so I decided to write this little tune. I hope you have...
Completed

Watch Later

1:22 Blues Cruise - Exercise 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Before we start, make sure you have a grasp on the song's underlying rhythm. If you haven't already figured it out, this tune has a very heavy triplet feel. So make sure you listen for that triplet pulse throughout the riffs in this tutorial. In thi...
Completed

Watch Later

0:50 Blues Cruise - Exercise 2 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues In the beginning of this exercise, we'll immediately notice more of the fingerpicking that we discussed in the last lesson. In this case, we'll be plucking octave notes with our picking hand fingers. In the last two bars, we'll close out the exercis...
Completed

Watch Later

0:46 Blues Cruise - Exercise 3 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues In exercise 3, we're going to start things out by playing a smooth A minor arpeggio. I'd recommend practicing this arpeggio by itself before moving on to the rest of the exercise. In bar 11, we'll be playing some nice bends on the 17th fret. As it i...
Completed

Watch Later

0:34 Blues Cruise - Exercise 4 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues To start off exercise 4, we'll be playing a blues lick similar to the one I did in this lesson. Practice it very slowly at first. And it may sound silly, but really try to feel the blues "attitude" in this riff. Give that thing some tasty bending and...
Completed

Watch Later

0:51 Blues Cruise - Exercise 5 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Out of all the exercises, this last one has the most bends. Keep those bends in tune! And on a sidenote, if you are a guitarist that isn't very used to bending, make sure you pace yourself and your fingers when getting used to it. You don't want to s...
Completed

Watch Later

2:32 Blues Cruise - Backing Track Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues I went ahead and looped this backing track a few times, so feel free to jam to your heart's content. You can either play the actual piece I wrote, or you can also practice your own improvisation in the key of A minor. The pentatonic and blues scales ...
Completed

Watch Later

0:46 'Use the Blues' - Solo Instructor: Rick Graham Level: Beginner Topic: Improvising Style: Blues Hey people! In this lesson I'd like to discuss basic 12 bar blues improvisation. Although this element of music is taught all over the world and has been for quite some time, I feel that a lot of players can overlook the solid foundation that blues ...
Completed

Watch Later

1:55 'Use the Blues' - breakdown Instructor: Rick Graham Level: Beginner Topic: Improvising Style: Blues OK, lets take a look at the solo! Actually, before we look at the solo, the first thing you'll want to do is familiarise yourself with the chords marked in the notation below. We have: G7 - C7 - D7 These chords form the I - IV - V of a major key w...
Completed

Watch Later

3:37 'Use the Blues' - Backing Track Instructor: Rick Graham Level: Beginner Topic: Improvising Style: Blues Have fun with the backing track and try to take what you have learned within this lesson and create your own lines. Be creative! Best of luck!
Completed

Watch Later

0:40 Time Signatures: 9/8 - Example 1 (Easy) Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Now, we're going to delve into a bit of blues as we explore the 9/8 time signature. This riff will consist primarily of eighth notes. As always, do your best to count along as you play.
Completed

Watch Later

0:39 Time Signatures: Backing Track - 9/8 Ex. 1 Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Now, we're going to delve into a bit of blues as we explore the 9/8 time signature. This riff will consist primarily of eighth notes. As always, do your best to count along as you play.
Completed

Watch Later

0:44 Fast Blues Bending Lick - John Petrucci Style Instructor: Sean Conklin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Although John Petrucci isn't a straight "blues player", he definitely has some cool blues ideas that convey serious attitude. And hey, attitude is what blues is all about right? :) This particular riff was inspired from some of Petrucci's phrasing in...
Completed

Watch Later

1:24 "In the style of" Joe Pass - Chordal Blues Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Advanced Topic: Chords Style: Blues Joe Pass Style Blues Guitar Joe Pass is arguably one of the most important and historically significant Jazz Guitar players, in line with the likes of Wes Montgomery and the great Charlie Christian. More particularly though, when the discussion is a...
Completed

Watch Later

1:18 "In the style of" Joe Pass - Part 1 Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Hey Guitarist's and Guitarete's. Here are the first 12 bars of our Chordal Blues. Aside from the novelty of having this broken up into manageable sections, I'll be laying out all the chords and substitutions being used in each part. I wont be going...
Completed

Watch Later

1:23 "In the style of" Joe Pass - Part 2 Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Welcome back! Same deal as before. I have slowed down the next 12 bar segment for you and will post the chord changes below. Bar 1- Fm7 > E13 Bar 2- Eb9 > Bbdim Bar 3- Bb7 > F altered Bar 4- Fm9 > Bb7 Bar 5- Eb9 > Eb11 > Bbm7 Bar...
Completed

Watch Later

1:30 "In the style of" Joe Pass - Part 3 Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Advanced Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Continuing from the last chorus. Bar 1- following through with Bb9 into Fm7 to Bb13 >Bm7 Bar 2- Bm7 > Eb13 > B#9 Bar 3- Bb9 > Fm9 - Bb13 (B13 - Fm9) Bar 4- on beat 3 we have Bb13 > D9 Bar 5- Eb9 ( from here through the next few bars ...
Completed

Watch Later

2:10 Chord Inversions - What are they? Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Intermediate Topic: Chords Style: Blues Chord Inversions - What are they ?? An inversion is a name for a chord who's notes have been re-arranged. Lets start by looking at the Bb7 Chord. For each inversion I will give you a notated example of each chord as you might see it notated for a p...
Completed

Watch Later

2:16 Dominant Inversions - 1st Inversion Pt.1 Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Intermediate Topic: Chords Style: Blues Dominant Inversions 1st Inversion Part 1. Enjoy our new riff!! This demonstration is showing us one possible scenario for using the 1st Inversion. After you have played through and made some sense of this lesson, have a go at using the inversions ...
Completed

Watch Later

1:53 Dominant Inversions - 1st Inversion Pt.2 Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Intermediate Topic: Chords Style: Blues This video is a follow up to part1 of the first inversion study. Hence part2. All I want you to do here is take notice of the similarities between the first inversion and the half diminished chord(aka m7b5) There are many other chord forms which ca...
Completed

Watch Later

2:41 Dominant Inversions - 2nd Inversion Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Intermediate Topic: Chords Style: Blues Dominant Inversions In this video, I will be giving you a demonstration on using the 2nd Inversion of a Dominant Chord. It is a short riff based on the first few bars of a I-IV-V blues progression. As we work through this tutorial, I will be giving...
Completed

Watch Later

1:44 Chord Inversions - Accompanyment Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Intermediate Topic: Chords Style: Blues Before breaking down this track I want to point out our 3rd Inversion. As we discussed earlier, the 3rd inversion is a voicing that begins with the 7th degree of the chord as the Root note(bass note) and as it happens, this track begins with said vo...
Completed

Watch Later

1:07 Blues - Intros & Endings Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Blues clichés, although sometimes boring and predictable, are a valuable asset to your musical vocabulary. Before you can break through the boundaries of pentatonic scales and repetitive 'over used' musical ideas, you need to have a good unde...
Completed

Watch Later

1:30 Charlie Parker Blues Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Intermediate Topic: Cool Riffs Style: Blues Welcome! Today we are looking at a Charlie Parker style approach to 12 bars of the blues. We are sticking to the more simplistic edge of his playing today but in the future ill be adding some of his more wild lines. In the Video I will play through...
Completed

Watch Later

3:25 Backing Tracks - 12 Bar Blues in C Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Beginner Topic: Exercises Style: Blues 12 Bar Blues Jam Track in C. Blues Shuffle Style. 120 bpm.
Completed

Watch Later

1:56 6/8 Blues - Miles Davis Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Beginner Topic: Rhythm Style: Blues In this lesson we will look at one rhythmic pattern that can be used when accompanying in 6/8. Our chord progression is based on the tune 'All Blues' by Miles Davis. Note that in the video I am playing extensions on the D7 and Eb7 chords. For the ti...
Completed

Watch Later

2:19 6/8 Blues - Backing Track Instructor: Mike Edwin Level: Beginner Topic: Exercises Style: Blues All Blues Jam Track 6/8 Blues in G 140bpm.