Guitar techs and enthusiasts alike can learn how to build a custom-made electric guitar in just three days, thanks to Guitar Tech Courses, owned and run by luthier James Collins in his studio based in Winchelsea, East Sussex. Having been to meet James and have a look at the kind of custom guitars he has ...…
For a blues player, an effective use of bends can be the difference between an ok solo and a great solo! Using bends allows us to reach notes in between notes on the guitar, therefore making your whole sound far more expressive. In this lesson I go through the main types of bends you may ...…
In this quick lesson there will be no guitar playing, just listening! I talk briefly about how important listening to blues music is when you are learning the genre. So put your guitars down and get the blues albums out!…
So in this quick lesson we talk about a relatively simple to achieve, chilled out blues sound that you can immediately impress with! The idea is essentially to embellish the E7 chord just as the blues players of old would. …
A very common way for blues players to play through a 12 bar is by using pentatonic based riffs instead of chords. So in this instance instead of playing the E7 for the first 4 bars, we are playing a riff using the E blues scale. Equally instead of playing the A7 or B7, we ...…
As a beginner learning rhythms and rhythm patterns are hugely important. In blues playing the rhythms tend to be a little more free than some other styles so it is important to get two things right – the swing and the accents! The combination of these two techniques will help you play along to any ...…
Ok, so now we have the solo learnt from the previous lesson it is time to take the individual licks again and turn them into ideas you can use in your own soloing and improvising. To begin with, make sure you can visualize the pentatonic scale shape within the solo. The first thing you need ...…
When it comes to playing blues, improvising is a huge part of what makes a great player. The art of improvising is not something that can be taught in one lesson! Being able to improvise well takes time, practice, ability to listen, and a lot of trial and error! I can show you licks, ideas, ...…