Solo Blues Guitar

Being able to sit down and play an unaccompanied blues has been one of the most fun, satisfying, and instructive things I've ever worked on. It's usually the first thing I do when I pick up the guitar.

Not only does it build confidence in the instrument, which is really the most important thing, it's helped me with my time, feel, dynamics, and vocabulary. It also solves the dreaded "Play me something" request that often freezes us in our path!

When I was younger and first started learning some of these ideas, I thought, "Well, how hard could this be? It's just the blues." As I got into it, I realized it's actually quite difficult and a lifetime's worth of work. But a lifetime of fun as well.

In this course we work through 4 solo blues tunes in the key of E, based on must know classics like Rolling Stone Blues, Catfish Blues, Rambling On My Mind, and Baby What You Want Me To Do?

I chose these tunes because they are the bedrock of blues guitar. By learning these classic riffs, we learn the vocabulary of the blues.

👉 The ideas used in one song can be easily applied to just about any other blues tune.

• Classic Blues Vocabulary Dig into riffs from the bedrock tunes of blues guitar. Learn the language once and apply it to just about any blues you play.
• Improvising Within the 12 Bar Form Learn the skill of improvising within a set framework. I remember thinking early in my career that playing blues rhythm guitar was boring, until I realized I wasn't doing it right. It's the subtle variations, feel, and time that make it a living, interactive thing.
• Dynamics Anyone can play a blues, but it takes a lot of time to play the blues. A lifetime, actually. It's the use of dynamics that makes a blues so dramatic and so much more interesting. In this course I'll help you get your dynamics together, with exercises that spread out into all of your other playing as well.
• Turnarounds, Chords and Riffs, and Fills You'll learn a handful of essential turnarounds, how to mix chords and riffs, and I'll start you off on how and where to put in fills. The course gives you the tools to explore your own ideas.

As always, you will have access to TAB and notation to help facilitate your learning.

Solo Blues Guitar gives you the tunes, the vocabulary, and the tools to sit down and play a real blues, all by yourself. No matter what level you're at, you'll enjoy this one.