Today’s video is all about a pentatonic 4 note sequence involving pulloffs. This has been stolen from Jimmy Page by pretty much everyone at some point. I don’t know who Jimmy Page stole it from, but you can bet it was some old blues man…So here’s the video, enjoy. The TAB is below. There isn’t much to the tab so there’s no download version today.

And the TAB:

In order for this to completely make sense, you really should watch the How Vs. What video, and either have watched the Slurs video, or you should already know how to do hammer-ons and pull-offs. There are actually 2 other skills that you need – bends and grace notes. If you don’t know how to do those, don’t worry I’m going to get to that. But today I want to show you just how simple it is for you (yes, you) to play a blues guitar solo…Now, I’ve actually got 3 videos for you today, and they are going to be a LOT of fun to work through.

In this first video, I’m going to demonstrate a 24 bar blues solo in the key of G. I just want you to watch this first, and see what we’re after.

If you need to, download the IPOD or WMV version by right clicking on the links and choosing “Save As…”

In this 2nd video, I’m going to show you the 1st Blues Block. This is where all 4 of the notes come from in the solo you just watched.

Download the IPOD or WMV versions here by right clicking.

Now in the last video, I’ll walk you through how it all goes together. This one is a little longer than the other two, but as you can see, when you break it down into little chunks and work those little chunks, it all comes together pretty easily.

All of these lessons, and a whole lot more like it, are going to be available on Thursday morning at 9:00am Pacific Time in “Soloing Without Scales – The 4 Note Solo.” I’ll have more info as I get it closer to being finished. But keep an eye on your email as I’ll have another lesson coming in a couple of days.

Here’s all the downloads for everything in the last video:

• IPOD version of the video
• WMV version of the video
• MP3 of the solo
• PDF of the Blues Block #1
• PDF of the Solo

Have fun – and as always, leave your comments. Laura and I love to read through them and see how everyone is doing with the lessons.

Griff

Slurs – no not against anyone in particular – but the act of playing a note without articulating it with your pick. This is a HUGE key to playing faster, smoother licks on the guitar. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most misunderstood and under-utilized techniques on the guitar.

Well that ends here. In this video you’ll get all you need to be a slur-master (which is a technical term I believe, and doesn’t necessarily involve beer.)

If you have trouble with it streaming – here are some downloadable versions for you:

• WMV version of the video (right click to save)
• IPOD (mp4) version of the video (right click to save)
• PDF of the musical examples in TAB (right click to save)
• MP3 of examples 1-4
• MP3 of example 5-8
• MP3 of example 9
• MP3 of example 10
• MP3 of example 11
• MP3 of example 12
• MP3 of example 13
• MP3 of example 14

As always, please leave your thoughts below in the comments. I get a lot out of reading them.

While to some folks The Blues and Christmas don’t exactly go hand in hand, there have been some truly great Christmas blues songs recorded throughout the years.

Honestly I really didn’t know about this until one of my students brought it to my attentionand I started to investigate further all of the Christmas songs out there done by blues artists.

This particular one, “Merry Christmas Baby” was recorded by Elvis Presley. It’s such a perfect example of one of the Blues Guitar Unleashed lessons at work, that I just had to make a video out of it and show you how it’s put together.

Granted, this is not a note-for-note transcription of the tune, that would be illegal. This is, however, very much in the style of Merry Christmas Baby and is a common idea that could be used for dozens of blues songs. Enjoy and Merry Christmas Everyone!

Downloads:

• IPOD version of the video
• WMV version of the video
• The TAB in PDF

While we often talk about how blues is based around 7th chords, those are just suggested chords. In reality you can substitute the 7th chords for 9th chords… and you want to.Here’s a blues in C based around 7th and 9th chords. This one is straight out of lesson 3 from Blues Guitar Unleashed. You probably won’t be able to get the chords just by looking (even a lesson 3 feet away from me can’t see them) so you’ll need to download the PDF of the whole lesson.

In the course I have a slow speed and a full speed play along. I don’t have room for both here so this is full speed. The slow speed audio is below this if you want to download it.

Downloads:

• IPOD of the intro video
• IPOD of the play along
• WMV of the intro video
• WMV of the play along
• AUDIO of slow speed play along
• AUDIO of full speed play along
• PDF of the tune and the chord diagrams.

Now that we’ve spent a fair amount of time with box 1, let’s take it up the fretboard a bit into the next 4 fret region which is commonly called box 2.

Keep in mind that we’re only adding 1 single note here. All of the notes, A C D E and G, are included in box 1. These are simply a different way to finger the same notes. Because of where it sits on the neck, we gain one more note on the top, and lose one on the bottom.

But, box 2 is very important when it comes to mixing between the major and minor sounds so be sure you get it down.

Also, the mix of the 2 boxes is enough to make a career out of and play for years.

Downloads:

• IPOD version of the video
• WMV version of the video
• PDF of the exercises and licks in the video
• Audio – Ex 19-1 straight feel
• Audio – Ex 19-1 swing feel
• Audio – Ex 19-1 triplet feel
• Audio – Ex 19-2 straight feel
• Audio – Ex 19-2 swing feel
• Audio – Ex 19-2 triplet feel

Alright, let’s cut to the chase… there’s a really cool trick that almost every blues player does, and here’s how you do it….Now that I have your attention, I’m actually not kidding. This trick uses slurs, which are commonly called hammer-ons and pull-offs. “Slurs” is the blanket term for any note that is played without hitting it with your pick.

So watch this video, especially when I get to what I call tweedlies. Then practice on all 8 of the licks, and especially number 8. I guarantee you’ll hear that lick in at least 5 of your favorite tunes somewhere. Maybe not all of it, but the same idea.

downloads (right click to save)

• IPOD version of the video
• WMV version of the video
• PDF of the licks
• Lick 1 Audio – slow | full speed
• Lick 2 Audio – slow | full speed
• Lick 3 Audio – slow | full speed
• Lick 4 Audio – slow | full speed
• Lick 5 Audio – slow | full speed
• Lick 6 Audio – slow | full speed
• Lick 7 Audio – slow | full speed
• Lick 8 Audio – slow | full speed

Enjoy, and be sure to leave your comments below. Let me know how this works out at your next gig or jam session. Better yet, tell us which tune you heard the lick in!

Lately I’ve had a lot of questions regarding muting out unwanted strings on your guitar when doing bends or playing single notes.

I actually made this video to include it in the Blues Guitar Unleashed course, but it wouldn’t fit on the DVDs and I found it not too long ago. It’s been reformatted to work here.

Downloads:

• IPOD version
• WMV version

There have been a few questions on the Blues Guitar Unleashed members’ forum about reading some of the more unusual symbols in TAB (tablature).

I did this video in hopes of answering those questions and thought it would be useful to a lot of people.

Yesterday I posted a lesson where I talked about using the major and minor blues scales over different portions of a 12 bar blues progression.

I took that video clip right off the DVD and didn’t realize I had a little segue into the solo example that followed… oops.

Many of you caught it, and I didn’t intend to leave you with a cliffhanger, so I edited down part of that solo example.

It wouldn’t be fair to post the whole example, but I think by having the first 12 bars of it, you’ll both get an idea of how to use the approach, and get a good look inside Blues Guitar Unleashed and what it is all about.

In this video, I’ll walk you through the licks and what I’m thinking…

And here is the play-along video

The downloadables….

• The intro video (.wmv)
• The intro video (.mp4)
• The play-along video (.wmv)
• The play-along video (.mp4)
• The tab (.pdf)