Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Electric Blues Guitar Lesson that you can play by yourself – Staying in the key of a song – EP299

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a Chicago blues style lead by yourself (no accompaniment is required). Instead of focusing on “playing the chord changes” like we did in last week’s lesson (EP298), you’ll be playing in the key of the song, only focusing on the pentatonic scales.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walk-Through

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  8. Gary W says

    Saturday morning here in Wales uk!
    New lesson, new challenges.. thank you Brian 🙂

    Always love your guitar choices;
    but you are not going to be too popular with my missus
    ..as I keep adding more to my collection!

  9. Nick S says

    Most of the lessons posted recently appear to me to be more geared to the advanced player, some of them I spend weeks on and I learn a lot but never really master the jam . I go back through the lessons and find stuff thats suits my level but it would be nice to see some new stuff thats not so advanced. I am not trying to be critical I love the site and have learned a lot.

    • kenford says

      Hi Nick, I used to have the exact same problem! Have you gone through Brian’s Blues Course? Well worth the time and effort. If you can’t get up to speed an any one lesson, take whatever you can from that lesson and incorporate what you’ve learned there into your bag of licks. YouTube (and AM) have a lot of useful backing tracks at slower tempos. Listen to each lesson and when Brian says, “Here’s a great takeaway”, he’s quite right, they are! Bottom line: practice, practice, practice. There’s no other way. You might be surprised to find that you’re better than you think. Just go slow, give it time and (once again) practice, practice, practice. Without a doubt Brian offers the best lessons available on the internet. Hope this helps a little….

  15. Steve M says

    Another great lesson ( particularly love the stand alone ones ). I do have a question Brian. If you were attempting to play this on an acoustic, would you do the bend on the first lick on the 7th fret ( and force yourself to build more strength ) or modify it to the 8th so it was only a half bend? BTW, I have a guitar playing bud from the east coast in town for a visit, and he has been quite impressed by some of the material I have been learning here, as well as some of the solos I have been coming up with for songs.

  19. San Luis Rey says

    Oh! Thanks in advance for another milestone about to happen. I remember EP 100 with a bonus for premium members, and EP 200 rolling out micro lessons and next week, Episode 300! Congratulations on making this such a success!

  20. Robert R says

    This and all of the other lessons are tremendous. You have a real genius for creating very playable tunes that are a real joy to learn and play. And I find I am learning a lot from these lessons.

    I have tried other lessons but yours are the most enjoyable way to learn. I spend most of my playing time practicing your lessons or just noodling around with them.

    Keep up the excellent work. And thanks for making a reasonably priced, yet very high quality service.

    I too now have another very good reason to look forward to Friday.

    Rob

  26. JohnStrat says

    Brian,
    A great lesson for us and more in this vein would be very welcome. No doubt you will have something a bit special for your EP Tercentenary lesson next week. Thanks for all the wonderful the lesson to date and all the takeaways.

    JohnStrat

  29. Walter D says

    Very enjoyable lesson – like a guitar buffet, so much to chose from and easy to mix and match depending on your appetite. I enjoy mastering (or trying to) the timing in these pieces, and by changing the timing you can really change the lick. In this lesson, mostly licks in the first half, mostly chords in the second half. Now try playing the halves in reverse, then try mixing some of the licks with the chords. You could play this all day…

  34. Dennis O says

    Like the song though you whipped through the licks in this lesson a bit too quick for me. Be being able to adjust the speed of the lesson makes all the difference; I’d be lost without it.
    Grins

  35. Edward L says

    I really enjoy your lessons and have learned much. I practice on my acoustic and when I slide I get an excessive amount of string noise. Are you using flat wounds, or some special kind of strings to reduce your slide noise? Thanks.

  39. drlknstein says

    wow- there u go again…thats a great liltle gem at 17 mins on part 2–the riff…. d7 with the f sharp base. and that 3 chord progression —i m going to impress someone with that soon..thanks

  41. Joseph V says

    Chicago blues is my favorite style. And this is my favorite lesson so far. A lot of takeaways for improvisation. And not too difficult for the intermediate player. Keep up the good work.

  42. Thomas P says

    Starting my second year as a member. Love your lessons. They keep me interested in learning an trying new tunes rather than replaying my same old Led Zep licks 🙂
    BTW…..Brian you say Chicago like a native. I know you’re a Tennesseean now but makes me wonder if you were a big city boy at one time.

    Thanks for inspiring this old axman

  44. karn p says

    Excellent lesson and I thoroughly enjoy it. Some chords towards the end of 2nd half do sound a little odd but they all add to some different flavors I suppose. I love to do that quick pentatonic run just ti wow family members as it sounds rather sophisticated. Cheers

  47. Cor Kleijn says

    Thanks for another great lesson Brian!
    I have a question, in part one, and in some other licks as well, i’m always confused when to use or not to use my pinkey.
    Is that something that sorts itself out after a while, or do i have to learn myself to use it, or not. I see a lot of great players rarely use their pinky, where others do.
    I guess i’m not the only one with this “problem”
    Grtz Cor

  48. Alexandre F says

    Wow! this lesson on chicago blues made me pull it out the beautiful powerful sound from my les paul even though a epiphone can reach the gibson and this is one of those cases so I´m happy with the result on my efforts to make it through improving my vibrato , pull offs, hybrid picking on which I´m getting even more used to it especially from the 6th to the 9th …moreover blending the major and minor pentatonics I guess with time , praticing , analysing all I´m doing I will get it through later someday to express myself with the guitar making great solos.
    This one is hard but at the same time feels good to play and understand music and by the way this is my favourite style in blues.

    Thanks

  49. riteus1 says

    Hey Brian, I appreciate that you go into theory so that I can take what you teach and come up with my own versions? Keep up the good work. Hopefully you will go over playing octaves sometime.

  50. Godfrey T says

    Hi Brian,

    Could I suggest that the improvisation timing be put in the context of which chord is being played over although it is in the tablature? Good to emphasize in the video.

    Great tutorial.

  51. Tom M says

    A good one to pop to the top now and then. Was trying to remember it the other day and happy to find it again and do some buffing on my technique. Really a fun exercise with lots of cool blues riffs!

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