Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to compliment a 2nd guitarist / vocalist by learning several techniques that are designed enhance the overall sound (and make them sound better). Learn when and when NOT to play.
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Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson
Part 2 - For Premium Members
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Slow Walkthrough
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Brian and Dennis - Full Improv Video
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Video Tablature Breakdown
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It’s great to learn something new! Thanks Brian
audio not working on three videos
Wow Brian,
Beautiful improvisation on a nice song by your friend.
It was really helpful the way you use your knowledge of theory, chords, triads, scales, embellishments, licks, etc over a chord progression being careful not to overlap the singer and helping the song itself.
I really enjoyed seeing how a master guitarist like you uses your vast amount of resources in a simple, straightforward way.
Thank you so much Brian for sharing and showing us your process.
Best wishes!
Rafa
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The knowledge keep expanding ! This is top shelf info.
Hey Brian, Pat Martino just passed and his insight to the guitar is other worldly.
Maybe you could give us a glimpse into what it is that he does.
oh man, my brain isn’t wired like the great Pat Martino – i wouldn’t even know where to begin.
He is way into patterns that most of us never find, maybe show us a few of them and ways we can use them. He rewired his brain I am sure you can rewire a few synapses so you can teach us some of his greatness. And the way he plays different chords over the top of other chords seems to be something he is noted for.
All I know when I hear his playing everything twinkles.
Thanks for sharing this process with us Brian! This is something you rarely see taught and the way you accompany this song opens the door for me. The Martin sounds wonderful!
This is fascinating to me! Thanks so much for showing us a real life scenario like that, Brian! Now I can see why it is so important to jam with others to develop those skills! Love the way you described your thought process, warts and all – very enlightening!
The only thing that confuses me completely is one player using a capo – I don’t know how to quickly figure out what key they’re playing… 🧐
the first time he played it i figured it out. You can tell it’s major, and so just find your major 1 chord. Odds are it’ll be C, A, G, E or D if someone is playing guitar and singing. You rarely hear someone do something G#, or Bb, or a less conventional key.
Jola, I think the key, also, is to pretend the capo isn’t there and just see the CAGED chord shapes for what they are, ie. an E chord in the C shape, an A chord in the E shape(Hendrix grip) and a B chord in the G shape. Starting on an E chord, good chance there will be an A and B, anyway.
Good tip Charjo. Thank you for sharing!
Nice!
Thanks for the good tips !
Great question, JoLa. 🙂 Thank you.
Excellent
The back and forth with interspersed notes, caged influence, longer and longer lead-tunes.
I like your playing. Kudos to your friend
What a terrific idea for a lesson topic. Really interesting content and a must-watch for intending accompanists.
Exactly! Great lesson Brian!
This is such a great lesson Brian and opens up so many avenues to learn…thanks!
Very enjoyable lesson.
Big thank you Brain.
Loved this! More lessons like this, please.
Great teaching idea.
More like this please.
Very very interesting , like last week but i only have just started and all can say is that the light went of like a bomb, all the stuff you keep repeating just came together , really motivated to get thru both of these lessons….. so good !
Tremendous lesson Brian! As Jola said it was nice to see the imperfections and how you play through that. I really enjoyed how you didn’t play too much and you sharing your thought process on that. This lesson is worth the annual subscription. Your friend Dennis has a very cool voice.
Very interesting lesson! I would like to see more like this.
It was great to see you doing this “off the cuff” and getting lost and making mistakes but showing us how that’s OK and just continuing to find your way back into the tune and making it sound great.
A good confidence builder. Thank you.
Synchronicity Brian. I was going to suggest that you do exactly this and you already did. What I learned for you in Jan-Mar helped me accompany a songwriter/guitarist with leads and fills just as you’ve described here. I had to use my ears and CAGED. I come from a mandolin/Bluegrass background where playing the melody in parts A and B is vital. I’m trying to adapt to guitar. There are many ways to accompany as you demonstrate. This is next level playing that I hope you stay with in future lessons. Thank you.
Always something new with Brian. And now I know Dennis Caravello, thank you !
Alain
Great lesson Brian,
Your showing us how to simplify and use the chords in their various shapes and locations was extremely helpful.
Thanks
Ray P
And for those of us who are into looping, most of these ideas can also be applied to the process of building multi-track loops.
Very informativ lesson. I always try to play too much and end up duplicating what the rhythm guitarist plays.
Great lesson Brian,
I just put a new jam band together and we have 2 harmonicas, a singer, and three guitars. Did not choose it that way, but that is the way it worked out. So our big challenge is staying out of each other’s way and keeping the vocals out front.
Hello Brian,
song accompaniment (improvising as a second guitarist like you did it here) in different keys with different styles: that’s what I really need !!! In addition to all of your other very interesting topics.
Couldn’t you start a regular series on this subject? Maybe every 6 or 8 (or 10) weeks? That would be really great.
But at first, thank you very much for this lesson. Fantastic!
Really nice Brian. I love these reminders that music can be so simple and still beautiful. You played what was right for the song as opposed to trying to show off your technical proficiency.
…. perhaps you could start with songs you have already done (like Amazing Grace, Oh when the saints, St. James Infirmary, Jingle Bells ….) More recent songs would of course also be great – if there are no copyright problems.
This is a fun and rewarding lesson Brian. I wasn’t planning on spending much time on it at first but after I started trying some of my own ideas as well as yours it became addictive and I keep grabbing my guitar throughout the day to try out something that popped into my head. I guess that’s what improvising is all about! Additionally, my wife also plays, and we usually play and practice separately but this lesson gives us an opportunity to practice together. Thank you!
Scott L.
Just so appreciative of your imaginative delivery of concepts that progress is made of.
You keep delivering after all these years so thanks to you
Great lesson idea! Chance to bring together all the AM lesson techniques for a real world purpose. How about a lesson on accompanying a vocalist when you’re the only guitar. Been playing with a vocal partner for 2 years and it’s challenging to know how much guitar to add; volume, chords/lead, etc. Thanks!
Brian, I think this is a type of playing I have found with friends more often than I realize. Also reinforces the need as a would be musician ( me ) to learn and understand scales, patterns, keys and how they fit together!
Thanks for your lessons my man !
Great stuff, I’ve been looking for a long time for someone to do something like this. I sure hope you’ll do more like this in other keys because it is so helpful to see how you can complement another guitar player. Like I said been looking for a long time for someone to show me how to play like this. Thanks Brian
Great change of pace, Brian. Always valuable to get insight into what great players like yourself are thinking through. And it’s also helpful to get additional perspective on something that I learned a while ago slightly different and kind of clarified just what is going on in good detail with an accurate explanation. Thanks !
This lesson, in many ways, is reminiscent of Jim Croce and Maury Muehleisen on songs like One Less Set of Footsteps, Operator, Lover’s Cross and That’s Not the Way I Feel. At 76 years of age, I really hope to capitalize on lesson EP438 to take my guitar accompaniment to a whole new level. Thank you, Brian for all you do… and, more importantly… how you do these lessons in a very personal way that this septuagenarian can both understand and apply.
Michael Everitt~
I apologize for mis-titling “That’s Not the Way It Feels”. Old age can be a gritch sometimes. 🤪
Hi,
Can anyone please tell me the name of this song? I’ve been through Dennis’ albums and can’t seem to find it. It’d be great to have a tab of this tune – great song!
Ryan, For some reason I can’t get sound slice to work 432thru 438. I use this a lot to slow down and watch your picking hand for your technique. ???
Thanks Ryan, Soundslice OK now
Brian, Thanks for this lesson! As I learn guitar, I have been curious how multiple guitars work together. I am excited you did this because there aren’t many lessons like this that I have found.
excellent lesson, especially the showing us the one- four -five….. (e, a ,b.. off of the D shape;;;that was new for me
WOW!!!!!!!
Love, love, love this, Brian! Thank you so much, not for just this one, but for ALL that you do! And thank you too, Dennis! Love that song, and I’ll be following his music with a passion.
Hey Brian,
Thanks for a great site!…
I have played for years without going anywhere and without any knowledge of what the YouTube lessons i played…. Now I’m slowly beginning to get it… Scales, cords down the neck and so on…
Thank you for great courses and lessons.
Have a great new year!
Best regards from Denmark
Brian, this lesson was most helpful and I really enjoyed the breakdown of what you were playing. I tend to fall into my same old pentatonic or minor pentatonic bends and slides. I am working on my triads but don’t always know where they are. I guess that’s why I fall back on familiar territory! Your teaching approach is spot on and very helpful so I’ll keep trying!
Thanks! Rod
This is light bulb moment for me, thanks Brian.
I would suggest you can do more such sessions, playing guitar accompanying another one, or even another recorded song. Going through the thought process, and we can learn how to connect all the dots together, and put all we learn into real practice.
Great lesson Brian, thank you.
Im curions about the lyrics of Caravello’s One Month, couldn’t find them anywhere.
Is there a chance you could forward them to me?
RGDS from the Swiss alps Arno