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Learn to play blues guitar.

Laid-back, J.J. Cale style lead on electric guitar – Blues guitar lesson EP373

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to play a slow, laid-back lead in the style of the great J.J. Cale. I’ll show you how everything starts with the minor pentatonic scale and how you can add 2 notes, converting it to D dorian mode. This one is easy to play from a technical standpoint and can be played fingerstyle or with a pick.

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

    • JohnStrat says

      Hi Biker33
      Maybe its not for you but if you want to be a well rounded player surely you should give serious consideration to taking up some finger style / hybrid picking. Like you I have been a picker only but because of Brain I have shifted and I feel that has been to my considerable advantage. Maybe you should give it a go. Else there are certainly myriad lessons here for pick only how many can you play properly? so lots to chose from.
      JohnStrat

    • Michael M says

      If you’re interested in learning the lesson, check it out, with your pick in hand! Seems like the only reason it’s finger style is because that’s how JJ cale plays, it can be played the exact same with a pick. No hybrid picking, string skipping, nothing like that. Just individual notes and double stops on consecutive strings.

  6. jimbostrat says

    That Strat?? That Fender Strat seems entirely different than any other I’ve seen you play before, Brian!!?? It seems……….more classic…………much more vintage…….even smoother….more “Leo” like??!! What gives??

    :>) Jim C.

    • Rodney W says

      It all depends on what the composer picks as the tonic or root note. That’s the note that the tune gravitates around or wants to return to.

      Try playing along with any song using any notes from shape or box 1 of the pentatonic scale. Move up and down the finger board still using box one for each new position, and see which position best fits the tune . Once found decide whether the tune “gravitates around and wants to go to” on the sixth string. If its under your first finger then tha’ts your root note and key, and its in a minor scale. If its under your little finger then that is the root and it is in a major key.

      For the tune in this lesson, try box 1 between frets five and seven and then you can decide whether it’s in Cmaj or Amin to your own satisfaction.

      • David G says

        Discovering what Rodney describes above was a breakthrough for me and unlocked several things: understanding the relationship between major keys and their relative minors and mixing major and minor pentatonic scales.

  9. Laurel C says

    This is a great one to play even on a nylon acoustic . Although you could have used a pick you chose the JJ Cale way and played it fingerstyle. I’m glad you did, because I am thumb reliant (instead of using a pick) but for some reason I just followed without realising that I have adapted another way of grasping the hand and playing with the fingers. It’s quite liberating really and already having fun with this and the backing track within one day. There is also a 10 min bonus lesson on Dorian mode tucked away with Ep178 that deserves a mention as a takeaway from a lesson. Always a ‘Happy Camper’ each week.

  12. John H says

    I have to say I love the chord progression. That seems to be capturing my fancy on a lot of these lessons. Like EP369, so much fun. And, yes I love the laid back JJ vibe going on here. Brian, is that a ’59 reissue or a ’65 reissue? Looks perdy.

    John

  17. sunjamr says

    There’s some nice phrasing in this one. It is surprising to hear people grumble about fingerstyle, considering how many famous guitarists play fingerstyle. The truth is, if you want to make progress, you have to be good with a pick and with your fingers.

  18. Jay Guitarman says

    This is the style of music I like a lot. I also appreciate the theory sidesteps, since this allows to really understand the imbrication of the chords used, and the modes allowing to add more spice to a pentatonic scale. I discovered in this lesson that the D Dorian and the G mixolydian share the same scale… I also found out that the pentatonic shapes are adjacent: the D minor chord with the caged C/ A minor shape ( 4th pentatonic shape) is adjacent to the G chord with the same shape, If you overlap both in one position, you have the fifth D minor pentatonic position overlapping the G chord (C shape), which allows to play the (2/4 lick). I also liked the chord change to b flat and the f major chord, and I asked myself wether the tension created was a so-called plagal cadence, i.e. going from the subdominant back to the tonic chord? Maybe I am wrong, but it would be possible, because the b flat is effectively the 4 of the F chord. I also found out that the D minor and the G are four tones apart just as the F and the b flat. So the overall c key progression could be considered as a ii, V, IV, flat VII progression? Anyway, enough thinking… great stuff and licks to get under the fingers!

  19. Billy B says

    Happy to say that this is the lesson that FINALLY made me become a member here! Great, lesson, loads of takeaways – some more JJ Cale style stuff in the future would be welcome, one of my favourite artists 🙂

  20. jaystrings2@aol.com says

    Another out of the park Home Run, Brian! I’ll take all the JJ Cale and all the fingerpickin’ you want to dish out. Been a pick slinger all my 77 years, but man, the tone with fingers is SO much better. This tone, tempo, style, moves me. Very emotional. Cannot thank you enough for this one and the other JJ Cale one a few months back. This is why I’m a Premium Member.

  22. Robert M says

    Well not my favorite but it gives me time to go back thru the mists of time to see his early stuff which was very Claptonesque. Is it my imagination or is Brian looking more and more like Clapton everyday? 🤨

  23. Riff Raff 60 says

    Alright Brian. This one is a little more my speed…literally. Sometimes it’s a little tough for me to keep up with the full tempo backing tracks for some of your lessons. I i guess I need a 3/4 speed track. These old arthritic fingers (and my brain) not as quick as they used to be. Thanks for what you do. You have really inspired me to play guitar again!!

  25. Cyril D says

    As a newly retired 70 year old who has been hitting strings for over 50 years and was quite happy knowing chords and being able to join in singalong until I happened to be browsing the net when I discovered this genius teacher. I signed up immediately and have really just discovered that the guitar has 6 strings which can be played individually rather than as chords. I am nowhere near ready to call myself a guitarist but I now have all the time in the world to hopefully improve.
    Keep up the good work Brian.

  27. Henry G says

    Hi all; having trouble printing a copy of the transcription/tab sheet. When I click the square box logo below the window showing one measure bar of notation and tab, I get a full screen view.

    When I go to print that view, I only get a blank page on my print copy preview screen.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Hank

  29. Judson M says

    So, if we are in the key of C, why did you use the B flat chord? I see how that would be the flat 7th, which sounds really cool, I just don’t understand how that works in this progression.

  36. Gary E says

    I’m about 2/3 the way through Part 1 and noticed I keep hearing bits of Sultans of Swing in your explanations. Haven’t researched what scale Sultans is in but thinking dorian or mixolodian…..

  37. Gordon C says

    Hi Brian.
    Came back to this one after a bit. You were wondering about the “feel” of the switch to the maj7 chords. To me it has exactly the JJ Cale feel of “Magnolia”. So you are still in the same house!

  39. Rich F says

    I am just getting into Dorian mode, and re-visting this great JJ Cale style lesson. This is blowing my mind! Lightbulbs going off, Brian! Your discussion of the connection between D Dorian, C Major, and G myxolydian is really interesting.

    So, as I understand it, with those chords as a backing track, we can think of this as in D minor pentatonic, or add those two notes to make it the more sophisticated Dorian, and play all of that around the 10th fret for pattern 1… but then, as you say, we could think of this as C major, so we could play this entirely C major pentatonic pattern 1? I am going to try it to see how it sounds!

    So I am thinking of the formula here: if created my own backing track with the chords A minor, G major, D major, would that be A dorian, G major, and D myxolydian at the same time? So I could then jam over that in A minor pentatonic, A dorian, G major pentatonic?

  40. Rich F says

    Hi all,

    I have just watched the second half of this lesson for the first time. Love the change of vibe when it goes into the F major chord. What an eye-opener (or should I say esr-opener?!)

    Fascinated to see how we can switch scales/ chord structure during a somg from D minor pentatonic/D Dorian to F major, and it really works and sounds great.

    At the end, I was just thinking, “Wow, this lesson became brilliantly complex”, and then Brian said the same! Looking foreard to trying this out! Thanks Brian!

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