Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Map out an amazing sounding melodic guitar lead like this! Guitar Lesson – EP607

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to map out a creative melody line when composing a lead. This will help you visualize the entire process.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walkthrough

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  3. Robert R says

    Great lesson Brian. Near the end of Part 2, you mentioned that repeating things can facilitate learning. I like that idea, and do go back to certain lessons here. I also like your ideas about finding our own sound. Thanks

  5. Mike R says

    Nice, easy going harmonies that help us to reinforce that harmonized sixth and harmonized third sound. I am starting to see more into the chords and what’s available to play with. I really like the container idea and I’m trying to think more that way. Just have to keep recognizing the closest chord in caged and what I can pull out of it that sounds good. Repetition of similar ideas played different ways each week is helping me to understand more. You do have a way of coming up with an impelling melody that pull me in all the time. Thanks

  6. Joel R says

    Hi Brian
    It would be nice , may be to have a Little pdf with a writen translation of the theory part of what you have Said on this lesson . So we can read and better understand what’s going on in the construction of this composition .Just to fix it .
    Well done anyway , but a bit <lost in translation<
    Joe

  8. Daniel H says

    I was so glad to hear your closing comments acknowledge that repetition of material over time is a highly effective teaching technique…AMEN! I like the repetition in your lessons. You have mastered the balance of new ideas and old ideas to not only “cement” key ideas previously taught but also expand our music knowledge. I have lauded your repetition of concepts for over five years now. God bless you Brian. Please continue your fabulous teaching. I have learned so much and developed my playing to a level I once dreamed of under your teaching.

  9. LoboGator says

    Repeating concepts is a process called “over learning”. This is a vital way to identify and program multiple concepts into our memory bank. This lesson material does this. The more complex the process the more often we need to review and repeat concepts (licks and ideas). Really appreciate how you go about this with your lessons. Awesome lesson!!

  10. Torquil O says

    As I was listening with my cup of coffee this am, I was thinking what a good recap lesson this was; then you mentioned that purpose at the end. Much appreciated as things don’t stick in my mind right away. One thing I find helpful in following your progressions is focusing on the 5 and 6 string notes. (The ones I know cold) Then its easy to see where the E, C and A/G shapes fit in the progressions!

  11. Lesley O says

    What a lovely melody! I feel I am some way off being able to compose and will revisit this lesson to understand more as I progress. However I also find the repeated ideas from recent lessons so useful and helpful and find I am absorbing them little by little. In addition and despite not yet understanding where it all comes from, this is such a lovely melody to learn and play – and I am finding it achievable, even at full speed on the first day! 😃 So satisfying!!
    Thankyou again Brian for a great lesson

  12. Lars J says

    Hi Brian! I always download the tab in pdf format to have in hand when follow your lesson.
    This time the tab was not OK! Missed the sekond part from measure 12 and forward. Anyway it worked fine when I made a PDF from Soundslide.
    Lars

  13. Patrick J. G says

    I totally agree what Daniel H. posted. He states it a lot better than I could. Hearing you play Brian , I’m grateful for this opportunity to learn from you. I’d be foolish not to. “Singing with your fingers”. Love it.

  14. William B says

    So which came first. The 4th string line progression or the chords? Or was it your ear pulling you to put in to that sharp 5 chord ( G7 )? It’s something I never would have thought of. But when I play the chord progression it sounds very natural and bluesy. Great lesson! Something to think about.

    • Brian says

      i think it was my ear pulling the direction – it’s just something i’m sure i heard before… and now that you’ve heard this – you’ll find yourself using it in something else at some point

  16. Henry P says

    Another ‘just what I needed’ lesson – musically, technically, and emotionally. Piggy-backed with other recent and not-so-recent lessons that I keep going back to (like EP 551), this gives me a chance for more musical expression while using familiar building blocks.

  20. Bruce G says

    YES! Your repetition comments at the end of the 2nd part ring very true to me. Coming back over and over really makes sense and works for me. If anything, each time to remind us of an idea or concept—–and I remember it—reinforces my confidence that I am actually learning these things! Great lesson as always!

  23. Georg B says

    Hello Brian,
    Thank you for sharing your thought process with us. This is just wonderful. It gives me a deep understanding of how to compose something and of how to learn the beautiful melody you composed. That way it’s not just memorizing by heart, but I can see where your ideas come from. It’s like an open day that gives you the opportunity to peer over the shoulder of a master craftsman to learn how something is made.
    All the best,
    Georg

  26. James S says

    For some reason this lesson was harder for me at first, but it’s all kicking in now. What a sweet tune, and the harmonies build on lots of other lessons. I’m still puzzling about why some harmonic double stops cover the second and third strings on the same fret and other ones cover the a higher fret on the third string. Something to do with scale degrees?

  30. Anthony I says

    You are assuming we are comfortable with hybrid picking or finger picking, a skill in and of itself , while hiding your pic between your fingers, to be used in 5he second half. Yikes.

    • Rick B says

      Brian uses hybrid picking technique in most of his pieces. In many, he reinforces how to apply the technique, and I’m not sure but he may have lessons that focus on it, so you should search for that. A little persistent practice and you’ll be able to do harmonized 6th staggered picking and pinching…which is much easier than say an arpeggio picking pattern. If I can do you then you can do it too

  31. Andy D says

    Another fascinating lesson, Brian – thanks. Even though I’m absolutely intrigued by the power and beauty of these 3 and 6 double stop harmonies, I find myself getting very confused very quickly. Would it be possible for you to do a lesson (or two) where you give us hard rules about which notes you can pick to make double stops (3 and 6) for each chord shape? I know you have done a lot of that in recent lessons but it still seems so overwhelmingly complex/random . I get that we can use the notes on strings 4, 3, 2, 1 that coincide with the notes in the chord, but how do we know where to go from there? Maybe a micro lesson for each CAGED chord shape on how to select and use double stop harmonies. As ever, I really appreciate your diligence.
    Thanks

  32. John I says

    Lovin’ this one, Brian. A very helpful lesson wrapped up in a sweet classy composition. Reminds me of the “Neck and Neck” album vibe.
    The clever working of the harmonic thirds and sixths, followed with the tasteful, bending single note phrases is really catchy.
    Focusing on the power of not being tied to a scale in designing a beautiful composition really helps in understanding meaningful composing. Thanks, yet again!

  34. Thomas W says

    As a keyboard player I love the Key of B. And, this was a beautiful song you have composed. From an instructional point of view, it might have been easier to follow if you pulled it up the Key of C. This might be a little easier to understand versus all of the sharps associated with the key of B. Just a thought

  36. Peter W says

    Hi Brian! Peter from UK! Just to say I love your lessons and am getting a lot out of them. Quite apart from everything else they are so much fun to do with great sounds and explanations. They’re all great I really enjoyed as well the acoustic – trying to get more out of accompanying a singer – stuff as I sing as a duo with my wife. Thanks Brian.

  37. michael f says

    I kind of sat on the first part of this lesson during most of the week playing the chord progression over and over until I could hear it. Then moved into just playing the harmonies. it’s the day before a new lesson drops. The secondary dominant part section was sticky, but to your teaching point at the end of part 2 video, we’ve been here before on secondary dominants. I love the sound of them. Working them out in key of B yielded some unfamiliar named chords (C#7, Eflat7 ) using familiar shapes. So once I got through that part of part 2, the rest of the lesson fell into place because it too was also familiar to your same teaching point. Im not sure how much sticks a week or two later, but some of it does. Beautiful Melody.
    Question: When you are composing, which comes first; chords or notes?

  39. Brian B says

    I was late getting to this lesson, so I’m not sure you will see this comment, but here goes. Very nice lesson! But one thing that would help me is to hear the song to which this is the solo. I know there may not be a specific song, or if there is, you need to avoid the copyright police, but maybe just a simplified song to which this might be a melodic solo. That’s real world to me. How do I take a song I like and play my own solo to it. as opposed to just trying to copy what the guitar player did on the record. Again, thanks. BB

  40. Jonathan M says

    One little cheat for those new to hybrid picking and don’t want to work on that right now; Herco makes a great thumb pick that I’ve used for fingerpicking for 20 years. you can also grab it to strum on same song or pick single notes or two strings at a time. I know hybrid picking as well and this pick enables a pretty good cheat.

    Brian, LOTS of material here! Gonna have to give this several goings over! I’ve been digging back into your earlier arpeggio lessons and jumped back to the present to try this one, and unexpectedly I find it brings a lot of those lessons together here. Interesting you avoided using the word “arpeggio” in the lesson, as I found the lesson pretty complimentary to that concept.

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