Description
In this guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to spice up your rhythm playing with some jazzy sounding chord substitutes. Western Swing is a great format for this because it combines, blues, jazz, and country and creates techniques that can be applied to any of those styles. In addition to explaining the theory behind the chords, I’ll break down the rhythm pattern. The MP3 jam track for this lesson comes in 2 tempos as well.
Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson
Part 2 - For Premium Members
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Part 3 - For Premium Members
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Slow Walk-Through
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Video Tablature Breakdown
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Love the theory in this lesson. Another winner.
Happy New Year everyone!
Michael
Great stuff Brian !!!
I knew after the big response to EP-173 that more C&W was coming down the road.
Cool sound!
Want to be a guitar player that people want to play with….a good rhythm player is always in demand….Rhythm is the heart beat of the band not to discount the drummer and bass. Great lesson Brian.
drop 2 and drop 3 7ths chords! cool ,coincidentally was just practicing diatonic 7ths drop 2 and 3 patterns
What enjoyable lesson,, a happy Western swing not hard yet very good as you described plenty of great study here mixing a bit of western jazz blues about suspended 7th chords /extensions /double stops /triads / chords and their arpeggios !!! Really learned this relative minor to it’s major..very good teaching here thank you Brian,, i will look back after this one ,,going to do the T Bone Walker again!!! ty and Happy New year!
Nice chords. good to see the Dot!
yes dot sounds great,, T.Bone Walker chord is minor7b5 chord .. I did this lesson tonight with ease.. I’m familiar with “top ten jazz chords you must know” plenty good!
More pieces of the puzzle….masterful teaching. Thanks, Brian and Happy New Year.
John
Happy new year from Buenos Aires Brian and family….great lesson…great chords….unfortunately no guitar down here….all the best and thanks….
Roberto
Great Lesson ! Very instructive and fun to play. Very reminiscent of Lesson EP031. Love that jazzy sliding style and the relationship between chords. Many take aways. Happy new year to all !
Brian you are Amazing! A great instructor , guitarist and arranger!! So much each week for a great price Happy 2-0-1-7 !!
Happy new year Brian and all guitar players on this fabulous ActiveMelody.com site !
Every week, great job ! Two years with you now, learn so much ! Thanks !
Great lesson ,my weak point is not knowing all these smaller cords or voicings in fact I have learnt a lot since joining . 1 question how does one up load photo ? Micchael
Have a healthy and happy New Year, Brian! Looking forward to another year of great lessons!
great lesson. love using fragments of the chords as a form of a lead. fun stuff. I dig the movement of the western swing style as well.
Happy new year Brian and everyone. I think I will need to take the whole of this year off work just to catch up with my backlog of great lessons!!! ?
wow!
In football terms…”way to coach it up!>>Brian” I remember the t bone walker lesson and I see the similarities…I improvised using part one for 2 hours last nite- and had a blast..just got thru part 2…
..ding!..I guess you can noodle around like that with any chord…minor, etc……and thats what you have been saying all along..wow…it takes a while to get the hang of it and to be able to visualize the chord…
thanks
So many great take away’s !!!
Just joined and every lesson is so enlightening it’s hard to focus on one . Thanks for all the eye opening information Brian. You teach how to play rather than just what notes to play. So much insight. Kudos on another awesome lesson!!!
Very interesting how to make the different chords. So a question for your comment Brian, when you moved down two frets and made an A9 chord coming from the A6, does that not mean that an A9 is the same as a G6? Normally I thought of moving up or down I change the root but keep the same chord structure. In this example you moved and keep the same root name and changed the chord name. More confusion to my music world. Thanks.
Hey Arnold, yes, you’re correct that the A6 is the same as a G9 when you’re playing it this way.
Thanks Brian. (I assume you meant A9 is like G6 as I was inquiring). One further theory question then. You mention you are only using triads here, so something is left out. With the theory aspect of a 6 chord to fully be composed of R356 and for a 9th fully being R357b9. It appears then common to be leaving out the 5th in the 6th and the 3rd in the 9th? It certainly sounds good, so must be good. But for a somewhat beginner as I am ((who goes back to some of the theory for understanding), when you say you making the A6 or 9, here you are really making partial of both, right? Hope I am making my enquiry clear enough. Thanks for the great lessons.
You’re correct, it would be only a partial chord which is why it could be either a minor chord (the relative minor) or the A6 or A9. It depends on the context. Just like the minor / major pentatonic scale.. they’re the same patterns… it just depends on the chord or root note underneath it to define it.
Great lesson. I think that we can officially announce that you are truly one of those Nashville Cats that the Lovin’ Spoonful sang about.
Happy New Year.
Brian. I really appreciate your lessons.
You are able to teach both practice and theory in the same lesson. Learning to play nice music and learning theory at the same time keeps the interest high. This latest lesson EP185-Western Swing Rhytm was again a splendid example of a good one. Nice tune, good tempo and spirit and it’s complete material e.g. TAB containing right hand up and down strikes etc.
I am very happy to be your student. You are the best of the internet based guitar teachers that I have found so far.
I am wishing you all the best for this ongoing year 2017.
Sure the chording was cool but what about those new Christmas specs!?!
Well I’m a bit confused. Playing the same chord and calling it a F# minor at times and at other times calling it an A6. The caveman in me says I wish he’d make up his mind :). Obviously I’m missing something?
You make me laugh Brian. Especially when you jump into a chord shape and use it on different frets and say “I’m getting off track here” lol. But it makes a lot of sense…..I know you’ve being teaching and playing along time. But I’m always impressed how dam good you really are.
I was tempted to give this a miss as Western Swing isn’t quite my thing but after listening to Brian’s intro comments thought I’d give it a go. Wow! Glad I did, this lesson is stacked with useful info. Its going to take a while for it all to sink in and I’m going to have to go back to it a few times, but really good stuff Brian! Thanks!
This is really fun to play Brian and gets me using some alternate chords. Thinking of working up a Western Swing
version of the old Don Raye song “Down the Road Apiece “.
Awesome lesson! I’ll be using so many elements of this lesson in so many of the songs I’ll be playing–I’m already “stealing” some of these elements for my own composition. Thank you, Brian.
thank you so much, love learn this stuf, helps me so much . mister Brian thank you , you are thé best
Huub
I’m probably among the least talented guitars and at 80 years of age among the oldest, mos of this stuff I knew, but couldn’t apply it.
Western Swing is my favorite music . And I have marveled at some of the best in the business , doing this exact stuff. Now I can do it
Thanks for the great lesson, there is so much to take from this lesson. I definitely will be using this from now on. This lesson paid for this year’s subscription. I’ve been following you for about 3 yr. love what you do .
Thanks a lot. And happy new year to you and yours.
Great lesson…I for some reason can NOT seem to get the hand in motion thing.. I understand what is is bit doing it is not one of them…Beside practice and tricks?
talking about strumming
Have my answer at 12 minute mark. thanks anyone want to add any helpful hints I’ll listen.:)
hello Brian,
Which are microphones on your gibson ES 335, burstbucker 1 and 2 or classic 57 .
Thanks
Reaallly nice
This is one of those lessons where I start out thinking “No way I can play this… ” and then Brian breaks it down, makes it all seem so simple. Next thing you know, I’m playing it (not quite full speed yet, of course!)
Thank you Brian, every time fun and I learn to play with it , make combinations for other things.
i will be a member nex year
Holland
Huub
Hello Brian, I have just started taking a lesson from you on western swing, I must tell you I have really enjoyed the lesson, wish I would of heard of your site on line a lot earlier, anyway Iam so glad I have signed up with you. Take care. Dave S. SaultsteMarie,Ontario
Brian, just started taking lessons from you. Was looking for something simple to get started and think this could be it. I really love the way I can slow things down to 25% if needed. Hope this feature is on all lessons. It takes me awhile to get something, but when I got it, I got it. It’s looking like you make it easy and fun to learn. Thanks
Circled back, I can now actually play through this now 2 yrs. later! TY Brian.