But how can you start it rip out cool, tasty mixolydian ideas in your solos (instead of just playing the scale pattern)?
These licks will help! Discover essential bends and note groupings which will quickly transform your mixolydian soloing and set you on the road to ‘mixolydian soloing mastery’!
The mixolydian scale or mixolydian mode is used extensively in blues, rock, jazz, funk and pop music. Knowing the mixolydian scale pattern is a good start – but you also need to build a vocabulary or library of cool sounding mixolydian licks and ideas to help you learn how to use it in your guitar solos and improvisations.
That’s what this guitar lesson is all about! You’ll learn 3 great mixolydian licks to kick start your mixolydian soloing TODAY!
Here’s a breakdown of what you learn in this video:
0:15 Hear me demonstrate guitar soloing using the mixolydian mode. Notice how the mixolydian scale has a bright but bluesy sound. Here I am soloing with E mixolydian over an E7 chord.
0:35 Lots of guitar players get very confused by the word ‘mode’. But simply think of it as another name for a scale. So the mixolydian mode is simply a name for a particular type of scale. Watch my lesson covering the theory behind the scale and when we use it by clicking here: https://youtu.be/RCG5iUMd6VU
1:00 How to play the E mixolydian mode or scale on guitar. Here you’ll learn a mixolydian scale pattern and an E7 arpeggio shape you can use. Fingerings and description included. These are the same patterns I covered in the Mixolydian Mode Lesson but moved to the key of E. If you’re not sure how to change the key of a scale watch here: https://youtu.be/Ft_uuN3n0M0
3:16 Mixolydian Lick 1 – A cool bluesy lick using a few cool bends. Remember to use your picking hand to control the bends by cutting them off before you let them down. Also try to learn which notes in the scale shape are good notes to bend – this will help you learn to effectively use the scale pattern in a musical way.
7:20 Mixolydian Lick 2 – Another cool phrase using a few tasty bending moves. Experiment with these string bending ideas in your own soloing.
11:33 Mixolydian Lick 3 – This lick makes extensive use of the notes from the arpeggio shape. This is the backbone of the scale so pay special attention to these notes in the scale pattern – very important!
14:45 What to do with these licks. Learn the licks, find a cool E7 backing track and practice using them over it. The next step is to take your favourite parts of these licks and use them as a starting point for your own ideas. Experimentation is the key to becoming a great improviser so make sure you do a lot of it!
What do all the great electric guitar players have in common?
Answer:
Awesome string bending technique!
It’s a fact: nothing destroys your solos quicker than weak or out of tune bends…so it’s crucial that you get this right.
Dive in to this lesson and learn how to do it the right way and avoid all the common mistakes most guitarists make with their bending (I did it wrong for years)
Then…sit back and hear the transformation that awesome string bending technique can have on your guitar playing!
Guitar String Bending – How To Bend Strings the Right Way!
String bending is one of the most important guitar techniques that guitarists need to master. In this String Bending Workshop you’ll learn how to do it it the right way. Covers string bending hand position, bending action, bending strings in tune and tips on 3 common types of string bend you’ll see all the time.
String Bending Workshop
0:18 String bending is an essential part of most guitar styles – especially rock, metal, blues and country guitar. Hear a short demo of bending used in a few different style guitar solos here.
1:05 Correct string bending hand position. Thumb position is essential. Keep your thumb over the top of the neck as you bend. This is essential for control and stability in your bending. This will help you get your bends sounding in tune and with a big juicy tone!
2:00 Bending Fingers. Back up your bending finger with any other available fingers. This gives stability and control to your string bends and will help you execute large bends much easier.
3:01 Bending Action. Let’s examine some key points when you bend a string. Keep your thumb down and still, the guitar as still as you can and rotate your hand and wrist upwards to push the string. Try not to just flex and push up with your fingers. Using your wrist and hand will lead to much better string bending in your playing.
5:50 Bending in Tune. Getting your bends in tune is obviously essential! Play the note you are bending up to a few times to ‘plant’ the sound of it in your ear. Then grab the bend and try to hit the note accurately. Bending practice will pay off here! Be patient and monitor your tuning as you play and use bends in your solos.
7:16 String Bending Exercises- 3 Types of Bend. Let’s examine 3 common types of string bend you’ll use in your playing. Nailing these exercises will really help you get your bends sounding great when you use them in licks and solos. Remember to apply all these techniques and guidelines in your favourite licks and solos.
Good luck!
Fed up with spending hours playing scales up and down the guitar neck and still your scales let you down when you play a guitar solo or try to make up your own guitar licks?
Well in this video I’ll show you 3 super powerful exercises you can use to turbocharge your scale knowledge and boost your guitar playing and improvisation. They’re super easy to do and really work – whatever level of guitar player you are. So grab your guitar and get started!
0:30 This video will show you 3 powerful exercises for learning, remembering and using guitar scale shapes. These involve practising them in a way that relates to how you actually use them.
0:38 It is ESSENTIAL that any time you learn guitar scale shapes you learn which note in the pattern is the ROOT NOTE. This simple thing is the key to unlocking the guitar fingerboard, moving scales around to other keys and being able to solo confidently and fluently on your guitar. So…ROOT NOTE..LEARN IT!
1:40 These exercises are demonstrated on the A minor pentatonic scale shape at the 5th fret (but it works on all guitar scale shapes). Watch this video to see a recap on the shape.
2:56 Need a lesson on this scale shape? Click the box in the video or click here:http://youtu.be/fJKenmHWKyc
3:07 Here’s how most guitar players practice their scale shapes. They just play them up and down the guitar neck over and over.
3:29 This approach falls short because it doesn’t relate to the way you’re going to use the scale when you’re using it to make music. When you solo you are not going to just play up and down the scale shape, and if you do it probably won’t sound that good!
4:19 Scale exercise 1 focuses on being able to see the scale shape clearly on the guitar fingerboard. To do this tap out the pattern on the neck with your picking hand. This will help you learn the pattern without your left hand fumbling around trying to remember the notes.
4:47 Scale Exercise 2 is all about starting the scale shape in different places. Often we always practice the scale starting on the same note. Then when we’re playing a guitar solo and start on a different note we get lost easily! So practice playing the scale shape from any starting note.
6:04 Exercise 3 is the Random Note Scale Exercise. This is super powerful so practice it lots! Practice playing the notes in the scale in a totally random order. This breaks down the scale pattern so that you really get to know where the notes are instead of just memorising a pattern.
8:25 Here I demonstrate the scale exercise one more time on guitar. Take it slow and check you can see the notes. Don’t guess them whatever you do!
9:00 Let’s recap on the three guitar scale exercises you learned in this guitar lesson.
Guitar Practice Tips – How To Practice Guitar
Guitar practice: do you do it the right way or are you wasting your guitar practice time? Maybe your guitar practice could be fine tuned to really get you where you want to be as a guitarist?
This video will give you 3 powerful guitar practice tips to help you get the most out of your practice time.
How should you practice guitar? Here’s a breakdown of what I share in this video:
0:20 How should you practice guitar? I’m asked this a lot, so in this short video I’ll give you 3 powerful practice tips to help you focus and fine tune your practice routine. I’ll also share a powerful bonus practice tip which holds up a lot of guitar players.
0:37 Like any serious guitar player I’ve done hours and hours of practice. But I’ve also wasted a lot of my practice time practicing badly or practicing the wrong things. It’s not just about how much you practice your guitar: it’s also about how smart you practice! Using these guitar practice tips will help you think about what you want to achieve in your practice, and make your practice time really count.
1:20 Guitar Practice Tip 1- What’s Your Goal?
Imagine you’re the guitar player of your dreams. What are the core elements of your guitar style? What would you play, how would you play, what would you sound like? Getting a clear answer to this question is important because it give you vital clues about what to work on in your practice time and routine.
1:57 Guitar Practice Tip 2 – Prioritize
Now you have a clearer idea of what to practice, make these things the prioity in your guitar practice routine. It’s ok to introduce other things into your routine to keep things interesting but don’t get too dragged off course by them! It’s easy to get distracted and hop from one thing to the next, making your guitar practice time less focused and less productive.
2:53 Guitar Practice Tip 3 – Practice Using What You Practice
Don’t just practice doing, practice using! I’ve found this is essential if you are going to remember and be able to use the new things you practice in your playing style effectively. Use backing tracks, drum loops, band practice, open mic nights – anything you can think of to practice using what you are learning in a musical situation.
3:47 Guitar practice tip summary.
4:02 Bonus Practice Tip – Avoid Overload!
Everywhere you look there are guitar players telling you to ‘learn this’, ‘learn that’, ‘learn the other.’ The result? Information overload and lack of focus! Just because someone tells you that you need to be able to do something, it might not fit with your goals and could just be a distraction from what you really need to work on.
Also avoid trying to practice too much in your guitar practice routine. This is an easy mistake to make. Remember to prioritize the most important things which will get YOU where YOU want to be as a guitarist.
Not sure how to set up your amp to play Blues? No problem.
In this lesson I will show you how to set up your amp to get a great Blues guitar sound. I’ll also point out the number one mistake that most guitar players make when they start setting up their amps to play Blues.
Here you will get.
If you were struggling with how to get a good blues sound, with this lesson you will solve your problems and get an awesome Blues Guitar sound!
SUPERCHARGE your Blues Trick Bag with my awesome ‘Blues Guitar Bundle’!
Secrets of a GreatBlues Guitar Sound
How can you get a great blues guitar sound and how should you set your amp up? In this step by step lesson I’ll show you a simple method for setting up your guitar amp so that you can get a great blues guitar tone out of your speaker every time!
Blues Amp Settings – Setting Your Amp fror Great Blues Guitar Sound
In this guitar lesson I’ll show you how to set your amp for a great blues guitar sound every time. Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll learn in this lesson.
0:00 In this lesson you’ll find out how to set up your amp plus how to avoid the no.1 mistake many guitar players make when setting up there guitar amp for a great blues sound. I made it! Now you can avoid it…
0:53 Amp EQ Settings Guide
See the front panel of my tube amp to see how I set it up. I set the bass and treble controls to about 6-7 and the mid to about 3-4. Try sweeping through the mid control though to find the ‘sweet spot’. The mid control is very influential on your sound.
1:32 Presence, Reverb and Gain Amp Settings
Presence controls the overall brightness and I normally set it to about 2-3. A touch of reverb is often nice but don’t use too much! Also with gain or distortion – be aware of using too much! We want a nice crunchy, singing tone that isn’t too ‘fuzzy’ sounding.
2:03 Pickup Tips
Try the different pickups on your guitar. I normally use the neck pickup on my strat for a warmer sound. The bridge pickup is a little too bright for my tastes – but it’s a personal thing so make up your own mind here.
2:39 Volume Knob ‘Trick’ for Chords and Solos
Here’s a simple way to use the same amp settings for solos and chords without being too loud. Simple…but free!
3:26 Many guitarists use way too much distortion and reverb when they play blues. I definitely used to! It takes away the definition of the notes and ‘muddies’ your playing. Try turning the reverb and gain controls down as low as you can stand them and see how you like it.
Are you frustrated every time you try and play a blues solo? Tired of playing the same old blues guitar licks, riffs and chords? Are your blues solos just missing the mark? These 3 simple blues solo tips and practice techniques can make a big difference to your blues solos…today! Learn to use these in your playing right now and hear the difference in your blues solos straight away!
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Want to play a better blues solo? If you want to play more awesome blues guitar solos then the 3 blues solo tips in this lesson will help…and fast!
You’ll learn 3 simple soloing concepts you can apply to your solos which are guaranteed to help you play better solos.
Sound like BS? Try it and see – you might be pleasantly surprised.
Here’s a breakdown of what you learn in this video:
0:12 Blues Guitar Solo – Demonstration showing some of the blues solo tips and concepts you’ll learn in this lesson
1:05 The 3 soloing concepts you’re about to learn aren’t all you need to play an awesome blues solo – there’s more to it than that. But they’re easy to understand and apply to hear a difference in your soloing quickly. They’re also devices we hear all the blues guitar legends use in their playing.
2:10 Learning to Use Space In Your Solo is one of the most effective things you can do for better blues solos. Think of how we tell a story: we leave gaps and pauses to allow the listener to absorb what we’re telling them. It’s the same with playing a guitar solo. Leaving space is one of the most powerful blues solo tips I can give you…it makes a HUGE difference!
2:59 Hear me demonstrate use of space in a blues solo. Notice how it creates a sense of structure and allows the phrases to ‘breathe’.
4:11 How can you practice using space in your solo? Easy – find a cool backing track and force yourself to play a phrase, leave a gap, play a phrase, leave a gap and so on. This might be a bit unnatural if you’re not used to leaving space in your playing – but it will teach you to use space effectively in your playing.
4:40 Long Notes .V. Short Notes. Mixing up short notes with long notes in your playing builds some natural contrast and shape into your solo. This keeps the listener engaged and listening out for what is going to happen next.
5:15 Hear me demonstrate how to practice mixing up long and short notes in your blues solos and improvisations.
5:50 The best way to learn to do this naturally is simply to put on a blues backing track and force yourself to use lots of long and short notes. If this feels a bit strange at first keep doing it – after a couple of times round the blues it will feel easier and you’ll hear a difference in the sorts of things you are playing in your blues solos.
6:33 Using String Bending – Maximise the Power of String Bending! String bending is one of the most important elements of a great sounding blues guitar solo. Listen to just how much bending the great players use in their blues solo – make sure you are using them in your playing – lots!
7:25 Listen to me demonstrate how you can use bending in your blues solos. Notice how it creates tension and just sounds authentic and bluesy.
8:38 Practice using each one of these blues solo tips in isolation like you saw me do. This will get you used to using them in your playing. Then – forget about them and just jam! You’ll likely notice that the time spent experimenting with them will have had a positive effect on your blues soloing. By experimenting with these you’ll find these simple blues solo tips will have a massive impact on all areas of you blues guitar soloing. Be patient, experiment and have fun! Good luck!
Playing blues may seems easy, but if you want to make it sound cool, like the old Blues Masters while playing rhythm blues guitar, you better learn some simple 7th and 9th chord shapes. In this lesson I’ll show you some of these chords and some tricks to put a bit of color into your 12 bars blues rhythm guitar playing. It isn’t hard to do, so let’s see what you are gonna learn today.
With these chord shapes, you will find your blues playing way cooler and more colorful, and you will sound like the blues legends!
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Blues Guitar Chords Lesson – Using 9th Chords
Sick of boring open guitar chords, shuffle licks and barre chords when you’re playing blues rhythm guitar? Let me show you some easy blues guitar chords and tricks which can transform your blues rhythm guitar and get you sounding super cool every time you play a blues.
Here’s a breakdown of what you learn in this video:
0:49 This lesson uses a 12 bar blues in the key of A as an example. Here you’ll see this demonstrated using basic dominant 7th chords – A7,D7 and E7. I also break up the 12 bar blues chord sequence so you can learn the correct form.
1:55 How to play the A7, D7 and E7 chord shapes I used in the demonstration. These are powerful but simple blues guitar chords which often sound better than open chords or barre chords. Complete with description and fingering guidelines.
3:30 Why it’s good to have a few other blues guitar chords to use as well as the basic 7th chords.
3:55 How to play the A7 chord riff I use for extra colour and interest. You need to barre the D,G and B string with your 1st finger at 5th fret and hammer on your 2nd finger at 6th fret on the G string.
5:50 D9 and E9 are chord substitutes for D7 and E7.They are totally interchangeable so experiment with swapping between them.
6:48 How to play the D9 and E9 chord shapes on guitar. Fingerings and playing tips included.
8:15 These chord shapes are moveable. Use the root notes on the E and A strings to figure out where to move them to to get G9, B9 etc.
9:14 Here I put the A7 riff, D9 and E9 together into a complete 12 bar blues to show you what it sounds like. Find a 12 bar blues backing track in A and try it out.
10:15 Summary of chord substitutions and how to combine these various chords.
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I’m sure you will agree with me that Jimi Hendrix is one of the best guitar players of all times. Well, today I’ll show you 3 easy blues licks taken from his playing. Learn 3 supercool minor pentatonic Jimi Hendrix blues licks and the scale shape they use.
So, let’s get into it and see what are you going to learn today
With this licks and tricks you can experiment and create some other licks, which will help you take your blues guitar playing to the next level!
Get my awesome BLUES GUITAR BUNDLE with full TAB and notation for all 3 Jimi Hendrix blues licks plus my other most popular blues lessons!
Learn 3 supercool minor pentatonic Jimi Hendrix blues licks. Learn the scale shape they use, learn how to play them and pick up loads of performance and playing tips to help you take your blues guitar playing to the next level.
Here’s a breakdown of what you learn in this video:
0:14 Introduction. Hear me jam using some of these Jimi Hendrix blues licks over a blues backing track in the key of G.
1:30 These licks are based on some of the ideas Hendrix plays in his version of ‘Once I Had A Woman’. I’ve moved them into the key of G to make them a bit easier to learn.
1:40How to play G minor pentatonic scale as used in these licks. I’m going to explain and demonstrate the scale shape to help you get to grips with this crucially important rock and blues guitar scale. Complete with description and fingering guidelines.
3:00 Jimi Hendrix Blues Licks – Lick 1 – An essential but easy minor pentatonic blues lick which you can easily slot into your playing. Remember when bending strings to back up your bending finger with other fingers when possible. Also watch how to ‘choke’ off a bend before you let it down.
6:03 Jimi Hendrix Blues Licks – Lick 2 – This Hendrix lick is using Gminor pentatonic and makes use of some blues guitar touches like semitone bends and blues curls. Nothing too complicated here. This is a great turnaround lick which will work great at the end of a chorus of blues solo.
9:16 Jimi Hendrix Blues Licks- Lick 3 – This lick starts with a repeating string bend. I use vibrato on these bends to give it a more bluesy sound. There are some cool little blues guitar and minor pentatonic moves hiding in this lick Take the lick and start experimenting with it so you get good at using the bits of it it in your blues playing.
12:42 How to approach learning these blues licks and how to practice them so you can start making up your own licks.
Get my awesome BLUES GUITAR BUNDLE with full TAB and notation for this and my other most popular blues lessons!
Get my awesome BLUES GUITAR BUNDLE with full TAB and notation for this blues riffs lesson and my other most popular blues lessons!
Apart from chords what can you do when you’re playing blues rhythm guitar? Want more tricks in your blues rhythm guitar trick bag? Let me show you 2 easy blues riffs which can spice up your blues rhythm guitar and get you sounding super cool every time you play a blues.
Here’s a breakdown of what you learn in this video:
0:14 Hear me play one of the blues riffs over a 12 bar blues in the key of G.
1:07 How to play the first blues riff over a G7 chord. Complete with description and fingering guidelines. Remember that the first note in the riff (low E string note) is the root note – this means you can move the blues riff around to make it work on other chords too. Simply start on the root of the chord you want to play on and play the riff – easy!
2:36 Here’s how you can move the riff to make it work on C7 and D7, the two other chords in a 12 bar blues in the key of G. Basically all you have to do is move it across onto the A string – simple. Play it at the 3rd fret for C7 and at the 5th fret for D7.
3:49 Here I show you a 12 bar blues in G and how to apply each of these different riffs to the progression. This follows a pretty standard version of a 12 bar blues chord sequence although there are variations which you might see.
5:56 Hear the blues riffs played over a 12 bar blues backing track in the key of G.
7:01 These riffs are a useful alternative to playing chords when you’re playing rhythm guitar. If you were playing with another guitar player or a piano player who was playing chord shapes, then playing chords might muddy up the sound too much. The leaner and lighter sound of these riffs will support the chord progression without cluttering it up .
7:40 Here is the second riff. This is similar to the first one but is a little more interesting sounding, using pull offs and blues curls. Sometimes it may be better than the more basic first riff. Like the first riff it is completely moveable – here I’ll show you how to play it over G7, C7 and D7, the 3 chords making up a 12 bar blues in G.
10:37 These 2 riffs shapes are moveable. Use the root notes on the E and A strings to figure out where to move them to use them over E7, A7, B7 etc. You’ll find they’ll work on any Dominant 7 chord if you play them ath the right place on the guitar neck. Try creating some variations of your own and experiment with making them work in other music styles too such as rock and funk.
Get my awesome BLUES GUITAR BUNDLE with full TAB and notation for this and my other most popular blues lessons!
Get my awesome BLUES GUITAR BUNDLE with full TAB and notation for this and my other most popular blues lessons!
Acoustic Blues Guitar Solo – Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan Style
Learn a cool acoustic blues guitar solo in the style of blues guitar legends Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan . Packed full of great blues licks and techniques guaranteed to boost your blues soloing power in both an acoustic blues or electric blues guitar setting!
Here’s a breakdown of what you learn in this video:
0:15 Acoustic Blues Guitar Solo – Demonstration
Here’s the blues solo over a 12 bar blues in the key of E. You’ll probably recognise some of Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray’s favourite acoustic blues licks in there!
1:18 Open Position Blues Soloing Scales
Learn the two E minor pentatonic scale shapes we’re using in this blues solo. The first pattern is played around the open and 3rd fret area and the second pattern extends up to the 5th fret area of the fingerboard. This solo uses lots of open string blues ideas coming from these patterns.
3:07 Acoustic Blues Lick 1 -This classic blues lick is using a fragment of an E7 chord -which makes perfect sense as we’re playing over an E7 chord here. You can hear Clapton play something similar to this on his ‘Before You Accuse Me’ solo on his ‘Unplugged’ album.
The lick uses this repeating idea several times before moving into a lick using the open string E minor pentatonic scale with some notes from an open E chord added in.
6:31 Acoustic Blues Lick 2. A cool little blues idea again in the style of Eric Clapton. This one uses an E blues scale pattern up around the 5th fret with a couple of added notes(see video for shape). Notice how this scale also ‘outlines’ the A7 chord we are playing over – this is why it sounds so good over the A7 chord.Also note the bluesy slides and blues urls used in this lick!
9:50 Acoustic Blues Lick 3. Check out this cool Stevie Ray Vaughan lick using the second scale shape we looked at earlier and a B7 chord shape too. As in lick 1 we’re using a repeating idea played in triplets with slides – a very authentic blues sounding trick! Notice the addition of trill using the 1st fret G string (from the open E chord shape)and the bass run leading into the B7 chord shape. Picking out the notes in the B7 chord shape is a simple but effective approach which punctuates this point in the solo nicely.
13:35 Acoustic Blues Lick 4. This open string lick is typical of both Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s playing. It’s using several of the devices we’ve seen elsewhere in this guitar solo. The little sliding lick here around the 3rd and 5th fret is well worth investigating!
15:13 Acoustic Blues Lick 5. Here’s a cool little blues turnaround lick in E which wraps the solo up nicely. This is a ‘classic’ turnaround idea you’ll hear lots of blues artists play. It’s making use of open strings and a descending phrase along the G string to lead us to the end.
16:24 Here are licks 3,4 and 5 joined up slowly.
16:46 Complete Solo Demonstration
Now that we’ve broken the solo up into individual blues licks, let’s put it together and listen to the whole thing one more time.
17:18 Now What? Tips For Using These Licks!
Take your favourite licks, change them, extend them, create your own variations and make sure you use them! This is a crucial part in absorbing new vocabulary into your soloing and improvising. Don’t be afraid to experiment, experiment, experiment! This is the only way we become better blues soloists. Remember to simpify the licks, slow them down – do whatever you need to in order to make them playable and useful for YOU!
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