Blues Guitar Lessons - Volume 1 - Blues Shuffle Essentials

Before we start learning some great lead guitar techniques, it’s essential that we take an in-depth look at the rhythm guitar part played on the backing track, along with some useful variations, in order to help you to accompany other soloists and singers when playing the blues.

We continue to look at some great Blues rhythm guitar ideas, including turnaround variations and some very effective “Sliding 9th chord” patterns.

Metronome practice is a very effective way to improve your timing and to keep your rhythm playing tight.

Here, Bobby shows you how to treat your metronome’s pulse as a virtual backbeat, to help keep your rhythm guitar parts firmly in the pocket.

In this lesson, Bobby shows you how to approach your lead playing from a more lyrical standpoint, using repetition, call and response and phrase building in much the same way as a Blues vocalist would sing over a 12 bar Blues progression.

In this video, we take a look at soloing using restriction exercises. It’s possible to play entire solos, using just a small area of the neck, with very expressive results. Many famous Blues players have made an entire career, getting a lot of mileage from just a few shapes. In this example, we concentrate mainly on the Minor Pentatonic scale, using just 3 strings.

Here, we continue to look at soloing using restriction exercises. It’s possible to play entire solos, using just a small area of the neck, with very expressive results. Many famous Blues players have made an entire career, getting a lot of mileage from just a few shapes. In this example, we concentrate on mixing the Minor Pentatonic, Major Pentatonic and Blues scales.

Now it’s time to learn the long solo Bobby played at the very beginning of this series of lessons. This is a 48-bar solo in the key of G. We’ll be going around the 12-bar Blues progression 4 times and learning a wealth of licks and ideas along the way, including the mixing of the Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic and Blues scales, using space to make a musical statement and some very effective chord and double-stop ideas.

In order to memorise this solo, we suggest you learn it slowly, phrase by phrase and don’t move on to the next 12 bars before you’ve internalised all of the ideas from the previous 12 bars.

We continue to learn the long solo Bobby played at the very beginning of this series of lessons. This is a 48-bar solo in the key of G. We’ll be going around the 12-bar Blues progression 4 times and learning a wealth of licks and ideas along the way, including the mixing of the Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic and Blues scales, using space to make a musical statement and some very effective chord and double-stop ideas.

In order to memorise this solo, we suggest you learn it slowly, phrase by phrase and don’t move on to the next 12 bars before you’ve internalised all of the ideas from the previous 12 bars.

We continue to learn the long solo Bobby played at the very beginning of this series of lessons. This is a 48-bar solo in the key of G. We’ll be going around the 12-bar Blues progression 4 times and learning a wealth of licks and ideas along the way, including the mixing of the Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic and Blues scales, using space to make a musical statement and some very effective chord and double-stop ideas.

In order to memorise this solo, we suggest you learn it slowly, phrase by phrase and don’t move on to the next 12 bars before you’ve internalised all of the ideas from the previous 12 bars.

We now learn the final chorus of the long solo Bobby played at the very beginning of this series of lessons. This is a 48-bar solo in the key of G. We’ll be going around the 12-bar Blues progression 4 times and learning a wealth of licks and ideas along the way, including the mixing of the Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic and Blues scales, using space to make a musical statement and some very effective chord and double-stop ideas.

In order to memorise this solo, we suggest you learn it slowly, phrase by phrase and don’t move on to the next 12 bars before you’ve internalised all of the ideas from the previous 12 bars.

We conclude this comprehensive series of lessons by looking at even more authentic rhythm guitar ideas you can use to play over the Blues shuffle groove.

We hope you have enjoyed this series and had fun playing the Blues. Keep practicing and listening to your favourite players.