How To

String Bending Lesson

In this video, I explain the correct technique for “string bends” and also the importance of getting bent notes to the correct pitch. I’ll also show you how to tell if two notes are the same pitch (which is also useful for tuning) because two notes that are nearly the same pitch almost sound like [...]

June 1, 2011 at 5:04 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, The Blues | No comments





Guitar Chords and Licks: Natural Minor Scale

This week we’ll be talking about the natural minor scale, which is essentially the same notes as the major scale, but starting on the 6th note. For Example, here are the notes of C major: C D E F G A B Here “A” is the 6th note in the scale, and so if we [...]

March 2, 2011 at 7:00 pm | Guitar Scales, How to, The Blues | 2 comments





Guitar Chords and Licks: Blues Scale

Last week, I mentioned that you could solo over pretty much any chord progression if you added creative variations to the pentatonic scale, and the blues scale is one of these “variations”- the one found mostly in blues music. To create the blues scale in A, we first take the A minor pentatonic: e ——————————–5–8 [...]

February 23, 2011 at 7:00 pm | Guitar Chords, Guitar Scales, How to, The Blues | No comments





3 Chord Guitar Songs: Blues Soloing

Continuing our look at the blues, we get to the blues solo. If you haven’t already, I suggest you read the previous articles in this series (starting with an introduction to the blues and the 12 bar blues). Now, if you’ve read the previous articles, you should have a fair idea of what’s going on [...]

January 27, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Guitar Chords, How to, The Blues | 1 comment





3 Chord Guitar Songs: Advanced Blues

I hope you’ve been enjoying this series on the blues so far. For this post I thought I’d do something a little more advanced- so if this is all too much for you, feel free to skip this article. However, if there are any bits that you can pick up on and use, by all [...]

January 20, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Guitar Chords, The Blues | No comments





3 Chord Guitar Songs: Blues Riffs

After reading through the other posts in this series, you should be familiar with the basic 12 bar blues progression and some of the most common variations. In this post we’re going to talk about how to spice up the chord progression in a new way, with the power of the riff! The blues riff [...]

January 13, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Guitar Chords, The Blues | No comments





3 Chord Guitar Songs: Dominant 7 Blues

This post is going to be about something I call the “Blues Tonality”- which is basically just the chords and sounds that make something sound “bluesy”. We’ll start from the basics… What is a “Tonality”? A tonality is just the “quality” of the sound, but I’m not talking about the sample rate or whether it’s [...]

January 6, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Guitar Chords, The Blues | No comments





3 Chord Guitar Songs: Blues Variations

Last week’s post should have explained what the 12 bar blues is and how to play it, this week we’ll be talking about some of the many variations on this standard theme. Minor Blues You should already be familiar with the major 12 bar blues from last week, but there is also a more melancholic, [...]

December 16, 2010 at 2:00 pm | Guitar Chords, The Blues | 1 comment





3 Chord Guitar Songs: The 12 Bar Blues

So, after reading the previous post in the series, you should be well aware why the blues is so important to understand for modern musicians. This week, I’ll explain just how to play the 12 bar blues in any key. Blues Chord Progression Chord progressions are expressed as roman numerals when not in a specific [...]

December 9, 2010 at 2:00 pm | Guitar Chords, The Blues | 1 comment





3 Chord Guitar Songs: The Blues

Hey guys, this is the first in what will turn into a series of posts on the blues. Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll go through what a “blues” is, the 12 bar blues, and common variations on this modern musical standard. We’ll even be looking at what it takes to play [...]

December 2, 2010 at 2:00 pm | Guitar Chords, The Blues | 3 comments