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Blues Guitar with Keith Wyatt
30 year long GIT blues guitar professor now teaches multi-style blues guitar lessons that range from Classic Blues style, Rockabilly, R&B, Swamp, BB King to SRV and beyond. The Blues School provides extensive lessons on soloing and broadening your blues chops. Backing tracks included. Unlimited Access.
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Resume from where you last watched (
Yes No
[MUSIC]
from the medium tempos and
And, man, we've lived in the medium
I'm gonna speed it up and talk about
version of blues and a direct predecessor
Now, sort of the shuffle
playing evolved out of
which was a style that took
then became a super craze in the 1930s.
Boogie woogie piano was, everybody
buy the records, and so on.
Swing bands were sort of built
and jump blues was kind of what
it was black popular music of the 1940s.
And what made jump blues distinct from,
you know Glen Miller and so
It was essentially three chord music.
It was definitely dance music and
You had big horn arrangements.
It was built around that
when the electric guitar became prominent,
after T-Bone Walker kind of introduced
then you had the guitar as
Still, you would have to say the 1940s and
the primary instrument in jump blues for
So guitar was always kinda catching
Now, we're talking about the rhythm,
[SOUND] jump grooves are faster
We've been playing shuffles in
maybe sneaking up once in awhile to 120,
But jump kind of starts there and goes up.
It's intended to be intense and wild.
And so 180, that's not an unusual tempo.
In fact, it feels kinda relaxed
But if you played [SOUND]
we're talking the traditional
like the Glen Miller Orchestra,
the rhythm guitar player's
And so the guitar player would be
in other words an F-hole.
Whether it was plugged in or not, it would
Think of Freddie Green, who played rhythm
And he played this big body guitar.
You just see him in the back if you've
[SOUND] And what they often said about
him, but you felt him, and if you didn't
He was the driving force, the pump
And so a swing rhythm guitar player
[MUSIC]
be getting phone calls to play
rhythm guitar in a swing
but you get the idea there.
It's playing [SOUND] sort of partial
[SOUND] It's the root, the seventh.
[SOUND] And the third.
[SOUND] So not even a four-note chord,
[SOUND] And
[SOUND] And we don't care about
They're specific to that style, but
[SOUND] you're sort of creating
So the bass is playing a walking line and
up on top there, kind of pumping
And it's a great sound, but
So, what would jump blues
[SOUND] Well,
when you watch guitar players,
a lot of which are essentially, the same
but when you play faster,
You start to edit out stuff because if you
it can get busy.
So we'll [SOUND] approach it
which is to look at it in layers.
And say, what would be the layers
[SOUND] Now, one thing you would hear in
might be instead of those down beats,
you might hear the opposite which would
be the up beats.
[MUSIC]
If it gets really fast that could
the up beats are kind of a stylistic way
[MUSIC].
So you might hear the up beats which
the Medium Shuffle.
But we'll look at another way
that's cool as well, and
So, starting on the bottom end,
Well, the bottom end of the rhythm section
the jump blues band plays a walking line.
And the walking line is the same
with one variation, which has to
harmony is arranged in a 12-bar blues,
So you've got,
which is a respectable jump blues key,
So we've got one, [SOUND] three, [SOUND]
[MUSIC]
the four chord
back to the one.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
the one chord and the four chord,
we've seen that before, no news there.
So instead of going to five
and playing the pattern that we're used
to,
and then going to the four and
then back to the one, as we would
it doesn't go to five, it goes to two.
[SOUND] We're in the key of B flat,
And from C, [SOUND] it goes up to D,
then up in half steps to the fifth,
then back down [SOUND] to B
Now that C, [SOUND] the two,
how the guitar player is gonna
Doesn't mean you're playing a two chord.
We saw a two chord in Stormy Monday right?
That has a different sound.
This is, really,
the fifth of that chord in the bass,
if you use the chord to harmonize it,
right?
You're walking the line up from
that's really the effect of it.
So in the end of the day it's
So
two, up to the five and
back to the one and
[MUSIC]
pattern depending on the sound of
And this is a lot of ifs, but
this is stuff that we can address as
play specific things and sort of get
But you can play it with a muted
[MUSIC]
an echo,
right?
You can slap it, right?
Meaning
[MUSIC],
right?
Now that, whether that is effective or
If it's overwhelming, it's no good.
If the band's rocking, that can fit
Now, another alternative is to double
exercise that I presented a few lessons
Now, this is kind of specialized because
I'm thinking of, my band, [COUGH] where
I'm the only guitar player, as a matter
And we're trying to create the effect
traditionally would have a piano player
It's just us, right?
So to fatten up the bass sound,
[MUSIC]
Right?
And that works well in
So, first thing to know
And it's the standard jump or
the substitution of the two chord [SOUND]
Often there's no turnaround at the end.
It's the strip down pattern,
It's just back to basics.
And [COUGH] against that pattern,
you can double the bass pattern
muted, double the bass pattern, slap.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
Play the boogie pattern, our old pal,
that suits the sound of the jump rhythm
In other words,
hitting that snare drum
[MUSIC]
on five.
[MUSIC]
the boogie shuffle,
as I played it at a medium tempo,
at the medium tempo,
I'm hitting every downbeat with an accent.
[MUSIC]
instead of hitting the down beats with
fourth beats with an accent,
So, it's more like this.
One, two, three, four.
[MUSIC]
Right?
At the same time in my fretting hand,
what that does is prevent
[MUSIC]
It's a lot to deal with.
But when you want that swing,
[MUSIC]
Now, enough talk.
Let's play some music, and
12 bar shuffle in B flat.
[SOUND] 180 beats a minute.
It's brisk.
And I'm gonna play a walking pattern, and
then I'll shift over to
We'll see how they sound
[MUSIC]
Palm muting.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
So, I started
out palm
muting.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
I switched to the, I'm sorry,
[MUSIC]
So, depending on how the band is rocking,
it might be too much.
But I switched then to the boogie.
[MUSIC]
my fretting hand, and accenting two and
kind of lock right in there,
And you can hear how that's just one
What's the difference?
Not much.
then we'll come back and talk about
are slightly different than what we
All right, see you in a little bit.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
one of the biggest challenges for
a rhythm player is just to
sometimes it feels like the tempo
It's hard to find a spot
Everything just feels like it's
So you need to have a part or
that you're rock solid confident in, that
You start to feel that pocket, and as time
you can start to stretch out perhaps.
But by and large, at faster tempos,
if they're well chosen they're
Now, if you play in a band that's playing
a keyboard player, maybe another guitar
very quickly, and if you add to
different syncopations,
the feel of the rhythm, and
There's just too much information,
most effective, most useful go to
instead of playing a bigger sound,
In the key of B flat, this is gonna
[SOUND] We talked in the past about how
than anything by the relationship
and the seventh degree of the chord.
[SOUND] B flat.
[MUSIC]
third, there's the seventh,
Just with those two notes I can tell what
Right?
Besides the bass player
I don't need to do that myself.
Now if that's the essence of a B flat
where's the four chord?
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
[SOUND] The heart, the essence of the B
the third, move it down a fret.
[MUSIC]
the seventh.
One and four, half step apart, one fret.
[SOUND] Where's five?
Well, we already know.
[SOUND] Up a fret.
[SOUND] So I wanna play rhythm on a 12 bar
[MUSIC]
where do I play the rhythm?
Where do I actually place
And, the answer comes from listening and
And this is an idea that I first became
one of my heroes.
I've mentioned his name many times.
And Albert had a very distinctive way
his open tuning and all that.
He was not using standard guitar stuff,
but he was a big fan of the Hammond organ,
And he came up in the 50s, and when
configuration, you have an organ player
And then an electric guitar player and
And so this was a sound, a real style.
And the organist would have certain
rhythms that they would play.
Right?
with just a couple of notes and
And meanwhile, with the feet they're
So, Albert took that idea, and
figured it out on the guitar, and
There's sort of the simple version, and
then Albert's version which
[NOISE] Okay?
So I'm gonna put this to work over
the timing that I'm gonna use,
until I get this fully absorbed
my chords are going to be placed on
and I'm going to use my half steps
[MUSIC]
But I'll go like this.
[SOUND] One, that's B flat.
[MUSIC]
two, three, four, one, two,
here comes the four chord, and
two, three, back to one, two,
and one, two, three, stay there,
[SOUND] And there we go.
[SOUND] Two, three, four, one.
So it's moving a half step for color,
three, four, one, two.
Ultra consistent.
All right, that's the basic pattern.
[SOUND] And
Now what Albert did, and
I don't know how he fingered it.
I ain't gonna worry about it.
[SOUND] Instead of playing two notes,
[MUSIC]
to duplicate his sound, the closest
We're still in B flat, I use my
that's A flat, and
[SOUND] to the third fret,
[SOUND] and that is a B flat seven chord,
and the third, so
[MUSIC]
the four chord.
Now this is different.
[SOUND] There's the third of E flat,
[SOUND] Second finger,
[SOUND] And then there's the first
Now that's the.
the seventh of E flat.
That's a stretched out voicing,
That's the one.
[MUSIC]
Right.
Now, I'm using hybrid picking
So I use the pick on the low note and
[MUSIC]
then I can split them up as I've done
[MUSIC]
then Albert would vary the rhythm a little
once you get it,
But let's hear how that sounds
First I'll play the two note version, then
here we go.
[MUSIC]
Goodness
gracious.
Okay, so there you go.
There's the.
[MUSIC]
[SOUND] Kinda add little flourishes and
that's the essence of it,
Now when I switch to
[SOUND] You can hear right away, it kinda
I varied the rhythm slightly in there.
[MUSIC]
extra accents in there.
But again, you don't wanna overdo it
and you're kind of,
People aren't really even aware of what
it balances very well against
and at the end I played
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
Played stylistically.
So you get the idea there.
So we've got our walking pattern
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
with those ideas in mind, you're pretty
a little bit more about horn section
developed by T Bone to take advantage of
All right, see you next time.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
of the jump blues guitar
And the mid range, came up with a pretty
three-note chords.
Really useful stuff.
Now on the high end,
you could summarize the high end approach
it's the two-bar phrase syncopated and you
And that's true and they work great.
So all the horn sectiony kinda things
that we came up with
they fit very comfortably because they're
sparse.
They're very rhythmic.
And so as the band plays faster and
faster, they sound effective because
Now [COUGH] the guy that
of the electric blues
And one of the things that T-Bone
using the guitar as a rhythm instrument
As we talked about earlier,
if you played guitar in a big band,
And that was inherited from the banjo,
So when the electric guitar came along,
of course everybody sort of picked
a lead instrument cuz you can
But at the same time, it led to some
using the guitar to fill up more space.
And we saw in the slow blues how
of quasi-jazzy chord changes.
[MUSIC]
kind of wrote the book
create different rhythmic
But he also played fast stuff,
Strollin' with Bone, and
these were classics of the era, still
And what he did,
was he used the guitar somewhat
he came up with his own ideas.
And in fact the horn players would listen
whatever he played and
And these were sort of arranged on
And it worked different
And sometimes, another horn
the guitar might fall in behind, but
So, for example, thinking of some
of the phrases that he played
that B-flat.
[MUSIC]
of a T-Bone Walker guitar part,
that for all practical purposes,
might as well be a horn section riff,
but he played it on the guitar.
[SOUND] And it's just half steps.
[SOUND] What makes it cool is the rhythm.
It's [NOISE].
That last one jumps a little bit.
Syncopates and gives it a lift of energy.
Same thing on four.
[MUSIC]
whoever's playing them, they would
[MUSIC]
So in that case T-Bone did the same thing.
He just switched the rhythm around
on the statement.
Now, T-Bone was also very
[COUGH] If you listen to banjo, or
you hear a lot of this kind of
you know that kind of sound.
Diminished chords.
Big part of that kinda gay 90s sound
And so T-Bone, one way or another,
he used them quite a bit as textures
also in his solos as we'll see but
go up three frets, there's your diminished
ninth fret and finger that, and then you
[MUSIC]
And what he would do is use
[SOUND] And then just maybe play
back up to it so that the entire
[MUSIC]
in-between quality where it
a B-flat chord or an E-flat chord,
the result is you can use it
Sounds weird that you would,
And it works pretty darn well.
So I'll demonstrate that for
So you get that two-bar riff there
and just repeat it over the IV chord, and
repeat it over the V chord.
It goes all the way through
varying the rhythm with
the same idea, [SOUND] right?
Just ways of creating excitement and
Let me demonstrate some of this stuff for
And you'll hear how they sound.
Very cool parts.
[MUSIC]
Yeah!
Leaning on that diminished chord there.
So you get the idea.
These are just kinda
It isn't that any one of those
magical than any horn section part
that you might hear an actual horn section
they're associated with the sound
I'll give you one more idea and
and it's kind of related to the two-note
the middle there on beats four and one.
This one [SOUND] is just that.
[SOUND] Top two notes of the B-flat chord.
The fifth and the octave, and
two, three, four, one,
three, bop bop, two, three,
So it's the upbeat of three,
One, two, three, bop bop, right?
[SOUND]
You might say, that doesn't sound
It doesn't, but it drives the rhythm
And over the IV chord,
because it's part of the ninth chord.
Now, you can either, go up two frets,
One of the magic things about blues,
let the chords circle around you,
Let's roll that rhythm
I'll show you well this part works even
[MUSIC]
[COUGH]
Little Chuck
Berryish sound
in there,
perhaps.
Good reason for that.
Chuck Berry studied T-Bone and he sort
another huge star in the 1940s junk
going on and figured out guitar
[SOUND] In some cases from other
So
now the second time around I changed
the rhythm.
So instead of one, two, three,
I went one, two, three, four, one.
[SOUND] The and of one and three.
I kind of reversed it in a way and
[MUSIC]
Right?
Double stops.
First finger, third finger, hammer on
[MUSIC]
Right?
Goes the IV chord [NOISE]
then [NOISE] V chord would [NOISE] right
We're going to talk about those
So, you've got
boogie shuffle on the bottom played with
You've got the walking
You've got the two-note [SOUND] accents
[SOUND] You've got
[SOUND] And you've got the two-note
They're all great.
If the band is big, lots of instruments,
the two-note parts on the middle or
If the band is smaller and
then you need to muscle up and
I'll show you some even bigger
Mess around with those,
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
down into the familiar three layers,
And if you're playing in a band with other
keyboard, guitar, you gotta have
as well as ones that are bigger.
If you play in a power trio,
just a three-piece band, and
you need on the other end, extra beat
And so I've showed you a few compound
Now let's talk about it in
[SOUND] And, again,
sort of experimented
And these are some that I think work
match them to your taste.
The key thing is never to overwhelm.
Don't like call attention to
a huge rhythm pattern that it takes
cuz your role as a rhythm guitar player
It's like, man, that band sounds good.
Dang, they sound so strong and so full.
How is that?
There's only three guys up there.
And if people listen very carefully, they
But, if you hit them over the head
[SOUND] All right, so
I've got a couple of ways that I
then the horn section and walking bass,
And starting with the boogie [SOUND],
We played the boogie just as
I shifted the accent from the downbeats
to the twos and fours, the back beats.
[MUSIC]
Right?
It has the bounce and
I don't want to be lead-footed,
just sort of pop my way
Now, here's a variation on that pattern.
Now, it goes like this.
[MUSIC]
from listening
to a record by
Louis Jordan [COUGH].
It's called Ain't That Just Like A Woman.
And that was the template, the role model,
that Chuck Berry took for Johnny Be Good.
Not that he played that part, but
that song inspired him in his Johnny Be
[MUSIC]
Right.
What I just did there was play the guitar
sort of a version of it.
And then I went into the style of the
after the intro.
So, here's how that works.
I play the [SOUND] boogie
So, pick, fingers.
[SOUND] And then I shift my
[SOUND] Now remember way,
about boogie pattern variations, I said
One way to do it is with
if that's too much of a stretch,
[MUSIC]
So you play the [SOUND], the root,
[MUSIC]
I create those little accents there
by snapping with my bare fingers.
[MUSIC]
pattern itself
almost becomes
secondary.
This is very similar to what I
[SOUND] Right?
But I'm kind of filling two roles at once.
I'm playing those rhythmic accents, and
I'm also doubling the bass pattern to give
So that's a tricky part to get to where
you can kinda feel the changes.
So slowly, it would sound like this.
Three, four.
[MUSIC]
Change.
[MUSIC]
Five.
[MUSIC]
Right?
Now, naturally, as you play it and
you can embellish it slightly
mess with the bass a little bit, but
If you're playing it with the right
it should sound something like this.
Two, a one, two, three.
[MUSIC]
Okay.
So, it's a specialized kind of a sound.
It makes the band sound like
there's a rhythm guitar thrown in,
And it's just kind of a cool
Now, one that's even bigger [SOUND]
that we looked at for the medium shuffle.
I was talking about playing like Pride and
[MUSIC]
part is all about, but
and so
[MUSIC]
Okay,
now.
The elements of it are familiar.
It's the combination
Walking Lines.
[MUSIC]
And in this case,
And what I'm doing in between bars
And in order to facilitate that,
I'm playing the sixth chord.
So, slowly now, so you get the detail.
It's
[MUSIC].
Four chord.
[MUSIC]
playing the two, five.
[MUSIC]
downbeat, the whole chord.
Then you switch over to the bass line.
[MUSIC]
Oops, [LAUGH].
[MUSIC]
And I'm muting, of course, so I can slap.
And hear the notes isolated.
I follow the bass pattern, two, five.
[MUSIC]
Okay.
Play it up to tempo and then we'll put
So Sound something like this when
One, two, a one, two, three.
[MUSIC]
Ignore
the last
part all
together.
I totally lost it.
But it was all in good fun there.
So I was doing exactly up to that
Get your right hand going.
[SOUND] Remember the cardinal
harmonizing the drums.
And if you get your right hand going in
you're hearing, medium shuffle, fast.
Right?
If I can hear the drum part coming from
this hand even without a chord in sight.
It's just
then I know it's gonna be in the pocket.
Right?
the cake, makes it sound harmonic.
Right?
So, come into the chord [SOUND]
above, as we've seen in many other cases.
[MUSIC]
varied the bass line there, but
I threw in one other thing, and
it's just a cool idea.
Again, Albert Collins, man,
[MUSIC]
What he would do is he would
[MUSIC],
as kind of a chord fill.
It's just a cool sound.
I don't know where he got that, but
you can hear how it works.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
same move.
[MUSIC]
Right?
Just adds some little kind of a flavor
that was true of a lot of
Just a little bit different and
I wanna do that.
Now, let me show you how
the 12 bar with the rhythm section.
First I'll play
[MUSIC]
little accents.
And then I'll play the, show the combined
Okay, here we go.
[MUSIC]
Mm,
mm,
mm.
Now, in thinking about that Albert
I interrupted the bass pattern, so
if I wanted to be completely
not put that in there right off the bat.
Whatever, you know what I'm saying.
The judgement call is does it fit,
Sometimes when you have
you try to stick it in there
But the idea I think is clear,
And you can try it out, and
you'll find the spot where
So there you go,
play rhythm over a uptempo
What I'd like you to do is send
just playing rhythm parts.
I wanna hear how you feel it,
because soloing over the top doesn't mean
And the evidence that you feel the groove
And in this case, it's really finding
You gotta pop the parts, and
So send me a recording
You can pick any of the patterns
And just give me a kind of a cross
any questions that you have
And I'll be happy to get back to you.
All right, see you in a bit.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
jump blues and as we've discovered
the gap between soloing and
Anywhere near as wide as you might think.
Back when I was learning guitar, and I was
played chords all time.
Then, the lead guy played solos,
That was it, end of story.
But, it's not quite that concrete.
Now, we've seen how melodic rhythm parts
Overlap with solo textures that we use,
So, lots of examples of that.
Same thing is true at a faster tempo.
Just cause you're playing fast doesn't
in fact, in Jump, the opposite is true.
The idea is, going back to the roots
Back in the 40s people would be in
When you took a solo,
that was considered a very
So, the solos had to groove as
And saxophone was still king [NOISE] and
a lot of the inspiration that we hear in
And there was a whole school of saxophone
50s called honkers.
And the honkers would lay on their
they would be going [NOISE] [NOISE]
a one note solo was normal, so that's
starting with the most minimal approach,
then talk about where you can go with
It's a style thing and a taste thing,
but okay, so talking about solos,
The first thing I'm gonna do is kinda
talk about how you can sort
For example, we looked at
the high end like the T-bone walker style.
[MUSIC]
what I just played a little slice
of there was kind of at the heart of
T-bone's up tempo style.
The diminished chord
the repeating rhythmic riff,
and then the
Right?
He would play melodic lines that were
They were not long,
Are all based around a very rhythmic idea.
So as a starting point for
at a faster tempo, let's build up
And then we'll add in diminished chords
phrases like T-Bone would play and
So when I'm talking about starting
way, way back talking about the medium
solo with one note, because it isn't
it's the rhythm, it's the touch,
When we put different on one or
In a slow blues the emphasis
Not to say that rhythm and
or that they're not important.
But we're thinking more melodically
to develop the melody.
At a fast tempo, it's kind of like
And along with the rhythm is
how you strike the strings.
T-bone used a flat pick and normal tuning,
So, he was more of
Even though he held the guitar funny,
Big fat guitar you know.
But that's the way he did it.
Gatemouth Brown who was
another jump blues icon Played with his
open tuning all wrong you know,
Albert Collins, same thing.
Johnny Guitar Watson, I believe he used a
But he definitely played with his bare
Guitar Slim, another fabled guitar player.
Had very little in the way of facility,
you know like getting
he just had a tone that came from
So, when we look back at jump blues
Which is it's more of an emphasis
less on being fancy.
So we'll start with that thought in mind,
I'm just imagining my groove.
We'll play with it in a minute.
[MUSIC]
And I wanna start off
This is gonna sound halfway coherent.
[MUSIC]
All right,
how crazy
is that?
Now, I listen to this style of music and
I kind of hear those phrases in
If you haven't listened to the music,
And it's awful hard to guess and
really come up with something
So I'll show you some stuff and I'll
listen to the stuff,
And you'll hear the context and
And that way you build a perspective that
So I can start a chorus on that
and just add,
Okay?
Now I'm gonna go to my second chorus,
well I don't want to do the same
So, this is where I might
say what would T-Bone do
He would use that diminished chord.
[MUSIC]
then,
Do something like that.
A very trademark phrase for T-Bone.
Chuck Berry took that and made it
So what I'm doing there is bending
Now I can either push it
then muted with the side of my thumb when
Pick, mute, pick,
Or I can pull it toward the floor.
[MUSIC]
it has a little bit more of that
[NOISE] which I kinda like.
So, I'll do it either way but
So I'll use the diminished chord
and then I'll
[MUSIC]
come up with an ending and I'll explain
it all to you after the dust settles,
Let's hear this over B flat.
[SOUND]
Goodness
gracious [SOUND]
rock n
rollin' in
two by two
as they say.
Now I've started that solo with
I had a pick up [SOUND] and
Bop bop bada bada.
[MUSIC]
then I outline the chord, B flat.
And I use the sixth.
Now the sixth was a really popular color,
Players that came out
You hear that 6th used frequently.
And I'm not saying to
it was just part of the sound that
So, reaching down that extra fret
as opposed to playing Always the seven,
The six is a little bit
more uptown, and
jump blues was city music,
you know [NOISE].
I don't remember exactly how he finished
tag on the end of the phrase that took
[MUSIC]
intact, same one I showed
the rhythm lesson on the high end there.
[MUSIC]
then
right.
[MUSIC]
the finishing it off.
So, I've got the diminished.
I've got the rhythmic string bends.
And then I've got just sorta the ending
[MUSIC]
This can be varied in so many ways.
And once you develop a vocabulary
But I have the advantage over you,
probably, in that I've played
I've listened to a lot of it, and so ideas
brand new, and just, you're kind of
but trust me, these are pretty standard
Now, this works pretty good in B flat
at 180 beats per minute What
Do the same ideas apply?
Well, in fact, yes they do, and
turn the attention more and
And don't try to race ahead of the rhythm
it just will crash and burn.
Lets hear how similar ideas sound over
Insane.
[SOUND] All right see how
Here we go.
[MUSIC]
I was squeezing
a few extra
notes in there,
I'll admit.
I knew I could do it because I've
I'll show it to you, it's a good one.
I like it.
You know, but again, if you don't feel
where it would throw you off the groove
So I started off with the same
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
Now those are licks that,
this sounds jazzy.
[MUSIC]
I'm just going from the third
As if we were playing a turn around.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
[SOUND] Yeah.
[SOUND] Right, in all kinds of contexts.
Slow, medium, and now fast and
it flows off the fingers.
Hammer on.
Hammer on.
[NOISE] and what that does is set me up
Now, the beauty of that phrase there
the rhythm is syncopated.
So we're just like,
grinding against the rest of the band
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
not, is just as scale-like as
you're ever going to get in blues.
[MUSIC]
the minor scale, there's the ninth,
[SOUND] seventh, [SOUND] sixth,
and surround that third [NOISE] and
And it's like if I played this
you'd hear it say yeah Yeah,
[MUSIC]
It's just more stylistic,
So, just give me an idea of
how to play rhythmically,
there's enough melodic interest in there
it goes somewhere when you build from
So you could describe the overall flow
a little bit of an embellishment around
the second course is diminished
[MUSIC]
So it's got a three part structure to it,
each part is
diminished.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
And the end.
[MUSIC]
you don't have to do a lot
because the energy in the band is
that's what the audience is responding to.
It's just kicking, yeah, and so your role
And not fight with it, but
And that's not the only way.
You don't have to like,
wearing a baggy suit to play this stuff.
You can bend strings,
And lots of players do,
But there's sort of a tradition that
you sort of put your
While they're playing big,
you kind of phrase in that style.
And it does suit the vibe, but
The lessons of playing fast tempos are not
It's more just an approach to
coming up with an answer for
So we've got a couple of rhythm sections
There's the shuffle in B
220, that's what I just did.
There's another one,
We're gonna mess with that one
But they're all kind of
And each one gives you a context
see which ones work and which ones don't.
And after the next lesson I want
show me what you think.
Okay.
See you in a bit.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
over fast tempo, jump blues style and
concentrated on playing repetitive
rhythmic phrases as a way to build energy.
And sort of, use your skills and your
play something convincing
having to know how to get all
Now we're going to talk about all that.
All the nanosecond stuff.
Not really.
That's not really my cup of tea,
I like to hear it more in the pocket,
the more ideas you come up with and
a few years ago, it might have sounded
After you do it for
I can do that and
It's comfortable.
You develop your comfort zone.
You move ideas from your conscious memory,
your thinking real hard memory
Where it's just lurking back there and
So talking about melodic solos,
is like a giant shift in emphasis but
[MUSIC]
a definite backseat to the rhythm.
[MUSIC]
Right?
So my phrases in that approach were
rhythmic figure going,
And the repetition builds the energy, and
that's what we're after in the end
[SOUND] Now let's talk about
The way I look at it is,
But I'm just going to accompany
So rather than playing the same
I'm going to start to play
a moving line that sort of
And results are to be determined here.
But this is where you listen and
What I listen for
like how do people, good soloist,
How do they get in?
Because it's that first lick that kind of
Off to the races, so
just has that vibe.
Remember hearing a saxophone solo
Hand Clapping, I think, it was called.
Red price.
And, the tempo is just insane.
Dap, dap un dap un dap un dap.
And, you go, bo din di du di din du du.
I mean, I don't know how fast it is,
I just said, man.
I can't touch that, but
I realized he was doing was actually
[MUSIC]
turns to it, but
the essence of the melody was
Right?
I don't care how fast it is.
I can probably do that.
Because it's just one,
[MUSIC]
or little embellishments
[MUSIC]
So varying the rhythm just slightly but
I'm kind of being pulled along with it.
So that's an example of
Another one.
[MUSIC]
the end, but the essence of the melody.
[MUSIC]
it a little bit.
[MUSIC]
So I can kind of make
elaborate, tricky.
Or I can make it sound simpler
how few notes to tag onto the end of it.
But the essence of the melody is
[SOUND] quarter notes
Or something like that, right?
So that would be an opening phrase.
The first opening phrase
Second opening phrase
And then the ending of each
Here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to play a solo.
Two chorus solo in B flat.
[MUSIC]
at the beginning of one
then I'm going to go forward from
And then we'll talk afterwards
Okay?
[MUSIC]
Goodness,
gracious.
So I started the first one off.
[MUSIC]
I kind of like that approach.
Let the thing build for a minute.
So I played the same phrase again.
[MUSIC]
the second course a little
[MUSIC]
the second phrase that
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
and then I used a little trick,
not a trick, just a sound that I like,
which is sort of a little jab of energy,
which is to suddenly jump up high.
In this case, I thought, well, I'm in
You just work that note for
Now that's a chromatic phrase.
In other words it's filling in half steps.
Five flat five four, flat three to three.
There's that sixth again.
That characteristic sound.
[MUSIC]
a classic ending.
So, that's again,
I've got my opening phrase.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
phrase.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
on from there.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
Now, I could keep going and I could pile
show you what I can play, and here's
The idea is to introduce an approach, and
the approach is find
You can steal it from me or
And then you practice playing it at
So being able to execute it and
Now, to be able to play at fast tempos,
you have to practice
Because the whole deal with playing
to feel relaxed.
If you don't feel relaxed, what happens is
when you run out of breath that's
you're just kind of stumbling and nothing
people start looking at you funny.
So, you've got to keep a little
if you're playing a song at 180,
Then, when you go back to 180, it feels
So, practicing with a metronome or
they both work.
But I'll show you one more thing before I
give you your assignment.
And let's go to a rhythm track in E flat.
E flat,
E is so great.
E flat man, you can't do anything there.
You can't use anything down low.
None of the chords work.
You're up in this weird neighborhood.
What the heck, and
junk blues solos of all time is in E flat,
OkIe Dokie Stomp.
Wow.
is a jump blues in E flat, and
he played a classic solo, with his bare
And he composed it,
And again,
It's not just making stuff,
he pulls ideas out of the universe, no.
Nobody does that.
People that play fast and string their
because they've done it a million times,
in front of you and there may be
it's all stuff that's already
So Gatemouth played
It was sort of his signature song.
I've seen him play it,
then I saw him play it one time in video.
He played it solo, on the guitar,
all by himself, in the key of E, in open
So he knew every note that he was going
it was a composition.
But it flows so well, and feels so
it just dropped off the edge,
So I'll play a little piece of that,
because it's a great lesson in how to
yourself with too much information.
Okay, here
we go,
in E flat
[SOUND]
[MUSIC]
Good God!
Now that goes on for
that's like a symphony of
That was two choruses, and I even skipped
But, now what you heard right off the top,
Right?
And he's snapping them with his fingers so
[MUSIC]
Well,
fifth to the sixth to the octave,
we'll play the blue note.
[MUSIC]
distinctive, because it doesn't
[MUSIC]
That's where you roll your finger over
Right?
And that little thrill there, that
And then a real melodic line.
[MUSIC]
this is entirely in pattern number four.
He briefly ventures up into pattern
Four bars, even.
But, the rest of it's all in this pattern.
Remember, he's got a capo clamped on
[MUSIC]
It starts
rolling.
[MUSIC]
All right.
I know I got away from it there but
what I will do is give you some
what I really like about that
doesn't require an advanced
To understand it and to play it.
And yet, it rocks and
would who knew all the modes and
It's about the feel.
It's about the simplicity and
You know the key ingredients
So it isn't how fast you
you know the content you put into it.
I say this all the time, I annoy myself,
It's a parade and you're building
So what I want you to do is and
I know I am putting stuff all over
But I want you take these ideas and
And I want you to record for me a two
and show me what you're thinking.
Show me how you're organizing your ideas,
And how do you take the skills, the tools
shape them to fit that context so that you
want to sound as good as professional
or just as convincing at that tempo as
It isn't a matter of
It's figuring out how
you can stay afloat no matter
I look forward to hearing that from you.
Send it soon.
All right, take care.
[MUSIC]
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