This is the 8th part in my “Breaking Down the Blues” series. You can see a rundown of all the parts in this series here. It’s also a follow up on my previous post, where I went through some of the theory behind the Dorian Mode, and went over some concepts that I like to...
This is the 7th installment in my ‘Breaking Down the Blues’ series of posts. You can find the other posts here. If you’ve arrived at a point in your journey in learning to play blues on the guitar where you’re comfortable with the minor and major pentatonic scales, as well as the blues scale, and...
If you are a guitarist who has trouble with the following: Memorizing scales or theory Applying scales or theory creatively Getting yourself to practice/study fundamental things like scales and theory Playing expressively Understanding how scales and theory concepts connect with one another Then, I would bet that a couple of things could be said about...
This is the fifth part in my series on the system behind playing the blues on the guitar. In this part, I’ll talk about the role that the major pentatonic and major blues scales play when soloing over a blues progression. The other parts in the Breaking Down the Blues series are: Part 1: The...
This is the fourth part in my ‘Breaking Down the Blues’ series. In the previous parts, I covered the 12 bar blues progression, the extended box pattern of the blues scale, and I demonstrated some blues licks. Here are links to the previous parts: The Blues Progression The Blues Scale 5 Tasty Blues Licks In...
If you’re a jazz guitarist, a must know skill is how to create a walking bass line and chord accompaniment. This is very useful in any situation where you’re not playing with a bass player, whether it be accompanying a singer, horn player, or another guitarist. In this article, I’ll go through the method on...
I’ve always found the act of composing to be one of the most difficult and complex activities in music. When composing, I feel that I’m calling upon everything that I am–not only as a musician, but as a person. There was a time when I felt I just wasn’t good at composing, or that I...
This is the first part in a series where I will go through the basic aspects of playing blues on the guitar. It’s a good idea to have some idea of how playing the blues works as a guitarist. Pretty much all contemporary, popular styles of music have evolved from the blues. Learning the structure...