Here’s another video for you that demonstrates a very useful technique that involves using the same finger in the same fret, but on two different strings. I learned it as the rolling technique although I am not sure it really has an official name.

It’s very useful in a lot of situations and can increase your speed on some licks. I hope you enjoy it.

Click Here To Download This Video

Enjoy and let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Bob

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Because this idea of the theme and variation is so important I want to give you another look at it in this video. Notice that the entire solo consists of only 4 notes.

Click Here To Download This Video

3-more_theme_and_variations-7

bonusjamtrack2

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This video covers the strumming pattern for the end of Stairway To Heaven. It’s another example of the importance of keeping your arm moving and a few other things as well.

Click Here To Download Stairway To Heaven Strumming Pattern

Here is a PDF with the rhythm notation along with the chords used in the video. Picking directions are also included. Remember to keep that arm moving when you strum.

Click Here To Download Stairway To Heaven Strumming Pattern PDF

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I know, I know, this a lead guitar site, but I love good rhythm guitar as well. In this video I cover what I think is the single most important key to playing great rhythm guitar.

Click Here To Download the Key To Strumming Video

Here is the PDF with the rhythms I mentioned on the video. Be sure and work out the ones on page 2 and look for the next video in a day or two to see if you got them right.

Click Here To Download the Key To Strumming PDF

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Hey Everyone…I hope all is well. I have another video ready for you. This one picks up where the last one left off. It still makes use of the octaves but with a little twist. You will see in the video.

Once again I have decided not to include any tab with this one. I just want to talk about tab for a second. It’s a great learning tool, it makes many things possible for both teaching and learning that weren’t available years ago. But…

If you get too dependent on using tab all of the time you neglect your ear. It’s very important to try and work things out on your own. Even if you are way off, there is a gradual benefit. Training the ear takes time just like any other activity but it’s well worth it.

Also, the point of these lessons is not to have you play my licks, or licks that you get from somewhere else. It’s to get you to be able to play your own stuff. There will always be elements of what you learn from other people in your own playing, but take those ideas and make them your own.

So get out the jam tracks and become the evil scientist in the lab. See what you can create and don’t be afraid to sound bad or play a wrong note. Everybody does it. It’s part of the thrill of improvising. Now go for it…

Click Here To Download This Video

As usual, if you have any comments, leave them below.

Have a great weekend.

Bob

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In this lesson I take a look at octaves, where they are located and how to use them in a solo. This is another easy to use technique that you can use in your solos to give them some life.

I have included the transcription to the complete solo this time. I did get a bit carried away at the end and sort of forgot about the lesson. I hope you enjoy it.

Click Here To Download This Video

Here is the solo pdf.

octave-lesson

And the jam track.

12-bar-blues-groove

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In this video I talk about ways to expand your vocabulary. There is also a pdf lesson for you to download that contains many of the licks used for this lesson.

And I had a request to see my picking hand. It’s not a close up shot but I think you can see it OK. The downside is that you have to see my “guitar playing face.” Don’t think I don’t get lots of grief over that from my friends and family.

I also take a moment to talk about Neuro Linguistic Programming, what it is and the impact it has had on my teaching.

Click Here To Download This Video

jimmy-page-lesson

And last but not least, the jam track.

classicbluesbackingine

I will get back to the lesson series on themes and variations in the next post. I wanted to share this now because I reference some of these licks in the next video.

Once again, if you have any questions or comments, leave them below and thanks for all the great comments so far.

Best Wishes,

Bob

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Here’s another video that picks up where number two left. I am still using the same devices. Hopefully, you have been trying these ideas out for yourself. If not, get out your guitar and have at it.

By request, I have also included the tab for this lesson. There are a few measures missing right at the end but there is enough here for you to work on. The download link will be under the video.

Click Here To Download This Video

blues-and-rock-soloing-3.pdf

Enjoy this lesson and if you have any questions or comments leave them below.

Best Wishes,

Bob

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In the last episode our hero was left in total terror and frustration…nevermind, too Batman.

Seriously though, I loved listening to my favorite lead guitarists and started on a quest to learn how to play lead guitar myself. In the meantime, I joined a band with the guys from the jam session I was telling you about. I played with those guys all through high school and had my first paying gig.

Amazing! Getting paid to play the guitar. My life was ruined forever.

In the meantime I was starting to learn a few scales and note for note solos from recordings. I actually got to the point where I had a solo spot. My big solo was the Cat Scratch Fever solo by Ted Nugent. But, even though I had learned a few scales and couple of solos note for note I still didn’t have a clue how to take a solo on my own.

After high school I was off to college. I was playing the guitar more than ever and I was starting to get pretty good technically. I had a book of scales by a guy named Arnie Berle. I would play through that thing all of time. But guess what…I still didn’t have a clue how to take a solo on my own.

One day a friend stopped by and threw and album on my bed. You remember those big round black things we use to play on turntable? Some of you probably do and for those of you that don’t, you can see them in a museum somewhere.

It was Larry Carlton’s Room 335 album. I immediately fell in love with his sound and the way he played guitar. In fact, it was perfect, the way the guitar was supposed to be played.

I was hooked more than ever. It was around this time that I enrolled in the jazz studies program at Ohio State University. While in the jazz studies program a series of events fell into place that made a big impact on my playing.

To be continued…

I hope you all applied the material from the first video lesson. It’s time for the
next step. Video two picks up where number one left off…

Click Here To Download This Video

Remember to apply this material immediately to your playing. The link to the jam track can be found below under video one.

Let me know what you think. Post your comments and questions below.

Best Wishes,

Bob

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If you love the guitar, especially a good guitar solo, then I think we are a lot alike. In fact, if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading this right now. At the same time, I know how frustrating it can be. You are probably in the same spot I was in several years ago.

I started playing the guitar when I was 8 years old. After a couple of years of lessons, I decided that the NBA and my career as a professional basketball player was much more important than the playing the guitar, so I quit lessons.

Fast forward to high school. I still messed around with the guitar a bit here and there, but sports still ruled. I still played basketball, I was even on my high school team. But somewhere around my freshman year, music and the guitar started to creep back into my life.

Kiss had hit the scene big time and became the favorite band for me and a few of my friends. We also liked other groups as well (Aerosmith, Rush, Led Zep, etc) but something about Kiss really captured our imagination.

I had to have a tobacco sunburst Les Paul just like Ace Frehley. Somehow, someway, I talked my parents into buying one for me. I loved that guitar (it was eventually stolen but that’s another story)!

Word got out that I had a Les Paul and I was invited to a jam session. I guess the other guys thought because I had a Les Paul I could play. I still remember that first jam like it was yesterday. We started jamming in A minor and the other guitar player started buzzing around the guitar like a fly at the dinner table.

Then he looked at me and said, “you take one.” Terror set in. I had no idea where to begin. The best I could do was mutter something like, “I don’t play lead, only rhythm.”

At that moment I decided that I was going to find out what I needed to do to be able to play a solo, so I started on a long frustrating, confusing journey. Over the next couple of weeks I want to share some of what I have learned in the hope that I can save you some time, frustration and confusion when it comes to playing lead guitar.

I would like to start by sharing the following video…

Click Here To Download This Video

Now that you have finished the video here is your action plan.

Use the jam track provided below and apply what you have learned immediately.
This is one of the biggest keys to learning the guitar…take any new info and put it to use right away. This will help you internalize the material and make it a natural part of your playing.

Here are a few key points from the video.

1. Pick just a few notes (3 to 6) and create a little musical statement. This statement becomes your theme.

2. Remember what you just played. This is very important but easier said than done.

3. Alter your theme. Make it shorter by chopping a note or two off. Make it longer by adding a note or two.

4. If you wander away from the theme, see if you can come back to it. This will have the effect of tying the solo together. It will be logical to the listener.

That’s it for this lesson. Keep it simple.

Here is the link to the jam track.

jam-track-slow-blues-in-g

If you have any questions or comments please leave them below. I have lots more coming so stay tuned…

Best Wishes,

Bob

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