The next few guitar licks will be put together to form a basic blues guitar solo in G. The backing track is from Pete Anderson called "Talking My Baby Down". It is one of his contributions to the blues guitar backing tracks for the King of The Blues Competition. Used with permission. You can download the backing track and chord progression here: http://gc.guitarcenter.com/kingoftheblues/tracks/ To hear some of Pete's great blues guitar playing check out his website:http://www.peteanderson.com/ Thanks to Pete for letting me use this great track.
So our guitar lick today is meant to be played over the first four bars in this 12 bar blues. In this case the chord is a G6. The guitar lick is played with pick and fingers and starts off with the G note played on the high E string is held down while the pinky slides from the C to Db ( the blues note - flat fifth). Then there is a repeating lick played within the notes of the G Minor Pentatonic Scale.
I really didn't know what to expect when I opened up this 2 DVD set. I'd never listened to Nevermore and although I was aware Jeff Loomis had a solo cd had never listened to it. I have to admit that a little part of me was expecting a mishmash of treble laden dissonance and little if any melodic sense. Happily I was very wrong indeed and my misconceptions entirely unfounded. The guitar tone throughout the DVD was stellar. Really beautiful - every note was articulate and the sound cut through the mix well. To my ears Mr. Loomis studied a lot of Yngwie Malmsteen not only because of his clean arpeggios but his vibrato was so great.
Rockhouse in my opinion has been very progressive in it approach to instruction not only recruiting cutting edge musicians who also teach well but by providing access to their website where you can download backing tracks for the exercises and compositions on the DVD - as well as enjoy the other lessons and membership benefits.
Jeff Loomis is a great instructor on this two DVD set clearly breaking down each section and explaining his reasoning behind scale and chord choices. Not only does he demonstrate scales, riffs and leads but he imparts knowledge that will allow the guitarist to begin to utilize these concepts in their own playing.The DVD covers scales that rock and metal players may not be well versed in such as the whole tone scale. the diminished scale and an Yngwie favorite the Harmonic Minor scale. The scales are demonstrated with reference to Jeff's music. Next there is a technique section that discusses arpeggios, string skipping and more. The final section of the DVD has a breakdown of several complete leads that are well explained and presented in regular and slow speeds.
The DVD's include a tab ebook that is 58 pages and has tab for all the exercises, riffs and solos on both DVD's. The tab is very accurate and easy to read but I did miss the standard notation to assist with the rhythmic values. Although the slow sections of the DVD certainly demonstrate the rhythms adequately.
Fans of Nevermore and Jeff Loomis who play guitar will love this DVD set. It provides great insight into the playing technique and song composition and will teach you some great music. Guitarists who like Metal or just admire great playing will also benefit from this disc. The songs are really very melodic and although they employ some progressive scale choices and techniques the riffs and solos are very pleasing to the ear while still being metal. I really loved this DVD set and now have got to get down to practicing some of the great material it presents. For more information on this visit:www.rockhousemethod.com
Beginning guitar players sometimes have the temptation to delve right into rock or metal playing without considering the foundations upon which much of this music rests - the blues. I think some basic foundational knowledge of the blues makes even the best rock player better and for the beginner I think it is a great jumping off point for learning rhythm, scales and improvisation. Like any great music true mastery takes years of dedicated practice but there are some great basic blues guitar licks that will bolster the mojo of even novice guitar players. There is no video example with this lick but I'll try to answer any questions or comments. Here are two standard blues phrases in the Key of A using eighth note triplets. Triplets receive three notes per beat so count these 1 and a 2 and 2 etc.
This is a contest entry for a PRS from Jamplay.com. Noodlin over a backing track in C ( although I used an F# lots because it sounded cool to me). Cheers.
This is an alternate picking guitar exercise using two 3 note left hand permutations 134 and 124 in combination. The notes are 16th notes grouped in sextuplets. Use strict alternate picking throughout.
Just thought I'd share my contest entry for the guitar noize "Blue Noize" blues guitar solo contest. It's an improvisation on the backing track provided by jamtrackcentral.com. A bit rambling at some points but there are definitely sections I like and hope you will too. Thanks for listening.
Next week we are going to look at some guitar exercises and licks based upon four and three finger left hand permutations. This first lick uses a sextuplet pattern and two three finger permutation that each use two overlapping notes as you can see from the tab. Our first video next week will begin by building on this lick.
