Solo Acoustic Blues in E

So I was inspired by my submission to Guitar Coach Magazine to try talking over a video and giving a breakdown of the guitar lick in addition to the guitar tab. If you prefer this format over just the guitar itself let me know. Anyway today we look at a 12 bar blues in E for solo acoustic guitar.

Between the explanation in the video and the guitar tab it should be pretty straight foward. You can always leave a comment or ask questions on www.youtube.com/videoguitarlessons or twitter @jimifan

Funk Rock Guitar Lick

This is a funk rock guitar lick. We start of with some 16th note octaves. Watch the rests and muted notes in the guitar tab and listen to the video for the phrasing. Try to keep the strumming hand in a smooth continuous up down motion. After the octaves there  are some 16th note triplet patterns I've always liked the sound of fast close intervals played like this ( as many readers of this guitar blog can attest to) it reminds me of speaking sped up kind of like an Alvin and the Chipmunk effect. Hope you dig it. I didn't use this on the track but you may want to grab a wah pedal for the octaves and funk it up 70's style.

Thumb over Neck Funk Guitar

Here is a Hendrix style funk rock guitar lick. When you think of the thumb in funk the first thing that usually comes to mind is slapping technique for bass guitar. Another tried and true weapon in the funk rock guitar arsenal is the use of the fretting hand thumb to wrap over the neck so that you can play octaves. In this guitar lick the thumb plays the notes on the 6th low E string. Note the alternating use of the eighth and 16th notes in the guitar tab. We walk up the neck in this guitar lick with octaves and then settle into a funk rock lick using the D minor pentatonic scale.

Some Funk Guitar Rhythm and Lead

Today we've got a little funk guitar lick. Rhythm and lead parts are tabbed out for your playing pleasure. Were in standard tuning this time. Scale wise we are based around the B minor Pentatonic Scale. Listen to the music for the rhythm as presenting these in guitar tab never quite catches the phrasing completely. Tone wise you want a pretty clean tone for the rhythm with a bit of reverb and compression. The lead guitar tone was a little more distorted to give the notes some sustain.
 

Symmetrical Metal Guitar Lick

Tuning:C# G# C# F# A# D#. This metal guitar lick uses a symmetrical pattern on the neck.  I was thinking more in terms of patterns on the fret board than scales so I haven't analyzed the note choices over the progression. I've also added a quick little jam using the same notes in a second video. The guitar tab is for the first video.

New Song Mourning Tyme - with tab

This is the guitar intro to a new song I'm working on. It's called "mourning tyme". I wanted to start of with a really sad feel so I started with some slow half step bends. The guitar tab should be pretty self explanatory. Watch the timing on the sextuplets at the end these get 6 notes per beat. The chord progression is E Minor/ D/F# ( with an open high e string)/ C / A Minor. The D/F# is played like a normal open D chord except the thumb frets the F#  the fifth and 4th strings are muted and the high E string is open.

In terms of note choice we pretty well stick to the E Minor Scale which is all natural notes except the F#. The exception to this is the lead in notes from the bend which are D# and Bb respectfully.  Watch the palm muted triplets in bars 9 to 11. Any questions just ask. Twitter is the best way to get me @jimifan
Note: Guitar is tuned down a half step if you want to play along.

Blues Rock Guitar Solo in C with tab

I couldn't resist playing guitar with the wah over this track. I've had a bit of a wah addiction in the past so this
was fun for me. Some people may cringe at the sheer wahiness but I love it. This is a pretty basic blues rock guitar solo in the key of C using the C Minor pentatonic scale over the 12 bar blues. For the turnaround I shifted to the G minor and F minor pentatonic shapes to follow those chords in what is a pretty standard blues turnaround. Nothing fancy here but I like this and it  is fun to learn if your moving from a beginner to an intermediate level guitar player. If your new to blues note the triplets in the guitar tab.