Voice Leading is a jazz term that can get as complicated as you want it to be. But the core idea is creating a melody within a chord progression. By using different voicings, you can rely on harmonic movement to supply the melody. In our new Voice Leading Within the 2-5-1 free lesson, Guy will show you two basic examples of this. You will learn how to play a 2-5-1 jazz guitar progression in the key of C and F. Guy will teach you how to play each of the chords in the progression and then discuss the music theory involved. You can view the lesson video below or head over to the lesson page for the chord charts. If you want to learn more about 2-5-1 chord voicings, check out our 2-5-1 Progression in Two Keys premium lesson.
Over the last couple of months we’ve released a series of guitar lessons by David Ellis that cover basic bluegrass lead playing. You can now buy those six lessons with one click as the Easy Flatpicking Songs Package and save $5.99 over the standard price. The lessons will teach you beginning to intermediate level breaks for Wildwood Flower, Old Joe Clark, John Hardy, Way Downtown, Cripple Creek, Shady Grove, 9lb Hammer, Salt Creek, and Red Haired Boy. These are twelve songs that are commonly played at bluegrass jams and would be known by most of your fellow pickers. Watch the demo below or check out the lesson page to get an idea for the difficulty level and style. If you are looking for something a little more advanced you should check out our Flapticking Guitar Songs book download which features some great tabs. In the more general songbook style we also have the Bluegrass Fakebook
We’ve previously covered B.B. King’s soloing style in both free lessons and premium guitar lessons. This week we released two new videos that continue our discussion on using the B.B. “box position”. In these lessons we’ll focus on licks from the Major Pentatonic Scale. We’ll use an upbeat groove in Bb as our backing track and learn a couple of 12 bar solos. Jody will teach you how to play each solo in detail making sure understand the concepts and techniques being used. Check out the lessons page for more info or watch the demo below.
Jody Worrell has just released the third installment of his Blues Standards Rhythm Lesson series. You will learn how to play rhythm guitar parts for three popular blues songs:
Before You Accuse Me: Originally written by Bo Diddley then reintroduced to the public through Eric Clapton’s Unplugged performance and subsequent live shows.
It Hurts Me Too: Basically a traditional song that was recorded early on by Tampa Red and then Elmore James. More recently it’s been covered by Eric Clapton and Keb Mo. Jody also has two lessons that will teach you how to play solos over It Hurts Me Too
Help Me: The tune is pretty similar to the blues instrumental “Green Onions” but is credited to Sonny Boy Williamson and Willie Dixon.
For each song Jody will teach you the chords and some strumming and rhythm tips. You can get a feel for it from the demo. To get this lesson or parts 1 and 2 check out the product page
“Making the Changes” is a jazz term that refers to improvisation that follows the changing chords of the progression. It’s not just noodling on your guitar. It’s going with the form of the song. Guy Fenocchi is in the process of creating a learning method for jazz guitar that will teach you how to “make the changes”. It’s a long process that has to start somewhere. Before you can learn how to solo, you need to understand the progression itself. In the first lesson, 2-5-1 Progression in Two Keys, Guy will tackle the rhythm part of the equation. You’ll learn how to play the 2-5-1 in C and F Major individually and consecutively. The lesson covers two sets of chord choices for each key that are in similar positions on the neck. The lesson contains three rhythm track for you to practice along with. Check out the lesson page or the demo below for more information.
