No guitarist has ever developed serious technique without spending time practising technical exercises. Technical exercises allow you to focus in on a specific technical challenge and make deliberate progress with a specific technical skill. The following five exercises are simple, but challenging. Each one will help you develop your technique in slightly different way. Work …
This piece features a chord progression based around open chords. It is a ballad that is arranged in such a way that the melody is con-structed from a combination of arpeggiating chords (playing the chord one string at a time) and embellishing the chords. The time signature of 3/4 gives this piece an understated, rhythmic …
The 12 Bar Blues in the key of C contains the chords C7 (I chord), F7 (IV chord) and G7 (V) chord. Below is the 12 Bar Blues starting on C7. 12 Bar Blues in C (Jazz Variation) The Jazz variation of the 12 Bar Blues in C adds some extra chords. The 12 Bar …
The 12 Bar Blues in the key of B contains the chords B7 (I chord), E7 (IV chord) and F#7 (V) chord. Below is the 12 Bar Blues starting on B7. 12 Bar Blues in B (Jazz Variation) The Jazz variation of the 12 Bar Blues in B adds some extra chords. The 12 Bar …
The 12 Bar Blues in the key of A contains the chords A7 (I chord), D7 (IV chord) and E7 (V) chord. Below is the 12 Bar Blues starting on A7. 12 Bar Blues in A (Jazz Variation) The Jazz variation of the 12 Bar Blues in A adds some extra chords. The 12 Bar …
Next week I’ll be releasing a brand new book, featuring 101 Blues studies. I’ve been working on this book for a few years (it turns out it takes a while to put together 101 tunes) and I’m really excited to be sharing it. The following piece is called ‘Pedal Bass Blues’. It features a ‘pedal …