Griff Hamlin | Blues Scale Tone Functions and Working The 3rd
A lot of people might call these the "intervals" of the blues scale, but these aren't intervals to me because they don't involve a distance between 2 notes...Instead, I think of every note of a scale as an actor, having a role to play in the overall performance. That role, as you will see in today's video, is determined by how you decide to look at a given group of notes. So if you find that you tend to blindly just play through the box patterns, and you aren't always aware of which note you're on... try this and see if you can't become more aware of what effect your note choice is having. In particular, knowing how to work the 3rd can have some really big effects on your sound because of the role of the 3rd. So I'll discuss that particular adjustment in the video.
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Griff Hamlin
Griff Hamlin Lessons: Practicing Your Scales To End On Beat One
Most folks, when practicing scales, start playing on beat 1 and play through the scale...
And while that makes sense academically, it often doesn't make sense musically :(
There are 2 reasons: 1) you don't want to start your licks on beat 1, so maybe not starting your scales on beat 1 will help you get used to that.
And 2) if you're playing a scale, like a mode, that might lead your ear to a note other than the root, not having the root land on beat 1 is rather - unsettling... or unsatisfying at the least.
Watch the video... easier to show that tell :)
Griff Hamlin
Griff Hamlin: Blues Guitar Lesson - Expanding The Fretboard With A Simple Blues Lick Moved All Over
If you play blues guitar solos, you probably know good old "box 1" but that gets you really used to looking at the world from the right. Instead, let's look at the world to the left of the root, it's there and it can be a wonderous place full of music and mystery ;)
Griff Hamlin
Griff Hamlin Lessons: Strumming Double Time - G Cadd9 Em7 D
While I realize this is Blues Guitar Unleashed....
I'd be doing you a disservice if I didn't talk about something that is important for guitar playing no matter what style you play.
This strumming and rhythm technique is HUGELY important, and the most important part is (you guessed it) how you COUNT it and tap your foot to feel the beat in the right way.
So watch, play, learn, absorb all good things :)
Griff Hamlin
Griff Hamlin Lessons: How To Play Since I've Been Loving You by Led Zeppelin
Again crossing over onto the "Classic Rock Unleashed" side, we're going to look at the chord progression, and some soloing ideas, from Led Zeppelin's classic, "Since I've Been Loving You."
You might think. from just a basic listen, that while it sounds bluesy, it's not really a blues...
However, if you don't mind digging into your jazz theory a little, you can actually explain this as a minor 12 bar blues.
But even if you don't really care why, it's just fun to play and solo over... and we'll talk a little bit about the pentatonic scales and the modes that you can use.
