LESSONS
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Building The Blues Series 2- Lesson 1
Denny is back for series two with a cracking solo using an A Minor Blues scale. You'll discover some great sounding, really simple licks in this lesson, setting the bar for the remainder of the series. You'll get your fingers around some interesting techniques and be shown how to pick, bend and pull-off in quick succession. Denny also demonstrates a whole twelve-bar sequence, consisting of only five notes - this teaches you how to get a lot of music out of a simple phrase. Denny expands on this idea in the lesson, demonstrating how to add notes to this basic framework to makes it sound more professional.
Building The Blues Series 2- Lesson 2
Lesson two begins with another cool Blues solo demonstrated by Denny. This one is a little more up tempo and is great fun to play. Still keeping it simple, Denny demonstrates a vital new Blues technique called 'call and response.' This allows you to make a lot of music, quickly, without the use of too many notes. Denny demonstrates, in detail, exactly what this new technique means and how you can utilize it in your own playing and also within the context of the solo.
Building The Blues Series 2- Lesson 3
Denny ups the ante in this lesson by demonstrating another great new technique. This lesson is all about 'chord tones' and how you can utilise them to give your playing more feel and a professional dynamic. Otherwise known as an 'Arpeggio' this technique involves playing notes from the chord separately so that wherever you end up after playing, you should be on a great note to begin soloing with. As ever, Denny explains the new technique, how to play it and utilise it within the context of the lesson and provides it all with that classic, mellow Blues tone we all know and love.
Building The Blues Series 2- Lesson 4
In this lesson Denny introduces another great technique which will certainly improve your soloing. The aim of the game for lesson 4 is to understand 'octaves' and begin to get them becoming a part of your solos. These will give your playing more of a dynamic, and makes an important part of a guitarist's repertoire. Denny shows how to find octaves in relation to where you're playing on the neck and shows that they can provide a nice chromatic sound, giving your playing some flavour and new sounds. This lesson uses the notes of the Pentatonic scale and like in the other lessons, Denny explains everything in great detail, so you can make sure you're getting it right.
Building The Blues Series 2- Lesson 5
Denny leads you into Jazz territory with this lesson, this will give your Blues playing a little more spice and develop your knowledge of the genre further still. You'll experience a great, challenging solo containing some killer licks. Here, Denny will introduce you to the 'Dorian' scale/ mode which is made by adding notes to an A Minor Pentatonic. This simple addition of notes will allow your playing to learn towards a Jazzy tone, harmony-wise and provides a wider spectrum of notes to play with and experiment. Denny explains how to effectively utilise the Dorian mode within the context of the solo and explains in detail, how to play the solo and use this new mode within your own experimentation.
Building The Blues Series 2- Lesson 6
At the beginning of this lesson you'll experience an extended solo, played by Denny. This is to give you an idea as to what you can achieve having learned everything over the previous lessons. The idea is designed to show how it can all come together if you utilise all of the techniques you've learned and implement them into your playing. For the remainder of the lesson, Denny demonstrates how to effectively build your own solo. The essence of being a great Blues player is creating your own solos and riffs, experimenting with what you've learned. Here, Denny will show you in detail, how to go about building your solo by explaining when to implement ideas and techniques and how to use dynamics for the attack you're looking for. He'll teach you how to use breaths to create good phrasing and how to use octaves and other techniques to give some flavour to your solo.
Building The Blues Series 2- Tone And Gear
Getting that perfect Blues sound can be a struggle, you might know it when you hear it but find it difficult to replicate. In this section, Denny takes you through all of the information you're going to need to replicate his cracking tone you've heard in the lessons. Not many people give out this information readily so get it while it's hot! Here, Denny goes into detail as to the guitar he's using - which pickups he gets that great tone from and also those all-important amp settings. He'll show you a Laney TT50 which he uses to ramp up the volume and the settings you need to replicate as well as a cool Z-Drive overdrive pedal which gives the sound a bit of a boost and slight crunch.
Building The Blues Series 2 - Backing/Jam Track
This great Blues backing track has been put together by Denny personally, in the style of B.B. King's 'The Thrill is Gone,' a classic track for a classic genre. This backing track is designed to perfectly compliment all of the things you've been playing from lessons one to six. You can use this resource to practice with each lesson, getting your timing perfect or you can jam with it and explore what you've learned. Alternatively, you can use it to jam with friends and show them how much better you're playing has got with the help of the tutors at Pro Music Tutor.
