Mixing Blues Rhythm & Lead, Volume 1

Build a strong rhythm foundation, starting with a simple shuffle, adding chords, strumming patterns, syncopations, double stops, and turnarounds.

Overview

This course will teach you a solid rhythm foundation, rooted in a simple blues shuffle and expanding to include many chords, strumming patterns, syncopation, arpeggiation, and more.

You’ll be guided through examples and exercises that build your timing, awareness of the progression, and ability to play unaccompanied blues rhythm without ever running out of ideas.

Course Outline

Section 1: Establish A Solid Base

This section starts at the bottom with a simple blues shuffle. You'll learn the most basic version of a shuffle, how to play it in several different places on the fretboard, and how to play a single note version of it.

Section 2: Hearing Practice

This section helps you develop your ability to hear the 12-bar blues rhythm in your head even when you stop playing. You need to be able to hear the rhythm in your head so that you never lose your spot while playing something else.

Section 3: Rhythm Embellishments

In Section 3 we'll add a few simple embellishments to the basic blues shuffle, transforming it into something that sounds much more elegant, and has a sense of "movement" between bars.

Section 4: Simple Chords

In this section you'll learn about E-Form, A-Form, and some 7th chords. You'll learn how to locate different forms of each chord all over the fretboard, and have plenty of exercises to help you quickly switch between them.

Section 5: Simple Strumming Patterns

In Section 5 we'll use all the chords taught in Section 4, and learn some simple strumming patterns to mix them in with our blues shuffle.

Section 6: Complex Strumming Patterns

In this section we'll use the same chords, but we'll play them over more complicated strumming pattnerns, while mixing them in with a blues shuffle.

Section 7: Chord Embellishments

In Section 7 we'll learn some embellishments that allow us to play the chords in a "lead-like" way, blurring the lines between lead and rhythm.

Section 8: Sliding 6ths & 9ths

In this section we'll study the awsome "triangle" shapes, and the sliding 9ths heard in so many blues songs.

Section 9: Arpeggiating Chords

In Section 9 we'll learn how to play chords as a series of individual notes using different arpeggiation patterns.

Section 10: Turnarounds

Finally in Section 10 we'll learn a bunch of different turnarounds for ending 12-bar shuffle choruses in style.]

Section 11: Putting It All Together

Section 11 helps you to take all the techniques, chords, and patterns taught in this course and put them to work, using them interchangeably over a blues shuffle.