Essential Techniques For Blues Guitar

Six Courses To Elevate Your Technique From The Ground Up

Essential Techniques For Blues Guitar
If tone is in the hands, then technique is what puts it there.
The Essential Techniques courses are a deep dive into the "thumb-over" technique used by nearly every famous blues and blues rock guitarist.
This style of handling the guitar is as old as the blues itself. It is not "correct" or "proper" guitar technique - at least not by academic standards - but it is nearly ubiquitous in blues and blues rock.

Essential Techniques is the deepest, most detailed collection of courses on this subject that you'll find anywhere. These are not easy, fun courses. They are physically demanding and require incredible attention to detail. But if you're serious about sounding like SRV, Hendrix, or any other number of famous blues or rock guitarists, an investment in your technique pays huge dividends.

The Grip

The Grip

The Grip Of Legends

If you want to master the sound of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan (or countless other legends), you’ll need to re-learn how to hold the guitar. Traditional methods teach a thumb-behind approach. There’s nothing wrong with this approach….unless you want to do it like most blues and rock legends did.

  • Learn the advantages of using The Grip for bending and chord embellishments.
  • Learn the mechanics of using The Grip and the role of each finger.
  • Learn why an E-Form chord is the ultimate test of The Grip.
  • Learn how G-Form chords come alive with The Grip
  • Exercises to help you master The Grip
  • E-Flat Tuning
  • 2 Hours
Muting

Muting

Control The Strings, Control Your Tone

Errant string noise makes you sound sloppy. But when you’re using The Grip, muting becomes an art form. The Grip was all about letting strings ring clearly. Muting is all about keeping them silent. Muting is a crucial skill that separates great and mediocre players. It must become second nature, or you’ll fight ringing strings for the rest of your playing days.

  • Learn the mechanics of muting while using The Grip, and the role of each finger.
  • Learn how your two hands coordinate muting responsibilities.
  • Learn how to troubleshoot your muting technique.
  • Exercises to help you improve your muting techqnique.
  • E-Flat Tuning
  • 1 Hour
Raking

Raking

The Weight Behind Great Tone

If you learn the notes to a Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan solo, but your sound is still thin and weak, it’s probably because you’re not playing enough strings. Notice I didn’t say enough notes. There’s a big difference. That difference is caused by a technique called raking.

Raking is when you play multiple strings but allow only a few notes to ring out. The clicks of the muted strings accompany the notes that ring out, producing a fatter, more muscular sound that cannot be achieved any other way.

  • Learn how raking builds on The Grip and Muting techniques.
  • Raking exercises based on SRV's Cold Shot strumming.
  • Raking exercises based on SRV's Pride And Joy strumming.
  • Raking exercises based on playing in the Box 1 shape.
  • Reverse raking exercises based on SRV's Lenny
  • E-Flat Tuning
  • 1h10m
Bending

Bending

The Heart of Blues Guitar

Bending is much more than pushing against a string. Bending is a communication tool; your guitar will talk if you do it right. If you do it wrong, your guitar will whimper. And nobody wants to hear that.

In this course, you’ll learn the mechanics of bending and the ingredients of excellent bending technique. The exercises will force you to listen to your own playing more closely, helping you to become a better communicator every time you bend a note.

  • The 9 Ingredients of Bending Notes
  • Learn which notes in each blues box should be used for bending.
  • Examples of Bending from Hendrix and SRV
  • Answers to common bending questions.
  • Learning to debug what's wrong with your bends.
  • E-Flat Tuning
  • 90 minutes
Vibrato

Vibrato

Making Your Guitar Sing

Vibrato is an essential part of playing the blues soulfully. It has the power to make your guitar speak, but it also has the power to distract. Underdeveloped vibrato can ruin what you’re trying to communicate with a song.

But how do you do vibrato? Shouldn’t it be natural? Nope. Good vibrato technique does not come naturally. Your muscles must learn to move in ways they’re not used to. Vibrato is a 100-minute course that teaches you how to develop muscle memory for several vibrato techniques.

  • Learn how vibrato enhances the sound of your playing.
  • Learn the 4 elements of vibrato.
  • Learn the difference between 5 different styles of vibrato.
  • Guidelines for incorporating vibrato into your playing.
  • Learn to hear "bad" vibrato.
  • Exercises to help you develop your vibrato technique.
  • E-Flat Tuning
  • 1h 40m
Picking

Picking

Set Your Playing Free

Picking isn’t exciting. It’s not very noticeable, and you don’t even have to study it to become a good player. Someday, however, you will try to learn something that will remain out of reach unless you improve your picking technique.

How do I know? Because it happened to me. After a decade of playing, I finally ran into a wall that forced me to work on my picking technique. Picking is a 90-minute lesson that shows you what I had to learn to get past that wall. Don’t worry; I’m not trying to turn you into a shredder or finger-picking expert. This lesson is very down-to-earth, practical, and easily applied.

  • Learn the differences between several picking styles.
  • Learn the important ingredients of picking technique.
  • Learn the big 4 factors that limit your picking technique.
  • Exercises to help develop your picking technique.
  • E-Flat Tuning
  • 90 minutes

Customer Testimonials

Prefer To Own It?

Buy the course once, and download all the materials to keep (or watch online with a basic player). No recurring payments.

The Grip

Includes videos, and exercises.

$39.97
Muting

Includes videos and materials.

$39.97
Raking

Includes videos, and exercises.

$39.97
Bending

Includes videos and materials.

$39.97
Vibrato

Includes videos, and examples.

$39.97
Picking

Includes videos and materials.

$39.97
Essential Techniques Bundle

Includes videos and materials for all six Essential Techniques courses.

$239.94
$203.95
You save 15%.