Slo Bones

Good exercise. I even like the progression with the Eflat 9(no5) to D7sharp 9. This will definitely help me with my modes practice and "pre-hearing" the fretboard as I move through the cords. Thank you for putting this together!

Will do. If I sound halfway decent I'll post myself playing it.

Really looking forward to this one! Looks like it will fit right into my current study focus.

Ahhh.. I see it now. It's a good book, but I wish he provided more of that explanation. I think it would have helped with my early development. Thank you!

I bought thus book many years ago.. it originally came with a cassette tape for the examples! I remember spending many hours practicing the songs before I had any knowledge of chords, scales, etc. I decided to get the book back out and go through some of the old songs. I figured I would have much better understanding of the music now than I did back then. And for the most part, this proved to be true. However, on this song, Gamblers Blues, although the turnaround run sounds great, I'm not sure why it works. I'm particularly not sure what scale he's playing over the A chord in bar 10... I think he's playing a blend of E Major and Minor pentatonic over the E in bar 11? I would rather understand how the music works rather than just memorize the runs. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

As I continue my journey of breaking out of pentatonic jail, I'm beginning to feel like almost any note works in my solo and lead lines as long as I focus on chord tones. I remember years ago being amazed by players from the past who became great guitarists without the benefit of instructional books or videos. How did they do it? I thought there is no way they intuitively figured out all this music theory. I remember wondering if they just learned chords and then played "noodling" around the chords of a song? Then years later (about 30 years ago) this amazing blues-man played at the bar I worked at as a bartender. While he was putting his guitar away, I was chatting with him and told him about how I was trying to learn guitar. He told me that his best advice is to "learn all the chords." He said to learn as many chord forms as I can up and down the fretboard. I assumed he meant this would help me just with my rhythm playing. I wanted to learn lead, so I took the advice with a grain of thought. Now I think I finally understand what he was trying to teach me. I think that by finding various chord forms, I can play all kinds of licks and melody lines, as long as they focus on the chord tones. Notes that are not native to the chord being played often work as passing notes or intentional dissonance as long as I make the chord tones the focus. And I think it usually works? It's taking a long time, but I think I'm slowly transforming my playing ability, style and technique. I hope you are all doing well... keep grinding!

Here's Larry jamming with some very talented musicians! https://youtu.be/T0JAkUsnsDs?si=JVlLSmBtUUPH-cRW

Larry tours through Europe fairly often. I'll post if I notice him coming to your area. Somewhere I have video of Jake and Josh from Greta Van Fleet jamming with him on stage... it was from when the brothers worked for me, before they made it big.

We've had some great performers at my restaurant over the years. Larry McCray has long been one of my favorites. Here's a song from one of his solo performances at my place. Feel free to fast forward past my rambling to get to the music.

Great line! Yeah, they were awesome together! There's a really good documentary on Howlin' Wolf, too. What a unique and fascinating artist. I like watching the old documentaries... Chicago was such a wild time back when the Chicago Blues was thriving.

I got a chance to see Hubert Sumllin play in Detroit before he passed. I love the Howlin Wolf stuff.

The sheer amount and quality of content is more than worth the cost of a membership. The community is a bonus. Your rule is more than fair.

I'm still practicing my Hendrix chord embelishments. This style seems to be slowly ingraining as a core element to my playing style. Lately I have also begun adding another one of my all time favorites to my repertoire... I have been picking up some Stevie Ray Vaughan licks and styling. Very cool. The approach of studying intervals is truly unlocking the fretboard for me. I used to only play either the open cowboy chord or the basic E and A shape barre chords. Now I'm having fun finding alternative locations and ways to play the chords. To practice I'll just play a one chord progression for like 5 minutes... forcing myself to play the chord woth the root on a different string for each bar. Then I switch to a different chord and do the same exercise. It is really exciting to see how quickly I am starting to pick it up. It is even having a drastic impact on my lead playing. I don't spend as much time thinking about scale patterns...I'm more conscious of what chord I'm playing over and what intervals I want to add to the music. I am also becoming more aware of seeing colors when I play. This is something I have experienced briefly in the past... but, it is becoming more and more common lately. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well. Let me know if any of you also experience music through color.

I'm not sure anyone put on a better live performance.

As I have previously posted, my focus his year has been on combining rhythm and lead with an emphasis on intervals. My intention is to break out of the pentatonic boxes... and it's WORKING! Progress is certainly very slow, but now when I pick up my giitar, instead of mindlessly noodling those same old boring minor blues riffs, I'm focused on playing and outlining chords. I'm keeping time instead of just mindlessly playing through stale phrases. My focus lately has been on Jimi Hendrix chord voicings and inflections. Currently working on Little Wing and Hey Joe. Just focusing on this style of play is changing my whole approach to guitar. I don't have a good singing voice, so I've never really spent a lot of time trying to sing while I play. I've never really been able to sing while playing without getting completely lost in the progression. But, last night something strange happened while I was jamming Hey Joe... I started singing along! I'm sure I sounded awful 😂.. and I certainly won't be posting any video samples... but, I had an absolute blast! Today I worked on singing while adding infections and little runs to the chords. I have HP and this community to thank for helping me find joy in playing again!

Cool performance. I enjoyed that. Any time there is a stand up bass, you have my attention.

Jeff, thanks for highlighting this one. Great song.. I look forward to checking it out.

I can certainly see all the potential in this website community and I look forward to watching it grow! And I just subscribed to your alternate YT channel.

I've been making decent progress practicing rhythm and lead together. But, I'm having a hard time getting creative... everything I play sounds the same. So, I decided to learn Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix. I'm not trying to play it verbatim. Which is probably OK since I didn't even Jimi played it the same every time. I was surprised to find how easy I'm picking it up. The technique is similar to what I've been practicing. Getting the sound has been my biggest challenge, but I'm getting closer! Any chance you already have a lesson on Little Wing? Ir at least playing in the style?

My 1st guitar was a right handed acoustic, which I steung upside down. Since then every guitar I bought has been a lefty. I have considered getting a right handed Stratacastor and plating it upside down. My only complaint with my lefty Strat us that the switch and knob gets in the way of my strumming hand.. maybe it would be better with the controls on top?

Well, lately I've been really focused on just grinding blues progressions playing rhythm and lead together. I'm just changing chords, scales and interval targets. As well as working on various techniques. My main focus is to change my muscle memory. When I pick up my guitar, there are a few noodling licks that just naturally come out. I'm focused on expanding my natural vocabulary. Focusing on intervals over scales has greatly helped! My progress has been slow but steady.

Exactly! Encouraging constructive feedback or just sharing our personal progress.

Perhaps a collaboration idea could be to have an area where someone could post a track that they create. Then other members can add to it. Not sure... just an area specifically for community collaboration? Just a thought. Looking forward to seeing the community grow.

I keep a large picture of him behind my desk and another hanging at my restaurant next to the stage... he's a good reminder to make every note mean something.

I was able to see BB perform at a theater in Detroit the year before he passed. He sat in his chair in the middle of the stage and told stories about the old days, life on the road, his experiences and lessons learned. I was mesmerized. People were actually booing him because he talked more than he played guitar. I just shook my head... man, some people just don't get it. A true legend.