Claude here and I’m a FANATIC about the guitar. It’s been my mission ever since I was 17 and heard the Hendrix Woodstock tape.
As musicians, we keep climbing the mountain and getting better and better if we stick with it. And my job is to humbly share some secrets that I’ve learned to help you on your own musical journey.
Let me just cut right to the chase and tell you about my latest course, it's called "Art of the Blues Riff Volume II". Now, you're probably wondering what this is about (and what was in volume I to begin with?)
Let me first say in no uncertain terms that, sure, the blues is ALL about soul and feeling, and I had spent MANY years perfecting that approach... trying my best to play sweet and soulful licks in my own style, but of course inspired by my heroes like B.B, Albert, and Freddie King, Clapton, SRV, and so on.
But at some point, it felt like I had already milked that approach and taken it as far as I could for the time being.
The stuff in “Art of the Blues Riff, Vol I” was a personal revelation. I started using more of an arpeggio-based approach in my playing, and began to think more like a jazz musician in terms of actually “playing through the changes”.
Eventually you realize that playing from the heart is not mutually exclusive with really knowing what you’re doing as a musician. In fact, it can be complimentary in a really powerful way!
So on that note, volume II represents a whole new level of understanding and really emphasizes using chords rather than arpeggios… but in a way that you might not expect.
Instead of building complex chords (like, say, G13sus9), I go the other direction and start looking at the simplest possible harmonic combinations that are hiding inside the chords you already are playing.
This might sound academic or even tedious, but the truth is, each one of these combinations has its own unique sound, and each of them can be used to play some expressive and unique blues guitar in your own style.
Understanding this approach instantly gives you a whole new palette of possibilities and gives you something you can use right away to create your own riffs.
The more I study guitar, the more I realized that there’s already great sounding riffs that are sort of “built in” to the musical framework.
You see, most beginner musicians learn things like “chords” and “scales” and then assume you’re on your own as far as coming up with riffs, songs, and music. But when you start dissecting things a bit more (as you’ll discover in “Art of the Blues Riff II“), you’ll see that there’s a lot of cool sounds that are just based on basic combinations.
It's sort of the middle ground between just playing a basic chord or progression and writing a song from scratch. When I first started out, I tried so hard to be unique and "creative". Now, this might sound weird or crazy, but I've come full circle and I believe you actually DON'T need to try that hard to be "creative".
Just use the great sounds that are already available. Your own inspiration, and your unique tastes are going to come out naturally anyway in how you interpret things.
As in VOL I, we're also going to be looking at playing through the complete I IV V blues progression. I can't stress enough how powerful this is.
It’s awesome because you’ll be playing through the entire 12 bar blues progression like a boss. That means you’ll actually be playing real music WHILE you’re working on your skills, as opposed to just doing exercises in a vacuum. It makes a huge difference.
It’s actually pretty amazing how deep you can go JUST on the dominant chord, but I don’t stop there in this course… We look at the entire mixolydian scale, which gives us a broader set of “colors and flavors” to work with. You may have heard of the mixolydian as a so-called “mode” but I think that’s confusing. I just treat it as a scale, and there’s a really important reason why we use it instead of the major scale when it comes to blues.
If you’re new to the concept of “harmonizing the scale”, you’ll love the new sounds you’re going to create. And if you know what I’m talking about, here’s a pro tip: You can capture the “80/20” just by focusing on the 3rd intervals within the scale. That really lays things out nicely and there’s a ton of meat there.
What’s more, the 6th intervals end up being just inversions of the 3rd, but in the course I’ll show you how to bring it down to earth. Instead of getting lost in “this is an inversion of that” and so on, we’ll focus on the actual SOUNDS these intervals make and how to make practical use of them within the context of writing and playing blues riffs.
✔ Dramatically improve both your rhythm and lead guitar playing.
✔ Generate an endless array of musical ideas.
✔ Deepen your understanding of the entire fretboard.
✔ Take your musicianship and confidence to new levels.
✔ Feel “in command” during any blues jam or song.
✔ Have more fun playing.
✔ Break out of that rut and transform your sound in record time.
✔ Get a simple system to master blues riffs.
✔ Never get lost on the fretboard again.
✔ Discover new harmonic possibilities and note choices.
Time is our most precious asset, so I'm not going to waste either of our time writing a long-winded conclusion here. Bottom line -- these blues lessons rock. I'm really proud of them. I stand behind them. I guarantee them with our no hassle refund policy.
You’re getting over 2 hours of step-by-step instructions with tabs and my complete “blues riffing system”. I think you’re gonna enjoy it immensely.
Just click on the package of your choice, fill out your details and that’s it… you’ll be onto the next chapter of your guitar journey and I can’t wait to hear how you’re doing with it.
Keep on playin,