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5 Robert Johnson Style Blues Turnarounds

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5 robert johnson style blues turnarounds 4Robert Johnson died at the age of 27 and today known as the Master of the Delta Blues (one of the earliest styles of blues music). His music has been a great influence on guitar players like Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and many others. In other words, Johnson’s music is the real deal!

His blues chops and turnarounds are a really nice asset to your blues vocabulary. Memorize these 5 Robert Johnson style blues turnarounds so you can take them out of your back pocket and put them into use whenever you need to play a 12 bar blues.

Practice them, get ‘m under your fingers and experiment with different turnarounds at the end of each 12 bar blues section.

Enjoy the lesson!Continue Reading

Combining Minor and Major Pentatonic Scales

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Combining minor and major pentatonic scalesThe minor pentatonic is the most important scale in blues and rock music. It’s an awesome scale and sounds great, no doubt about it. There are a million ways to express your emotions through the minor pentatonic and use it for your soloing.

However it always has that same dark classic minor pentatonic sound. It doesn’t take you anywhere else. Combining the minor pentatonic and the major pentatonic will take you to different places.

Suddenly you have the ability to produce the same kind of sounds and licks you hear in the solos of Eric Clapton, B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Combining the notes will give you a wide selection of flavors to choose from and to play around with. You will keep attracting the listeners attention with all these extra lovely notes that will make your soloing a lot more interesting.

So how do you approach this? Let’s take a closer look. Continue Reading

Acoustic Fingerstyle Blues Guitar Arrangement

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Today I’ll show you a nice acoustic fingerstyle blues arrangement. It’s got that delta blues, Robert Johnson kind of feel to it.

I’ll explain it slowly and step by step so it’s easy to understand for guitar players of all levels.

Try to memorize the piece while practicing it so you have something to play on the beach, on your front porch and to perform for friends and family.

A really nice sounding blues arrangement right in your back pocket whenever you need it.

Below I’ve written out the tabs.
You can also download the tabs / tablature right here: TABS Guitarhabits’ Fingerstyle Blues

Take your time and take it slow. The piece has 12 bars / measures. If you find it a bit challenging just practice one or two measures a day and you will get there.

Have fun!

Although it’s a free lesson, please consider a modest donation to support guitarhabits. It’s greatly appreciated.

Enjoy the lesson!

 

Cooler Pentatonics and Licks Adding The Major Third

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The pentatonic scale is an awesome scale. It’s a fairly easy scale and it can be used for almost every style of music: blues, country, pop, rock and more.

That’s why most guitar players use it most of the time. Great nothing wrong with that.

But wouldn’t it be nice if you could add a few notes to the minor pentatonic scale to give it more flavor and spice up your playing?

Well today we’re going to add the major third to the minor pentatonic scale. The major third will bring some happy, fresh and lively color to the table. Adding extra notes to the pentatonic scale is a common thing in soloing and will make your playing a lot more fun and interesting to listen to.

I’ll show you how to play the 5 pentatonic scales shapes / positions adding the major third and 5 licks to spice up your playing.

THEORY
The major third is a musical interval and is the distance between the root and the third note of the major scale. It also consists of four semitones (4 frets).

For example: Continue Reading