If you want to learn to play blues lead guitar, you need to to back to the source. To understand Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamossa and Eric Clapton, start with the “3 Kings”: B.B, Freddie, and Albert. Albert King’s fat, singing tone on his Gibson Flying V is one of the definitive models for the […]
Picker’s Delight: Sugarfoot Rag
Sugarfoot Rag was first recorded as an instrumental by guitarist Hank Garland, and scoring him a hit at the age of 18. He went on to be one of the top session guitarists in Nashville, working most notably with Elvis Presley (that’s him on “Little Sister”) along with a who’s who of the top country […]
SOTW: Sunshine Of Your Love
Cream’s “Sunshine Of Your Love” has one of the most familiar and distinctive guitar riffs in classic rock, played by a young Eric Clapton. The song is a great place to start exploring the 60’s blues-rock style. The song follows a modified 12-bar blues form. A standard blues structure might go something like this: 1 […]
Lead Guitar 101: Phrasing and line
Say you’ve been practicing your scales diligently. You know your formations up the neck and can play a major scale in any key in any position. Maybe you’ve moved on to modes, and maybe you’ve even fully absorbed those too. Or maybe you’ve never played a lick of lead guitar in your life. Either way, […]