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jason.windish
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Joined: 04/10/22
Posts: 3
jason.windish
Full Access
Joined: 04/10/22
Posts: 3
12/08/2023 6:40 pm
#3 Originally Posted by: ChristopherSchlegel

Hey & welcome.


Thanks for the your list of skills.  The more detailed you can be about your goals, the more precisely we can help you find lessons that will help you achieve them.


For example, you mention learning a blues or rock solo.  I can recommend a few songs.  But it sounds like maybe you want to improve your lead playing in general.  What's really going to help here is for you to understand the process of improvisation and then build a repertoire of licks that you can play anytime you need them, and adapt them to the specific song, key or situation you are working on.


With all that in mind, here's a list of thing to check out.


These two songs are filled with classic blues licks & riffs.  Great stuff for intermediate players to learn from & material that is used in a hundred other blues songs & you can reuse for as long as you play guitar.


T-Bone Shuffle
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial/2092/


Bright Lights, Big City
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial/1763/


Learning the conceptual process of improvisation can also be helpful.  These lessons start very simple, then get more advanced.  But the point is that you learn how improvising is 3 step process:  identify key signature, target chord tones, build melodies.  If the first few tutorials are too easy, then just watch through them & quickly move forward to the material that interests you & targets your skill level.


https://www.guitartricks.com/collection/learning-to-improvise


Ultimately the reason you learn songs & how to improvise is to have a repertoire of licks, a library of things to play in the moment.  It's like learning a language in order to have a real time conversation.  This list of tutorials is aimed at building a repertoire of licks.  Again, it starts simply, but that has the advantage of being able to jump right in playing along with the practice backing tracks.  But if any of the early tutorials are too simple, then jump ahead to the material that matches your skill level & is something that you can learn from in order to improve your playing.  In particular make sure to look at the second half of the list which are how to play a complete arrangement of a blues song with a variety of rhythm comping & lead fills.


https://www.guitartricks.com/collection/Bread-and-Butter-Butter-Blues-Licks


Hope that helps.  If you have more questions, please ask.  Best of success!


 

thank you so much chris. i am a fan of your lessons and i will definitely follow your suggestions you just gave me. i guess i'm just having a hard time coming up with my own practice routine is the biggest problem, because i find my self just playing the same few songs i know, or just jamming with backing tracks doing the same few licks or meandering scales, without really progressing in the past few months, even though i play every day.