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Michael Johnson >> Contemporary Blues Guitarists >>


Teacher: Hello class! We have a ton of guitar licks to cover in our second part on the style of Gary Moore. Gary Moore is a great blues player, but what makes him stand out is his ability to incorporate rock and even shredding type guitar licks. In this lesson we'll cover standard blues and some of the related shred licks. Check out the lesson sample of what you will learn:

Lesson Sample - Lowband - 824k

Lesson Sample - Highband - 2.7 Meg

Teacher: In the lesson sample I start in the key of C# and then later modulating to D. Let's get started. Here's the C# Minor Blues scale you will use:

Part 1 - C# Minor Blues


Ronnie: i definitely like the sound of the sample, there's some awesome sounding licks

Teacher: Notice you have the standard blues notes: 1, b3 4, b5, 5 & b7 notes. Load this jam track and practice the scale pattern a few times and then we will start on the licks

Looping Jam Track 1 - Lowband

Teacher: OK, let's start with the first C# min blues lick.

Part 1 - Lick 1


Part 1 - Lick 1

Teacher: This is a very interesting blues lick, you start with a standard lick but have the descending run starting in the 2nd bar that uses that b5. Here's the C# minor blues pattern descending so you can see how the lick works with the scale. I highlighted the notes used:

Part 1 - C# Minor Blues - Pattern 2


Teacher: Let's go to the next lick, for this next lick you will use an Eddie Van Halen tapping technique, use you index finger to tap the note.

Part 1 - Lick 2


Part 1 - Lick 2

Teacher: The highlighted note(s) is the one you will use finger-tapping, the video will help illustrate the technique better. Make sure you hammer from the 1st to 3rd finger, this allows you to build up speed when playing the lick. See how Gary uses standard blues and shred licks together? For our next lick you will play a standard Chuck Berry type lick.

Part 1 - Lick 3


Part 1 - Lick 3

Teacher: This lick has some double stop notes. Later you hammer the 3rd string-10th fret while holding down the 1st & 2nd strings. For our next lick we will jump to various positions of the other boxes of the C# Minor Pentatonic scale.

Part 1 - Lick 4


Part 1 - Lick 4

Teacher: Now this lick starts in Box 2 of the C# Minor Pentatonic and then moves to the C# "Major" Pentatonic, here's the scale patterns:

Part 1 - C # Minor Blues - Major Pentatonic


Teacher: Do you see how Box 1 & 2 connect? Then the Major Pentatonic connects in the higher position. I highlighted the note for the Major Pentatonic. Let's go to the next set of licks that are played in the jam track. This first lick uses various intervals that are used by Hendrix, Trower and other players

Part 2 - Lick 1


Part 2 - Lick 1

Teacher: Using these intervals are very effective in building the dynamics of a solo. You can slide into each set of notes as well. Now you can jump back into a shredding type run to break up the blues licks.

Part 2 - Lick 2


Part 2 - Lick 2

Teacher: This pattern is actually a G# Dorian, it sounds very cool for shred licks.

G# Dorian


Teacher: Here's the scale pattern. Now you can jump back into the original C# Minor Blues pattern with a common blues lick.

Part 2 - Lick 3


Part 2 - Lick 3

Teacher: This lick uses a combination of licks that you learned earlier in this lesson. In the lesson sample we modulate up one half-step to D. Here's the D Minor Blues scale you will use in the next few licks.

Part 3 - D Minor Blues


Teacher: The jam track also moves up one half-step to D, here's the new track.

Looping Jam Track 2 - Lowband

Teacher: Practice the scale pattern over the jam track a few times to get use to it. The next lick will start by using another standard blues licks, but this time in D.

Part 3 - Lick 1


Part 3 - Lick 1

Teacher: Notice the double stop notes towards the end which have a Chuck Berry type sound. Now you can also break out of the common blues pattern and jump into the "Major Pentatonic." Using this combination of scales is often used by blues and rock players. Here's the lick.

Part 3 - Lick 2


Part 3 - Lick 2

Teacher: You might notice the descending chromatic run starting in the 2nd bar. After that you jump back into the D Minor Blues. Here's the D Major Pentatonic scale pattern for reference.

Part 3 - D Major Pentatonic


Rokfish: This is a big step up from last week

Teacher: Oh yes, more rock stuff Rokfish. Our final lick jumps back into a typical blues lick in the D Minor blues pattern.

Part 3 - Lick 3


Part 3 - Lick 3

Teacher: The 2nd barre has a cool whole-step bend which bends to D and plays the unison note (D) on the 1st string. All in all there is a lot of very cool licks to work with. Well practice hard and I'll see you next week!

timo: thanks

tip: great stuff!!!

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