In his song “Life Without You” SRV would seamlessly switch between rhythm & lead while playing over the vi chord. In this lesson I’ll show you how the Box 5 shape occupies the same part of the fretboard as the vi chord, and how easy it is to switch between the two shapes to mix lead & rhythm together.

Occasionally someone will ask me whether they should push or pull their bends on the G-string because they saw SRV doing pull bends. In this video I’ll explain how a pull bend works, why it might sound different, and why it might be worth practicing to save some wear on your fingertips.

This is an excerpt from our “Texan Floods - Intermediate” soloing course which teaches you a SRV style Texas Flood solo, but at a more approachable difficulty level. In this lesson you’ll learn the lick played at Bar 9 as we jump to the V chord. It’s based on a more complicated lick that SRV played at this same spot in the progression, but with some of the faster parts stripped out to make it easier for intermediate players to tackle.

One of my favorite things about Jimi Hendrix’s blues playing was how he played things that nobody else played. This lesson is an excerpt from my “Jimi’s Influence: Red House Blues” course and you’ll learn a lick that fits over the transition into Bar 9 in Red House. It highlights the chord transition in a way only Jimi could.

In this lesson I’ll teach you three different ways to visualize the I, IV and V chords for playing a simple blues shuffle. Not every configuration will work equally well in every key, but knowing these three configurations will give you options in any key.

This is a quick lesson showing you two distinct ways to play lead over a swing blues beat, and how to use a series of pull-offs (I’m calling them “rolling pull-offs”) to add a tiny bit of speed to the easier mode of soloing.

This is an awesome Buddy Guy lick that I heard in a live performance of Sweet Home Chicago. I’ll teach you how to play it in this lesson.

Vintage Blues in 4K

Original Video

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In this lesson I’ll share with you what I consider the foundation to being able to mix blues rhythm & lead, and it has very little to do with actually playing lead. It has everything to do with how well you can play the rhythm without having to think about it.

This lesson is a sample from my new Eric Clapton slow blues soloing course. You’ll learn two licks to play over the V/IV transition during Bars 9-10 of a 12-bar blues progression. Difficulty is Intermediate.

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If you’re like me, you spend most of your practice time on licks and soloing. But none of that work will help you when it comes to playing a slow, deliberate, arpeggiated rhythm. Such is the case in the song featured in this lesson: “Cry” by Doyle Bramhall II, from the album Welcome.

The chords in this rhythm are mostly simply, but there’s almost nowhere to give your forearms and wrist a break. It…. just…. keeps…. going…. and going. I use this chord progression as a measure of my endurance and chording precision whenever I start to feel like I’m on top of my game. It usually leaves me humbled.