Born in Auburn, Maine to a musical family, Lenny Breau began playing the guitar at age 8. His parents were both professional musicians who played together in their touring country band, "Lone Pine and Betty Cody". By age 14 he was the lead guitarist in their band where he first performed and recorded professionally. The family eventually moved to Winnipeg when Lenny was 16, where he branched out on his own and developed a keen interest in Jazz music. Throughout his career, Lenny worked in … [Read more...]
Finger Picking Pattern 2: Landslide by Fleetwood Mac
October 21, 2009 by 7 Comments
Our second finger picking lesson is another example of pattern picking. “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac uses a similar picking pattern to “Dust in the Wind”. However, the chord changes here require more movement. For your convenience, the chord shapes and fingerings are as follows: Click here if you’re not sure how to read the chord blocks. For the picking pattern, you will use your thumb (P), index … [Read more...]
Lesson 2: 12 Bar Variations – The Texas Shuffle
August 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment
There are many variations of the 12 Bar Blues. These variations are found in the chords and rhythm. The previous lesson showed a standard 12 Bar Blues with a shuffle feel. A variation on that is the “Texas Shuffle”. This uses the same chord progression with a shuffle feel but a few more notes added. The major difference with this blues is what we will be playing rhythmically. Once your left hand is comfortable with the riff, try strumming through it - Down Up, Down Up, Down Up, Down Up. Try … [Read more...]
Lesson 1: The Blues In A
August 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment
The guitar is a highly expressive and powerful instrument. It’s capability of endless tones is astounding. No matter what style of music you choose to play it’s all found within the 12 notes on the guitar. The fundamental elements such as scales, chords and especially rhythms are really what define a style. However, through my hours of practicing the most important aspect has been feel. Without emotion the guitar is simply chords and scales. A few simple notes played a certain way can be very … [Read more...]
A Promenade With Your Muse
April 25, 2009 by 8 Comments
Have you ever had a dry spell? You know, where you can't get motivated or inspired to play your instrument? If you're like me, you might even put a few of your guitars out on stands and leave them where you will always see them hoping that the sight of them will encourage you to play. When you pick up your guitar and start playing, you feel as if you've played these chords a million times and there is no creative spark to continue. It's like driving on a road you have traveled many times and … [Read more...]
Technique: Proper Thumb Positioning
April 11, 2009 by 2 Comments
A question that always comes up is where should my thumb be? Over the neck or behind it? The answer depends on what you are playing. If you are playing scales, there is a great benefit to having your thumb behind the neck as it allows you a much greater stretch. Conversely, having the thumb over the neck is the only way to play some chords and a great help when bending strings. Have a look at the following 3 pictures for an example of where your thumb should be when playing … [Read more...]
Improvisation Blues in A (Swing Feel)
April 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
This is standard blues progression with a jazzy feel to it that is great to solo over. Work with the A Minor Pentatonic scale over this progression. Try to play it in all 5 positions mentioned in the A Minor Pentatonic lesson. The chords for this progression can be found in the page of all the chords used at this site. For the Bb13, play the A13 chord block shown on that page but play it on the 6th fret. For the E9, play the D9 chord block shown on that … [Read more...]
Scales: The D Major Scale Harmonized 3rd and 5th degrees
April 10, 2009 by 2 Comments
This lesson is almost identical to the A Major Scale Harmonized 3rd and 5th degree. I have added it in order to show how once one pattern is learned, it can often be used on a different set of strings. These are highly recognizable sounds often heard in rock and country playing but used also in all forms of music. The block below consists of chords moving up the fretboard. The first chord has a red line through it to highlight its pattern. The second is in … [Read more...]
Scales: The A Major Scale Harmonized 3rd and 5th degrees
April 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
These are highly recognizable sounds often heard in rock and country playing but used also in all forms of music. The block below consists of chords moving up the fretboard. The first chord has a red line through it to highlight its pattern. The second is in blue, the third in red and so on. These are the chords that are the result of harmonizing the A Major scale 3rd and 5th notes. The theory behind scale harmonization is covered in theory lesson 7. If you … [Read more...]
Scales: The G Major Scale Harmonized
April 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment
The block below consists of chords moving up the fretboard. The first chord has a blue line through it to highlight its pattern. The second is in red, the third in blue and so on. These are the chords that are the result of harmonizing the G Major scale. The theory behind this is covered in theory lesson 7. The chords names are as follows. GMaj7 Am7 Bm7 CMaj7 D7 Em7 F#min7b5 GMaj7 ( Please not that the F#min7b5 chord is also known as the F# half … [Read more...]
