50 Low-Down Rhythm Licks

50 Low-Down Rhythm Licks: #3 Soul Man

This guitar lesson is a preview of what’s to come in Adam Levy‘s 50 Low-Down Rhythm Licks. Stay tuned for more to come and an announcement of the full course soon. Be sure to subscribe to stay tuned!

Rolling Stone magazine rated Steve Cropper as #36 on their list of 100 Greatest Guitarists. For my own personal list of all-time guitar greats, I’d rate Cropper as #2 or #3. The first time I heard him was probably on Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay” or Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man” (later covered by the Blues Brothers, with Cropper reprising his role). His Telecaster tones on these classic 1960s soul records were always a little gritty and very much to the point—with no effects other than the occasional thrum of amp tremolo. Everything Cropper plays grooves from the first note to the last, and he never ever gets in the way of the singer.

The rhythm lick in this lesson comes from the verse sections of Sam & Dave’s 1967 hit, “Soul Man.” It’s essentially a one-chord vamp on G major. Instead of playing a full six-note barre chord, Cropper played a stream-lined four-note version, ducking the guitar out of the way of the song’s busy bass line. He answers each short vocal line with a higher G shape (comprising only three notes this time), then uses an A minor triad as a quick passing chord on his way back to the original G shape. Ingenious, and hooky as heck.

Video Guitar Lesson

A longtime friend of the ‘Fire, Adam Levy has been unlocking the guitar for students of all levels and varied interests for decades. His teaching experience comprises several years with the National Guitar Workshop, the Blue Bear School in San Francisco, and private lessons for New School in New York City. He is also a talented artist and songwriter, having worked with Norah Jones, Amos Lee, and Tracy Chapman. Be sure to check out Adam’s official website, his insightful blog, and his latest album, The Heart Collector.

Tagged: 50 low-down, adam levy, guitar lesson, licks, rhythm licks, soul man

50 Jazz Blues Licks

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December 14th 2011

50 Jazz Blues Licks: #25 Grant Green

50 Jazz Blues Licks is an exclusive series of video guitar lessons by David Hamburger covering the jazz blues styles of historically great guitarists like Geoge Benson, Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass, and many others. A new lick will be released each week, so be sure to subscribe and check back often!

Grant Green’s arrival on the New York scene in 1959-1960 is in many ways the classic overnight success story – one in which the succeeder in question actually spent years under the radar honing his or her chops before getting exposed to a broader scene. Green was a working musician in St. Louis, playing gigs and doing his thing, when altoist Lou Donaldson (Jazz Blues Licks #4, #5) heard the guitarist on a swing through town. Donaldson, then recording for Blue Note records, brought Green to the attention of label partner/co-founder/producer Alfred Lion, and Green was soon in New York recording on a Donaldson session. Lion swiftly arranged for a date with Green as a leader, seen by many as an indication of how taken Lion was with Green – the more general policy at the label was to give a new musician a much longer trial period doing sessions with others in the stable before getting a session of one’s own. And interestingly, Lion may have felt he’d been overly hasty,, as Green’s initial date, with no less a rhythm section than Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones, was shelved (though released four decades later as First Session). The guitarist’s followup organ-trio date, with Baby Face Willette and Ben Dixon, however, evidently passed muster, as it was released in 1961, launching one of the most successful jazz guitar careers of the 1960s.

Video Guitar Lesson

If you like these guitar lessons, be sure to also check out Frank Vignola’s Jazz Up Your Blues, which showcases essential jazz blues vocabulary and techniques, Mark Stefani’s Jazzed Blues Assembly Lines, which takes you on a sonic learning tour through the funky rhythm and blues stylings and fretboard concepts of top jazz blues players, and of course all of David Hamburger’s courses.

Tagged: guitar lesson, jazz blues, licks

Modern Blues Licks

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November 9th 2011

Modern Blues Licks: #2 Joe Bonamassa

Modern Blues Licks is a preview video lesson series for Corey Congilio‘s upcoming course, 50 Modern Blues Licks You MUST Know. Check in every week for a new modern blues lick video lesson, and be on the lookout for the full course with tab, jam tracks and more in the near future. Also check out Corey’s latest course, 50 Texas Blues Licks You MUST Know — it’s killer! Subscribe for updates!

Joe Bonamassa has been carrying the blues torch since his mid teens. I first heard him in a band called Bloodline. Since then, he’s been one of the first mentioned when the conversation about modern blues players arrises. Bonamassa continues to put out albums that stretch sonic boundries as well as pay homage to the masters. On the album Black Rock, he covers the classic tune Look Over Yonders Wall. He plays it in the key of D and this is a lick that is signature Joe B.

Read on for the full guitar lesson…

Tagged: blues, Joe Bonamassa, licks, modern blues, modern blues licks

50 Jazz Blues Licks

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November 8th 2011

50 Jazz Blues Licks: #22 Oscar Peterson

Now, listen up, kids. Blowing people’s minds onstage is nice and all, but don’t make the mistake, like so many of us do, of aiming low. Before his death in 2007, sure, Oscar Peterson earned a worldwide reputation as a piano virtuoso, routine comparisons to Art Tatum, and emphatic, four-letter praise from Ray Charles. He played with Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Stephane Grappelli, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and oh, um, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. Yeah. And he learned to play by getting the Bach Preludes and Fugues and Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto under his fingers (and, presumably, keeping them there until they were as burnin’ as his jazz chops became). And that’s all good, and worth aspiring to, as is making over 200 records in your lifetime and touring the world. Yes, yes. But if you’re looking for some New Year’s Goals (and it’s already November), here are a few to add to the list, after “learning the modes” and “practicing more:” 1. Become Chancellor of a University (Peterson, York University in Toronto, 1991-94) 2. Be considered for the position of Lieutenant Governor (Peterson was offered the gig by incoming Ontario governor Jean Chretien in 1993, but turned it down) or, perhaps best of all, 3. Get a dormitory named after you (“Oscar Peterson Hall” on the University of Toronto Missassauga campus, 2008.)

Read on for the full guitar lesson…

Tagged: 50 jazz blues, 50 jazz blues licks, Guitar Lessons, jazz blues, licks

50 Jazz Blues Licks

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September 7th 2011

50 Jazz Blues Licks: #13 Blue Mitchell

We’ve already seen a few examples of Blue Mitchell on a swing groove; now we’ll check out his playing over a straight-eighths feel. The lick here is inspired by Mitchell’s work on an out-of-print 1968 LP by pianist Harold Mabern, Rakin’ and Scrapin’. Mabern, who is still very much alive, working and recording, made his biggest splash in the 1960s, working with everyone from Sonny Rollins and Freddie Hubbard to Miles Davis and Wes Montgomery, but he has continued working away ever since, still inspired by his two heroes, Ahmad Jamal and fellow Memphian Phineas Newborn, Jr. Interestingly, Mabern describes himself as “ a blues pianist that understands the philosophy of jazz,” and takes particular pride in his capacities as an accompanist and his deep knowledge of tunes and composers in the jazz idiom. “Rakin’ and Scrapin’” is vintage hard bop through and through, relaxed but driving, with an incessant accompaniment pushing the straight-eighth feel forward, and the Mitchell-inspired lick here laces its way through the V and IV to resolve with a stuttering blues lick over the I.