Back in the early 40's, blues and jazz were pretty much synonymous. The big bands were exciting audiences with their new stomping jump blues performances, which Billboard recommended for "hepsters who go for swing and boogie, and beats in a loud, hot unrelenting style." Jump Blues combined the popular boogie-woogie rhythms of the day with gritty swing solos and "playful lyrics laced with jive talk." More than seven decades later, Jump Blues still pulls listeners out of their seats and onto the dance floor with its boogie-woogie grooves and heavy, insistent beats.

Video Introduction

Click below for a sample video from the course

About the Guitar Lesson Plan

Interactive Video Guitar Instruction

Matt Brandt's 50 Jump Blues Licks You MUST Know covers the stylings of all of the major jump blues guitar players, from originators like Charlie Christian, T-Bone Walker, Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Freddie King to modern players like Duke Robillard, Ronnie Earl, Hollywood Fats, Rick Holmstrom and Brian Setzer. Even more poppy or rocky oriented bands and players like The Black Keys and Joe Bonamassa use jump blues elements in their guitar solos and backup parts.

Throughout these 50 Jump Blues licks, Matt Brandt helps players develop two simple tools that every blues guitar player should have solid command of and which he refers to as the Standard Riff and Inner Logic. Matt will teach you how to identify the target tones of any underlying chord progression to enhance the harmonic structure of your solos. Spice your blues licks up with these tools and you'll open up the fretboard to the even more uptown sounds that emerged in the Big Bands of the late forties and early fifties. And because Rockabilly, Rock and Roll, Swing, Jump Blues and Jazz are all dialects of the same musical language, you can use this collection of licks across all of those styles.

50 Jump Blues Licks You MUST Know is the cream of the crop of the library of jump blues solos Matt Brandt has collected over a period of 25 years; analyzing albums, bootlegging concerts and studying with some of the giants of Jump Blues. Be sure to play them with a smile.

About Your Instructor

Matthieu Brandt

Matthieu Brandt is a guitarist, songwriter, recording artist, Appalachian style banjo player and bandleader based in Haarlem, The Netherlands, where he has a highly successful teaching practice emphasizing songwriting. He has studied and played with some of the great guitar players walking this planet, has organized master classes and has been teaching guitar for over 25 years.

He started out as a fingerstyle blues guitar player and later moved on to playing in a string of electric blues bands covering all the important blues styles under the sun. From jump to rock blues, from Mississippi to Chicago and back to Texas; Matt has played it all. He's ventured into jazz playing with his own quartet and even did a stint in a big band, playing Freddie Green style backup. Currently, Matthieu sees himself as a singer songwriter, is recording his fourth solo album with all original material, and has taken to playing the open back 5-string banjo.

As a long-time TrueFire Educator, Matthieu is now running a TrueFire satellite studio in Amsterdam to help facilitate productions with European artists and educators.