Most of us tend to just solo on the fly, but what if you had a blueprint, something to help you organize your improvising? In this series of video guitar lessons, David Hamburger shows you how to construct ear-bending blues solos by working with the underlying structure of any blues progression or vamp.

Video Introduction

Click below for a sample video from the course

About the Guitar Lesson Plan

Interactive Video Guitar Instruction

You will learn how to play compelling guitar solos using major and minor pentatonic scales, Mixolydian scales, chromatic passing notes and altered tones, you’ll learn how to develop tasty, soulful solos packed with tension and release that gradually build over two or three choruses to a compelling climax.

Instead of playing the same old licks, you’ll discover how to use root targeting, call-and-response phrasing, hybrid grip picking, double stops, triads and chord hits to create dynamic, exciting solos over everything from a Texas shuffle or a blues-rock groove to a New Orleans-style funk feel. Here's how Blues Architect is presented:

You will play your way through 10 contemporary blues instrumentals, learning and performing rhythm and solo parts in context against a rhythm track.

All of the rhythm lessons demonstrate the specific pattern and then suggest alternate voicings and fills to expand the rhythm part out over an entire tune.

The solo lessons demonstrate a single chorus solo, breaking them down note-by-note, and then suggest variations and ideas for an extended solo.

Hamburger then performs an extended solo illustrating the variations and solo development ideas discussed in the previous lesson segment.

The lesson concludes with a commentary running over the solo to further illustrate the "blueprint" for the solo and focus on key variations.

Every single solo is fully notated and tabbed in Power Tab! Rhythm tracks, chord charts, text descriptions and other supporting material are included.

About Your Instructor

David Hamburger

One of the most popular TrueFire Educators, David Hamburger has appeared at Merle Fest and the Kerrville and Philadelphia Folk Festivals, toured with Joan Baez and shared the stage with Dave Van Ronk, Jorma Kaukonen, Tony Trischka, Duke Robillard, Cindy Cashdollar and many others. His guitar, slide guitar and dobro playing can be heard on his solo albums Indigo Rose and David Hamburger Plays Blues, Ballads & a Pop Song and with the Grassy Knoll Boys on their debut CD, Buckeyed Rabbit. David is also a contributing editor to Acoustic Guitar and the author of several books, including the award-winning "Beginning Blues Guitar" and "The Acoustic Guitar Method," also available on DVD from Homespun Tapes. He lives in Austin, Texas.