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Two Guitar Blues Grooves

Learn How to Craft Complementary Blues Rhythm Guitar Parts

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Two Guitar Blues Grooves
Jeff McErlain

Jeff McErlain

Educator

blues, blues-rock, rock

Genres

About this course

More often than not you’ll find yourself playing with another guitar player at the local blues jam or on the gig, and you’ll both be playing rhythm guitar a majority of the time to support a vocalist or other soloist. The last thing you want to do is play the same or even a similar rhythm guitar part because that muddies up the rhythm section and does little to enhance the overall sound. So what should you do? Easy…

Start by digging into Jeff McErlain’s Two Guitar Blues Grooves and work through the 10 sets of rhythm guitar performance studies (20 rhythm guitar parts in total!) that Jeff prepared to expand your rhythm part vocabulary and impart priceless guidance for crafting two-guitar rhythm parts.

”As guitarists we play rhythm guitar much more than lead guitar in most settings. And when we’re in a two guitar situation, this can complicate matters as to what to play and how to best fit in. In this course, we’ll work through 10 of the most commonly encountered blues tunes and I’ll show you some really effective rhythm part approaches for playing with another guitarist. All in all, you’ll pick up 20 distinctive rhythm guitar parts that you’ll be able to use in hundreds of blues tunes, in any jam or band setting!”

Jeff will demonstrate, and breakdown in detail, two distinctive, complementary rhythm guitar parts for 10 blues progressions, in different feels and tempos, based on popular, commonly encountered blues tunes.

Each set of of these 10 rhythm performances features two multi-angle videos for both rhythm parts, two breakdown videos for each part, plus a playalong video displaying both parts being performed in split-screen view

Jeff will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way.  You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, Jeff includes all of the rhythm tracks for you to work with on your own. In addition, you’ll be able to loop or slow down any of the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.

Grab your guitar and let’s dig in with Jeff McErlain!

Jeff McErlain's Preferred Gear

Below is a list of Jeff McErlain's preferred gear including guitars, amps, pedals, accessories, and more. What you see in Jeff's lessons may or may not be this actual gear, but if you are trying to capture Jeff's sound and tone, the gear listed below is recommended by Jeff and it's a great place to start!

Guitars

Amps

Pedals

Accessories & More

What you'll learn

  • Apply chord extensions (9ths, 13ths) tastefully in blues
  • Use rootless dominant 9 voicings for rhythm guitar
  • Apply sixth interval licks in blues context
  • Create space and avoid clashing with another guitar player
  • Use higher register voicings to complement lower rhythm parts
Release date: 09/27/2018 • 3h 11m runtime
intermediatelate intermediateguitarelectric guitarchordschord progressionsrhythm
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Sample lessons
Stormy Days
Stormy Days
Overview
Stormy Days: Part 1
Stormy Days: Part 1
Performance
Stormy Days: Part 1
Stormy Days: Part 1
Breakdown
Stormy Days: Part 2
Stormy Days: Part 2
Performance

What's included

63 lessons • 31 charts • 30 Jam Tracks

Two Guitar Blues Grooves
Hi, I'm Jeff McErlain and welcome to Two Guitar Blues Grooves. As we well know, in any situation we end up playing rhythm guitar more than lead guitar. If we are in a two guitar situation, this can complicate matters as to what to play and how to fit in.

In this course, I'll go through some standard and important blues tunes and show you some basic idea I'd use if while playing with another guitarist. In the beginning, this may require some discussion with your other guitar play as to who is going to play what part. The more you two play together the more intuitive it becomes. So let's dig in!
Blues Chords You Should Know
I would almost say this section is worth the price you paid for this course (and thank you very much) as these are THE ESSENTIAL BLUES CHORD VOICINGS you need to really get rolling. I use these all the time, and they're the go to voicings for every player worth their salt! If you don't know them, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much use you'll get out of them. Of course, I use them all throughout the course so you'll really get a good workout with them by the time you're done.
Boogie Woog-E
Here we have a classic boogie woogie blues in E. This is probably the first blues you ever learned, and if you have ever been to a blues jam, you've played it over and over! The last thing I want to hear is two guitar players playing this pattern in unison for more than one chorus of the blues, and I don't even want to hear that! A chorus is the lingo for one time through the blues form. I see Guitar 1 as the driver of the car, setting on top of the groove, and Guitar 2 fills it out. So, let's check it out.
Boogie Woog-E: Part 1
Here's one of the basic boogie patterns in the key of E. I'm not sure I even really need to show you how to play this, as I assume you may already know it. So, I'll take this opportunity to talk about Jimmy Reed and how important his music is to this particular style of blues. I've talked about him in just about every one of my courses here on TrueFire, so he's probably someone you should look into! :-)

As you can see, on this particular pattern I'm separating the notes as opposed to playing them in unison. This is a little more difficult but a fun and useful variation on the blues. Check out Jimmy Reed's Greatest Hits and you will easily see why I'm discussing him right now.
Boogie Woog-E: Part 1
Man, there's a lot of great info in this video if I do say so myself! Humbly, of course...but seriously, there's some hard earned stuff in there I am happy to be able to share!

Playing a basic boogie can be frustrating as it can get somewhat boring, but to me, that means we aren't playing it right. That's from experience, believe me — I used to think, "Man, this is easy and boring." Until I got my butt handed to me a number of times on gigs by people who could really play the heck outta this. The trick is the groove, feel, and finesse that you add to it.
Boogie Woog-E: Part 2
So, you have the first part down, so let's take a look at the second part of our classic boogie woogie pattern. As you can see, I play a lot less in Part 2 as it's more to complement, or accompany, Part 1. Be sure not to overplay as that's what gets everybody into trouble. I am more or less punctuating the main phrase and adding to it as opposed to playing over it; remember Guitar 1 drives the car. What's cool is that if we're only playing with one guitar player, you can pick and choose from all of these options. One thing: Don't be afraid NOT to play!
Boogie Woog-E: Part 2
I start off by not playing the first time through the blues, letting Guitar 1 set up the groove. When the second time through comes around, then we can jump in with the riff I first show you here. That simple partial chord riff is ubiquitous and a must know — it can be used just about anywhere and is also an excellent lead idea.

Very often, the difference between soloing and rhythm playing is very thin, so keep that in mind when working through all of this. As you can see, my next variation is much simpler than the first. This time around I'm really just punctuating the chords as they go by as if someone were singing. Keep it nice and simple.

+ 56 more lessons

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Reviews

17 results

Steviefloyd

Verified buyer

08/04/23

Highly recommended

As usual, Jeff, s course i's really enjoyable. Each session is very attractive and it covers many situations where you and your best friend don't really know what to play and when. This course brings you efficiency and your playing becomes more fluent. Thanks to Truefire, Jeff and many other great teachers, I have reached a higher level that I couldn't imagine some years before ! Grab your guitar...and have fun !

rryder67

Verified buyer

04/03/23

2 Gtr Blues Grooves

Jeff's lessons are always challenging. When I take the time to study his material my playing improves. I can't wait to get to this course.

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