mleidig
Verified buyer
12/30/23
Josh Smith is an excellent teacher. He is a spectacularly good player in the jazzy blues/rock/swing genre, yet he is able to keep his lessons relatable, real and useable. Highly recommended!
Blue Highways: Improv Roadmaps
Interactive Video Masterclass for Blues Guitar Improvisation
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About this course
Everybody has a personal story to tell when improvising. A compelling solo conveys your feelings and ideas just like telling a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. One of the best blues guitar storytellers of his generation, Josh Smith is back with his second TrueFire course to guide you through his process for developing guitar solos and help you create a system for crafting your own.
"I always have a ‘roadmap’ in mind when building a solo -- technique, vocabulary, influences, emotion, timing… these all serve as guideposts to help me tell my story when improvising. I’ve found a multitude of ways to sharpen all of these tools and I’m excited to share them with you here in this course. My goal has always been to make every solo an honest reflection of what I’m thinking and feeling while I’m playing. These ‘roadmaps’ will help you tell your story!"
At 12 years old, Josh Smith was already playing out at blues jams in South Florida. At 14, he was the lead guitarist in The Rhino Cats, the house band at Club M sitting in with the likes of Jimmy Thackery, Tinsley Ellis, Kenny Neal, Lucky Peterson, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Johnny “Clyde” Copeland, Double Trouble, and other top artists playing the venue. Today, Josh “continues to forge his legacy as one of the most vibrant, versatile, and sought-after players in all of contemporary blues.”
Josh has organized this course into two sections. In the first section, you'll cover the individual dots on the improvisational roadmap - the elements that make up a great solo - topics like building a vocabulary, phrasing, time, dynamics, technique and playing with conviction and emotion. Then in the second section, you'll play your way through a series of six full-length soloing studies across a variety of keys and feels.
Everything is tabbed and notated and you’ll be able to sync the tab and notation to the video using TrueFire’s learning tools. You can also loop or slow down any of the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included so you can work with them on your own.
Be sure to also check out Josh Smith's first interactive video masterclass here on TrueFire, Blue Highways, which is currently one of our highest-rated courses of all-time!
Grab your ax and let’s hit the highway!
"I always have a ‘roadmap’ in mind when building a solo -- technique, vocabulary, influences, emotion, timing… these all serve as guideposts to help me tell my story when improvising. I’ve found a multitude of ways to sharpen all of these tools and I’m excited to share them with you here in this course. My goal has always been to make every solo an honest reflection of what I’m thinking and feeling while I’m playing. These ‘roadmaps’ will help you tell your story!"
At 12 years old, Josh Smith was already playing out at blues jams in South Florida. At 14, he was the lead guitarist in The Rhino Cats, the house band at Club M sitting in with the likes of Jimmy Thackery, Tinsley Ellis, Kenny Neal, Lucky Peterson, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Johnny “Clyde” Copeland, Double Trouble, and other top artists playing the venue. Today, Josh “continues to forge his legacy as one of the most vibrant, versatile, and sought-after players in all of contemporary blues.”
Josh has organized this course into two sections. In the first section, you'll cover the individual dots on the improvisational roadmap - the elements that make up a great solo - topics like building a vocabulary, phrasing, time, dynamics, technique and playing with conviction and emotion. Then in the second section, you'll play your way through a series of six full-length soloing studies across a variety of keys and feels.
Everything is tabbed and notated and you’ll be able to sync the tab and notation to the video using TrueFire’s learning tools. You can also loop or slow down any of the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included so you can work with them on your own.
Be sure to also check out Josh Smith's first interactive video masterclass here on TrueFire, Blue Highways, which is currently one of our highest-rated courses of all-time!
Grab your ax and let’s hit the highway!
What you'll learn
- How to construct a complete solo with dynamic arc from beginning to end
- How to listen and react to rhythm section cues during improvisation
- Creating thematic continuity throughout a solo
- Understand the six core building blocks of effective solos: vocabulary, time feel, phrasing, technique, tone, and emotion
- Develop a framework for creating personal, expressive solos across different musical styles
Release date: 02/17/2020 • 2h 37m runtime
Sample lessons
Attitude and Emotion
Conceptual Approach: Demo
Material and Outside Influence
Conceptual Approach: Demo
Influences & Emotion Study
Application: Performance
Funky Blues in G
Overview
What's included
37 lessons • 12 charts • 10 Jam Tracks
Blue Highways: Improv Roadmaps
Hi, I'm Josh Smith. Welcome to this Improv Roadmap edition of Blue Highways!
I always have a ‘roadmap' in mind when building a solo -- technique, vocabulary, influences, emotion, timing...these all serve as guideposts to help me tell my story when improvising.
I've found a multitude of ways to sharpen all of these tools and I'm excited to share them with you here in this course.
I've organized this course into two sections. In the first section, we'll cover the individual dots on the improvisational roadmap - things like building a vocabulary, phrasing, time, dynamics, technique and playing with conviction and emotion.Then in the second section, we'll play through a series of six full-length soloing studies across a variety of keys and feels.
Everything is tabbed and notated and you'll be able to sync the tab and notation to the video using TrueFire's learning tools. You can also loop or slow down any of the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included so you can work with them on your own.
Grab your ax and let's dig in!
I always have a ‘roadmap' in mind when building a solo -- technique, vocabulary, influences, emotion, timing...these all serve as guideposts to help me tell my story when improvising.
I've found a multitude of ways to sharpen all of these tools and I'm excited to share them with you here in this course.
I've organized this course into two sections. In the first section, we'll cover the individual dots on the improvisational roadmap - things like building a vocabulary, phrasing, time, dynamics, technique and playing with conviction and emotion.Then in the second section, we'll play through a series of six full-length soloing studies across a variety of keys and feels.
Everything is tabbed and notated and you'll be able to sync the tab and notation to the video using TrueFire's learning tools. You can also loop or slow down any of the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included so you can work with them on your own.
Grab your ax and let's dig in!
SECTION 1: Building Blocks
I'm excited to bring this new course to help you find your voice. We are going to learn the tools needed to really build a solo and tell your story. Then we will apply those tools in further honing in on our unique improvisational voice.
Build Your Vocabulary
We are going to work on building the actual vocab/information need to have as the basis to all our improv. These are completely theory/knowledge based. The actual nuts and bolts of what to play over each chord. The first building block or foundation.
Vocab Fundamentals
Let's start hearing what it sounds like to highlights chord tones in the simplest way. This is what autopilot means. You want this stuff so ingrained in your mind that they come out without thought because with that freedom comes the ability to then use and change those ideas in other ways.
Phrasing
Phrasing is the way you say all that information you've worked and stored to memory. Let's start building a way to phrase our own personal vocabulary. We are going to do some phrasing exercises. Learn about telling a story, starting a solo, developing a theme etc.
Phrasing Study
Let's use some of these phrasing exercises over a track to start hearing how to build a solo that really says something. Follow the cues and build a story. find the theme and listen!
Time
Time is as big a tool to building a solo as vocab and phrasing. Let's start learning ways to manipulate and use time to our advantage in further pursuit of telling our story and playing our solo.
+ 30 more lessons
Reviews
21 results
jaimeguillenmd
Verified buyer
10/25/22
High Yield material and josh is an excellent profesor.. great course!!
RockyRoll
Verified buyer
10/24/22
Excellent Course... but challenging!
OK, so Josh is, without doubt, one of the finest guitarists to grace the planet. His teaching style is excellent. The course is worth every cent, if only to listen to Josh play, but this is a difficult course. I'm struggling with the concepts discussed, but the only way to improve is to push ourselves. In the words of JFK, "I chose to study this, not because it was easy, but because it was difficult". If, like me, you are hovering around an intermediate level, be patient and this should take you to the next level.
Stratotao
Verified buyer
08/01/22
Josh is one of the greatest blues guitar player alive. And he is amazing teacher as well.
BogdanBlazevic
Verified buyer
03/08/22
Master educator
Excellent content. Josh takes care in explaining the details..
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