Gibbo3272
Verified buyer
08/08/24
Take 5: Uptown Blues Soloing
Jeff McErlain, great teacher.
Take 5: Uptown Blues Soloing
Soloing Over Sophisticated Blues Changes
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About this course
As a blues player, soloing over more sophisticated modern blues progressions, gospel or jazz-influenced changes is always a refreshing break from the typical 1-4-5 progression. BUT, you’ll find that your minor and major pentatonic vocabulary will only get you so far.
Jeff McErlain’s Uptown Blues Soloing edition of Take 5 takes you the rest of the way by demonstrating how to “play the changes” by identifying and targeting chord tones and common tones. This is a much simpler approach, does not require learning a ton of scales and arpeggios, and greatly expands your creative palette when crafting solos and improvisations.
”In this course, we'll explore blues tunes that break out to the basic I IV V chord progression. Along with learning the progressions, I'll show you how to solo over these changes by targeting the keynotes on each chord. This is actually much easier than it appears because I'll show you how to see the chord and the notes within it rather than thinking scales.
Playing over these changes is daunting for many guitarists, I know it was for me and frankly, I avoided it! Well, I'm living proof that you can do it with a little bit of effort and patience, you can do it too. Grab your guitar, and let's get started!”
Jeff kicks off the course with a blues soloing primer where he points out some approaches for playing over more sophisticated changes, shares a couple of ways to focus your practice and talk about players to study, and pass on a few sonic tips for blues soloing.
Jeff will then guide you through 5 “Uptown Blues” soloing studies, where you’ll learn to solo over progressions that utilize flat sevens in place of five chords, progressions that incorporate one six two fives. You’ll also work with minor four chords and sharp four diminished harmonies.
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, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own as well.
Jeff McErlain’s Uptown Blues Soloing edition of Take 5 takes you the rest of the way by demonstrating how to “play the changes” by identifying and targeting chord tones and common tones. This is a much simpler approach, does not require learning a ton of scales and arpeggios, and greatly expands your creative palette when crafting solos and improvisations.
”In this course, we'll explore blues tunes that break out to the basic I IV V chord progression. Along with learning the progressions, I'll show you how to solo over these changes by targeting the keynotes on each chord. This is actually much easier than it appears because I'll show you how to see the chord and the notes within it rather than thinking scales.
Playing over these changes is daunting for many guitarists, I know it was for me and frankly, I avoided it! Well, I'm living proof that you can do it with a little bit of effort and patience, you can do it too. Grab your guitar, and let's get started!”
Jeff kicks off the course with a blues soloing primer where he points out some approaches for playing over more sophisticated changes, shares a couple of ways to focus your practice and talk about players to study, and pass on a few sonic tips for blues soloing.
Jeff will then guide you through 5 “Uptown Blues” soloing studies, where you’ll learn to solo over progressions that utilize flat sevens in place of five chords, progressions that incorporate one six two fives. You’ll also work with minor four chords and sharp four diminished harmonies.
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, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own as well.
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
- Gibson SG Guitar
- Gibson Les Paul Goldtop Guitar
- Fender Stratocaster Guitar
- Tuttle Carve Top Supreme Guitar
Amps
Pedals
- Fulltone Octafuzz OF-2 Fuzz / Octave Pedal
- Strymon Flint Tremolo and Reverb Pedal
- Xotic EP Booster Pedal
- Ibanez Tube Screamer Overdrive Pedal
- Fulltone OCD Distortion Pedal
- Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face Pedal
- TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb Pedal
- MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay Pedal
- TC Electronic Flashback 2 Delay and Looper Pedal
- Fulltone Supa-Trem Tremolo Pedal
- Boss Super Chorus Pedal
- MXR Flanger Pedal
- MXR Phase 90 Phase Shifter Pedal
- MXR Dyan Comp Compressor Pedal
- Ernie Ball VP JR Volume Pedal
- Dunlop Original Cry Baby Wah Wah Pedal
- MXR M199 Tap Tempo Pedal
Accessories & More
What you'll learn
- Use BB King's box position to cover I and IV chords
- Navigate a 1-6-2-5-1 turnaround by targeting chord tones
- Navigate progressions with flat seven substitutions
- Solo over sophisticated blues progressions beyond basic 1-4-5
- Mix blues vocabulary with chord-based soloing
Release date: 08/17/2020 • 1h 26m runtime
Sample lessons
Level 5: Uptown Blues Soloing
Overview
Level 5: Uptown Blues Soloing
Performance
Level 5: Uptown Blues Soloing
Breakdown
What's included
18 lessons • 5 charts • 5 Jam Tracks
Take 5: Uptown Blues Soloing
Hi, I'm Jeff McErlain! Welcome to this Uptown Blues edition of Take 5. In this course, we'll explore blues tunes that break out to the basic I IV V chord progression. Along with learning the progressions, I'll show you how to solo over these changes by targeting the key notes on each chord.
This is actually much easier than it appears because I'll show you how to see the chord and the notes within it rather than thinking scales. Playing over these changes is daunting for many guitarists, I know it was for me and frankly I avoided it! Well I'm living proof that you can do it with a little bit of effort and patience, you can do it too. Grab your guitar, and let's get started!
This is actually much easier than it appears because I'll show you how to see the chord and the notes within it rather than thinking scales. Playing over these changes is daunting for many guitarists, I know it was for me and frankly I avoided it! Well I'm living proof that you can do it with a little bit of effort and patience, you can do it too. Grab your guitar, and let's get started!
Uptown Blues Soloing Primer
I'm really psyched to make this course and it ties in well with many of my other courses in the past few years - Soloing The Changes, Essentials: Chord Tone Soloing, and Solo Explorer: Rock in particular. All of these courses discuss playing chord changes and targeting chord tones, so please if you're not familiar with those, take a look, with those being a bit more blues rock based.
Here I want to say how important it is to be confident in playing over a standard 12 bar blues with even just your pentatonic scales. I find people want to get ahead of themselves and play the "cool stuff" without really nailing what really is the cool stuff! By having a solid pentatonic blues rolling background, making the changes will be much easier. I don't me licks, I mean improvising using the pentatonic scale because that's where it all comes from.
Here I want to say how important it is to be confident in playing over a standard 12 bar blues with even just your pentatonic scales. I find people want to get ahead of themselves and play the "cool stuff" without really nailing what really is the cool stuff! By having a solid pentatonic blues rolling background, making the changes will be much easier. I don't me licks, I mean improvising using the pentatonic scale because that's where it all comes from.
Level 1: Uptown Blues Soloing
In this study, we're going to replace the V7 that normally comes at bar 9 in a blues with a bVII7 chord. What's that you may ask? A bVII is alway a whole stop below the root, as a natural VII is a half step. We are playing a C blues and normally the V7 chord is G7, so we will replace it with a Bb7. I really like this change as it's subtle but cool, you can just play pentatonic over it, or you can make the changes. I find switching up the standard 12-bar blues something simple like this can make a difference to listener whether they are aware of it or not.
Level 1: Uptown Blues Soloing
I took a very simple approach on purpose here. Not only is that a great way to start a solo, but by keeping it simple, I can clearly outline the changes so we can hear how effective that is. Sometimes just playing for the chord tones is the best thing to do. As I explain in the video, you can see how this is closely related to the pentatonic scale in position.
So, as you learn this solo, I would suggest you create your own that are similar to this. Write a 12 bar solo that outlines the chord changes specifically. The solo does not have to be your masterpiece, you were practicing, which is very different than performing!
So, as you learn this solo, I would suggest you create your own that are similar to this. Write a 12 bar solo that outlines the chord changes specifically. The solo does not have to be your masterpiece, you were practicing, which is very different than performing!
Level 1: Uptown Blues Soloing
In the breakdown, you can see I did some improvising and extending upon the original solo. I did this because I wanted you to see that with slight variations how we can expand upon the basic theme. Building upon a theme is a great way to get into creating a coherent and well planned out solo. A great way to do this, depending on the song, is to quote the melody of this song at the beginning of the solo. Now clearly I didn't do that here because it is no melody, but I did build upon my initial idea. And as I said, this is always a great way to start solo. Especially if you plan on taking an extended one.
Level 2: Uptown Blues Soloing
In this study, we're going to play over an uptempo straight groove and we will add in a VI minor chord. We're in E so that would be a C#m, this change is common and very cool for a little twist. This is the same changes as the song "Mercury Blues" which is a classic blues tune that has been recorded many times, but specifically we're looking at the version I first heard from David Lindley. Alan Jackson also had a country hit with his version of the song with this added Vim chord. Usually if someone calls the song on a gig, I assume it'll have the Vim chord in it.
Level 2: Uptown Blues Soloing
I'm mainly thinking pentatonic on this song to begin with. E minor pentatonic specifically but I'm going to add in chord tones needed for each chord change. My first chord is E major, EG#B so I'll be sure to hit some of those notes when playing that chord. Same thing goes for the A major chord, which is my IV chord. That's spelled AC#E, so as you can see I am sure to hit a lot of C#'s on that chord. When I get to the Bmaj and C#m I'm literally playing the chord shape of each one. Starting off with this approach can be really helpful getting into playing over the changes.
+ 11 more lessons
Reviews
19 results
Starglazer
Verified buyer
10/30/23
Great Tittle
Jeff has a great feel for the music,explains everything well.Jeff is a great instructor.Thanks.
jlfrancisco
Verified buyer
09/22/22
I have purchased quite a few of Jeff's courses and he always delivers exceptional instructions.
Halmer
Verified buyer
10/31/21
Ideas? No shortage of those....
Jeff always has a way of connecting the dots when it comes to soloing. Often, "the less is more" approach yields a series of notes that makes the guitar player say, "I can use that!" Isn't that what these vids are all about?
Verónica
10/11/21
Amazing Blues Soloing
Jeff makes excellent use of the scales and it is demonstrated in these lessons, a great technique and cleanliness, plus a good feeling. The way he explains the key concepts is great, as for his ability he doesn't disappoint you, he has great qualities, plus a good dynamic and a modern touch to the blues, making the learning you acquire useful when you play.
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