Practice Sessions: Blues Speak Soloing

Developing your own voice for blues soloing and improvisation requires deliberate and focused attention on detail, but … if you practice smart and focus on the key principles, you’ll find you can quickly add depth and color to your playing. Matt Schofield’s Blues Speak edition of Practice Sessions drills deep on 8 key techniques and approaches for blues soloing.

”This course is very special in that it was designed from the ground up as a practice tool to help you learn as you play your way through the studies in a very hands-on way. We'll look at eight of my own go-to soloing and improvisational approaches - many of the core principles I employ on stage every night, and then we're going to drill them together in eight guided practice sessions.

I’ll demonstrate a core lick or principle, and then you'll grab your guitar and trade lines with me as we workout the core example together and gradually begin to introduce some tweaks and twists on the idea. Approaching the content this way will hopefully inspire you to explore some of your own creative embellishments as you go.”

You’ll play your way through this hands-on course, which focuses on eight soloing concepts. What makes this format really special is how you’ll get these approaches firmly under your fingers -- you’ll practice each of the 8 concepts together with Matt, in a series of interactive practice sessions.

Matt will kick off each study with a breakdown of the key concept, technique, or underlying improvisational approach and then perform it over a backing track to give you a feel for how it sits in the rhythm section.

You’ll cap off each Blues Speak study together with a hands-on practice session. Matt will roll the track and you’ll trade back and forth as Matt guides you through the core examples followed by several variations and embellishments. Working regularly with these “practice sessions” is the key to having command of all 8 blues soloing approaches.

”We’ll start off looking at octaves as a way to navigate the fretboard. Then we’ll work on a nifty little bend and slide move that will really add a lot of character to your phrasing. We’ll look at the use of a diminished arpeggio over a diminished chord as as the half-whole scale as a way of accessing some outside sounds on a six chord. We’ll put those two together over a blues with extended changes.

I’ll show you my trademark mixolydian sus four sound for getting from one change to another. We’ll look at starting your lines on the offbeat to add excitement to your playing and finally, we’ll delve into picking dynamics and control to add depth to your tone.”

Matt 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.

Grab your guitar and let’s practice blues soloing with Matt Schofield!