Donatoni
Verified buyer
11/07/26
Fantastic resource!
50 Acoustic Blues Licks You MUST Know
A veritable construction kit for the solo acoustic blues guitar player
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About this course
Even the hard-core electric blues player would have to admit that there's only one thing sweeter and more satisfying than kicking back and listening to a great acoustic blues player do their solo thing - and that's picking up the acoustic yourself and banging out your own killer solo bluesy groove.
Joe Dalton's 50 Acoustic Blues Licks You Must Know is so much more than a killer hand-picked collection of acoustic blues licks - it's a veritable construction kit for the solo acoustic blues guitar player.
Yes, there's plenty of great fills, contrary motion moves, double and triple-stops, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides and other assorted smoking lickage. But you also get intros, a variety of bluesy progressions to work with, turnarounds, constant bass grooves and countless tips on putting it all together, creating your own sound and crafting your own mesmerizing solo acoustic blues pieces.
Acoustic blues guitar relies as much on stock techniques, grooves and licks as it does on creative improvisation and personal interpretation. And this is exactly how Dalton presents the material; he'll first show you a stock move, then show you how to connect that move to other moves, and then he guides you through various approaches for twisting and turning those moves into your own.
50 Acoustic Blues Licks You Must Know is a must-have, highly addicting and extraordinarily effective learning experience. Grab the box and dig in!
Joe Dalton's 50 Acoustic Blues Licks You Must Know is so much more than a killer hand-picked collection of acoustic blues licks - it's a veritable construction kit for the solo acoustic blues guitar player.
Yes, there's plenty of great fills, contrary motion moves, double and triple-stops, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides and other assorted smoking lickage. But you also get intros, a variety of bluesy progressions to work with, turnarounds, constant bass grooves and countless tips on putting it all together, creating your own sound and crafting your own mesmerizing solo acoustic blues pieces.
Acoustic blues guitar relies as much on stock techniques, grooves and licks as it does on creative improvisation and personal interpretation. And this is exactly how Dalton presents the material; he'll first show you a stock move, then show you how to connect that move to other moves, and then he guides you through various approaches for twisting and turning those moves into your own.
50 Acoustic Blues Licks You Must Know is a must-have, highly addicting and extraordinarily effective learning experience. Grab the box and dig in!
What you'll learn
- Navigate bar chord positions while maintaining groove
- Play melodies harmonized in sixths using slide technique
- Execute quarter-tone bends in a blues context
- Use middle finger for melody picking while maintaining bass
- Play a blues melody with constant thumping bass accompaniment
Release date: 09/24/2011 • 2h 28m runtime
Sample lessons
In the Swamp
Lick #8
Truck Stop
Lick #20
Rockin Chair Blues
Lick #30
Low Down D
Lick #35
What's included
52 lessons • 50 charts
These 50 licks will provide for you everything you need to get started playing solo acoustic blues. There are turnarounds, grooves, fills, constant bass, stop-time solos, double stops, harmonizing in 3rds and 6ths, contrary motion and more importantly, countless tips on how to create your own solos and sound. Essentially, making it your own > owning it. Let’s get to it and play those blues.
Learning melodic phrases is the first step in this approach to creating your own solo blues choruses. You should try these at different tempos and with a straight or shuffle rhythm. You will probably accent differently at various tempos. There are many opportunities to vary each phrase. Try quarter notes in the bass (one for each count), eighth notes (when you sub-divide the beat,1+2+3+4+), or combinations. There are many combinations.
A melodic analysis reveals a simple do-re-mi melody with a chromatic passing tone (the g natural). Note also that the melody falls on the beats 1+2+. This leaves us on the upbeat. Syncopation is either anticipation or hesitation. This is an example of anticipation. We hit on 2+ and hold the note onto beat 3. By hitting on the weak beat and holding onto the strong beat we have an anticipation.
A melodic analysis reveals a simple do-re-mi melody with a chromatic passing tone (the g natural). Note also that the melody falls on the beats 1+2+. This leaves us on the upbeat. Syncopation is either anticipation or hesitation. This is an example of anticipation. We hit on 2+ and hold the note onto beat 3. By hitting on the weak beat and holding onto the strong beat we have an anticipation.
The melody in example 2 is on the second string.The melody is lower in pitch. These first few grooves will provide us with a vocabulary of examples that will cover more than an octave. A melodic analysis reveals this melody to be longer than one measure. Our phrases don't need to be limited. Example 2b is a variation of example 2. Notice how I just reversed the high and low melody notes in the second measure.
In this example, the melody starts on the third note of the scale. The contour of the melody is the same as in example 1. There we played 1,2,b3,3. Here we play 3,4,b5,5. The rhythm is also the same as example 1. This is an excellent way to expand an idea. The melodic idea is the same as example 1, but there is a distinctly different sound achieved.
Let’s take this idea up the scale one more time. This time we start on the fifth of the scale "B" and play 5,b6,6,b7. First, we started on the root of the E chord, "E" in example 1; then we started on the third, "G#" in example 3; now we start fifth, "B". The major chord has a root, third, and fifth. These melodies work so well because we are using notes from the chord. Since these melodies work ascending, a great place to look for variations would be to try these descending.
Here’s a good example of what you can do with variations. The melody from example 1 is now the bass line. This is a good start for creating a walking bass line. Notice the subtle use of the open strings. Although they are used sparsely, these single open notes add a lot to the feel. I often use this pattern to move from the 1 chord to the 4 chord or from 5 to 1.
Here’s a totally different groove. This one works great in a straight rhythm. Of course, you can also play this as a shuffle. I've used something like this to back singers and soloists, but it can also stand on its own as part of a blues solo chorus. The open D and G are the flatted 7th and flatted 3rd. These are the notes that define the mood of the lick.
+ 45 more lessons
Reviews
18 results
Popgun64
Verified buyer
03/01/25
50 acoustic blues licks
Am learning so much
woolley13
Verified buyer
07/30/24
Very good, well worth exploring
kgoubs
Verified buyer
05/18/23
Cool! Good lesson..thank you
Dave58
Verified buyer
04/17/23
Acoustic blues
This is an older course and you can tell by the image quality. But this is not inferior to the interesting teaching material that this course presents. Joe is a great guitarist and a fascinating teacher. His approach are lessons that you quickly become familiar with. These licks are therefore not everyday examples, but just that little bit more.
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