Cdougoud
Verified buyer
02/21/25
Very clear explanations and tasty solos
Great explanation of target notes used and why. I should have started with this course.
Blues Alchemy
Insight for targeting tones, playing changes and blues guitar comping
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About this course
As anyone who squeaked through 10th grade history knows, the alchemists were a semi-scientific posse of medieval individuals utterly hung up on the notion of transforming lead into gold.
Of course, their efforts did not lead to economic good times, but Blues Alchemy addresses a much more useful and likely kind of transformation: turning those leaden, everyday blues licks and chord progressions into tasty and intriguing improvisational gold.
Blues Alchemy is about learning to play the changes, but not in the sense that jazz musicians do – it isn't about learning every arpeggio and mode under the sun. Instead, on ten diverse chord progressions, master blues alchemist David Hamburger will teach you how to transform your blues bag into gold by learning how to target tones and "play the changes." This series of video guitar lessons will have a dramatic impact on your blues guitar solos as you learn how to apply these principles.
Adopting a hands-on playing approach, Hamburger guides you through 10 distinct blues guitar rhythm pattern lessons with variations, 10 distinct solo lessons with variations, plus dozens of extra blues licks and tricks of the trade.
Of course, their efforts did not lead to economic good times, but Blues Alchemy addresses a much more useful and likely kind of transformation: turning those leaden, everyday blues licks and chord progressions into tasty and intriguing improvisational gold.
Blues Alchemy is about learning to play the changes, but not in the sense that jazz musicians do – it isn't about learning every arpeggio and mode under the sun. Instead, on ten diverse chord progressions, master blues alchemist David Hamburger will teach you how to transform your blues bag into gold by learning how to target tones and "play the changes." This series of video guitar lessons will have a dramatic impact on your blues guitar solos as you learn how to apply these principles.
Adopting a hands-on playing approach, Hamburger guides you through 10 distinct blues guitar rhythm pattern lessons with variations, 10 distinct solo lessons with variations, plus dozens of extra blues licks and tricks of the trade.
What you'll learn
- Execute quarter tone bends to imply chord tones
- Play major pentatonic licks in closed position with authentic 60s R&B feel
- Mute strings effectively to isolate specific notes in chord voicings
- Incorporate 9th chord voicings into rhythm playing
- Connect pentatonic positions with chromatic notes
Release date: 06/06/2005 • 4h 23m runtime
Sample lessons
Texas Shuffle
Solo Performance
Rhumba Blue
Solo Performance
Swamp Funk
Solo Performance
Swamp Funk
Solo Breakdown
What's included
81 lessons • 40 charts • 20 Jam Tracks
Blues Alchemy
As anyone who squeaked through 10th grade history knows, the alchemists were a semi-scientific posse of medieval individuals utterly hung up on the notion of transforming lead into gold.
Of course, their efforts did not lead to economic good times, but Blues Alchemy addresses a much more useful and likely kind of transformation: turning those leaden, everyday blues licks and chord progressions into tasty and intriguing improvisational gold.
Blues Alchemy is about learning to play the changes, but not in the sense that jazz musicians do – it isn't about learning every arpeggio and mode under the sun. Instead, on ten diverse chord progressions, master blues alchemist David Hamburger will teach you how to transform your blues bag into gold by learning how to target tones and "play the changes."
Blues Alchemy is a hands-on playing course, which guides the student through 10 distinct blues rhythm patterns and variations, 10 distinct solos and variations, plus dozens of extra blues licks and tricks of the trade.
Blues Alchemy includes 80 video lessons, text overviews, standard notation and interactive Power Tab. Blues Alchemy is presented in TrueFire's multi-media video player for Windows and Mac, which features zoom, speed control, looping and other useful instructional functions.
Here's how Blues Alchemy is presented …
Ten blues instrumentals are broken up into a rhythm lesson and a solo lesson, each demonstrated in context against a drum and bass backing track.
The video rhythm lessons demonstrate the parts as written and then expands the parts to illustrate alternate voicings and fills to stretch the rhythm part out with.
The video solo lessons first demonstrate the solos as written, then breaks them down note-by-note, as well as demonstrating extra licks and variations.
Each pair of lessons (rhythm and solo) feature a jam backing track for students to practice over to help nail the parts being covered and expand on as well.
A text description provides an overview of the tune along with some background on artists and/or techniques synonymous with the blues style being covered.
Power Tab is included (interactive tablature for PC users), so you can see, hear and slow down the tablature and notation.
Texas Shuffle
You can think of a Texas shuffle as being a more swinging version of a Chicago shuffle. Texas blues in general has been strongly influenced by jazz; you can hear it in the walking basslines and in the horn sections of bluesmen like T-Bone Walker, Gatemouth Brown and Albert Collins. Accenting the change from the major to minor third while soloing is another aspect of the jazz influence - that's one of the ways southwestern big bands, or "territory" bands, of the 1930s and 1940s used to cook up riffs to play behind a soloist.
Texas Shuffle
You can think of a Texas shuffle as being a more swinging version of a Chicago shuffle. Texas blues in general has been strongly influenced by jazz; you can hear it in the walking basslines and in the horn sections of bluesmen like T-Bone Walker, Gatemouth Brown and Albert Collins. Accenting the change from the major to minor third while soloing is another aspect of the jazz influence - that's one of the ways southwestern big bands, or "territory" bands, of the 1930s and 1940s used to cook up riffs to play behind a soloist.
Texas Shuffle
A lot of the snap and bite that Albert Collins got out of his Telecaster had to do with the fact that he played with a capo and picked with his index finger instead of using a pick. You can still produce that Collins sound by palming your pick temporarily, then hooking your index finger under a string, pulling away from the guitar and then letting the string snap back to the fretboard. For extra credit, hammer on to another note immediately after.
Texas Shuffle
A lot of the snap and bite that Albert Collins got out of his Telecaster had to do with the fact that he played with a capo and picked with his index finger instead of using a pick. You can still produce that Collins sound by palming your pick temporarily, then hooking your index finger under a string, pulling away from the guitar and then letting the string snap back to the fretboard. For extra credit, hammer on to another note immediately after.
Texas Shuffle
Slippery, sliding ninth chords have been a staple of Texas blues since the pioneering work of T-Bone Walker in the 1940s and 1950s. In a sense, every modern blues guitarist can trace their musical DNA back to Walker, who punctuated his sly, urbane vocals with horn-like chord hits and impeccably phrased, jazz-tinged licks. You can hear Walker's direct influence on both B.B. King and Chuck Berry, and if you think about how many guitarists they influenced in turn, you begin to get the picture.
Texas Shuffle
You can think of a Texas shuffle as being a more swinging version of a Chicago shuffle. Texas blues in general has been strongly influenced by jazz; you can hear it in the walking basslines and in the horn sections of bluesmen like T-Bone Walker, Gatemouth Brown and Albert Collins. Accenting the change from the major to minor third while soloing is another aspect of the jazz influence - that's one of the ways southwestern big bands, or "territory" bands, of the 1930s and 1940s used to cook up riffs to play behind a soloist.
+ 74 more lessons
Reviews
27 results
Conlev
Verified buyer
01/29/25
Blues Alchemy
Very good. Hamburger is a master when we are talking about american root music.
stefobject
Verified buyer
01/26/25
TOP 5 Best teacher
David is just a lover blues musician and you can feel it ! I have almost all his courses This is one my best teacher , go blind and buy it , no hesitation !
Flatfive5
Verified buyer
07/17/24
David is just great!!!
Sockenfrank
01/14/23
Oldie but Goldie
Ein Wahnsinnskurs. Kommt etwas altbacken daher. Die Videoqualität ist nicht so toll, die Tabs entsprechen nicht dem heutigen Truefire Standard. Aber der Stoff der vermittelt wird und vor allem wie sind Premium.
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