Hypnoblade
Verified buyer
07/06/26
Solid Blues
A great way to construct a blues. Another winning course from Jeff McErlain one of the best guitar teachers out there.
Solo Factory: Chicago Blues
Learn how to construct compelling Chicago blues solos.
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About this course
Learning the language of music and improvisation is like learning any new language. You’ll start by articulating sounds (notes), which sounds you’ll then use to form words (phrases), which words you’ll combine to construct sentences (licks), which sentences you’ll string together to tell your stories (solos).
Notes, phrases, licks and solos. Sounds simple enough, but the tricky part is connecting those licks seamlessly and interestingly. We’ve all been up on the jam bandstand struggling to fill the gaping holes between our favorite licks. The net effect is a bit like someone speaking broken English - the words are correct but the syntax is out of whack.
No worries. Grab your guitar and step into Jeff McErlain’s Chicago Blues Solo Factory for all the blues syntax needed to breathe new life into your big bag of blues licks. Check the warning sign on your way in, “No tedious theory or boring exercises allowed on the premises” — you’ll play your way through the entire course learning how to talk the talk.
In the first section of the course, you’ll stoke up your Chicago blues vocabulary with four intro licks, eight licks that can be used over the I7 chord, eight licks for the IV7 chord, eight licks for the V7 chord, plus four turnaround licks.
All in all, you’ll learn 36 extraordinarily universal Chicago blues licks, which you can play over any Chicago blues feel (shuffle, 12/8, etc.), in any key, and at any tempo. Jeff cherry-picked this essential Chicago blues vocabulary from the fretboards of blues masters Matt Guitar Murphy, Earl Hooker, Elmore James, Earl Hooker, Magic Sam, BB King, Buddy Guy, Albert King, Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons and many other players in the Chicago blues vein.
Jeff performs the licks over a rhythm track and then breaks them down, explaining why the licks work harmonically over the prevailing chords. Get a grip on those 36 licks and the real fun begins…
In the second section, you’ll mix, twist and connect those 36 licks into eight full chorus Chicago blues solos across a variety of keys, tempos and feels. This is where your the blues syntax really kicks in. Once you have a handle on the approach, you’ll be able to do it with all of your blues licks (including the licks from any of Jeff’s 50 Licks You MUST Know courses).
All of the demonstrations are presented over a rhythm track for context. Everything is tabbed and notated, plus you'll get all of the rhythm tracks to practice the licks and solos on your own.
Your Chicago Blues Solo Factory is a click away. Punch the clock on your way in…
Notes, phrases, licks and solos. Sounds simple enough, but the tricky part is connecting those licks seamlessly and interestingly. We’ve all been up on the jam bandstand struggling to fill the gaping holes between our favorite licks. The net effect is a bit like someone speaking broken English - the words are correct but the syntax is out of whack.
No worries. Grab your guitar and step into Jeff McErlain’s Chicago Blues Solo Factory for all the blues syntax needed to breathe new life into your big bag of blues licks. Check the warning sign on your way in, “No tedious theory or boring exercises allowed on the premises” — you’ll play your way through the entire course learning how to talk the talk.
In the first section of the course, you’ll stoke up your Chicago blues vocabulary with four intro licks, eight licks that can be used over the I7 chord, eight licks for the IV7 chord, eight licks for the V7 chord, plus four turnaround licks.
All in all, you’ll learn 36 extraordinarily universal Chicago blues licks, which you can play over any Chicago blues feel (shuffle, 12/8, etc.), in any key, and at any tempo. Jeff cherry-picked this essential Chicago blues vocabulary from the fretboards of blues masters Matt Guitar Murphy, Earl Hooker, Elmore James, Earl Hooker, Magic Sam, BB King, Buddy Guy, Albert King, Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons and many other players in the Chicago blues vein.
Jeff performs the licks over a rhythm track and then breaks them down, explaining why the licks work harmonically over the prevailing chords. Get a grip on those 36 licks and the real fun begins…
In the second section, you’ll mix, twist and connect those 36 licks into eight full chorus Chicago blues solos across a variety of keys, tempos and feels. This is where your the blues syntax really kicks in. Once you have a handle on the approach, you’ll be able to do it with all of your blues licks (including the licks from any of Jeff’s 50 Licks You MUST Know courses).
All of the demonstrations are presented over a rhythm track for context. Everything is tabbed and notated, plus you'll get all of the rhythm tracks to practice the licks and solos on your own.
Your Chicago Blues Solo Factory is a click away. Punch the clock on your way in…
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
- Navigate a 5-4-1 chord progression with appropriate licks
- Apply double-stop bending technique with proper control
- Create horn-style melodic lines
- Mix major and minor pentatonic scales in one solo
- Incorporate B.B. King-style phrasing into blues playing
Release date: 07/31/2014 • 2h 21m runtime
Sample lessons
Intro Licks
Overview
Up Hi
I7 Chord: Lick #8
4x4
IV7 Chord: Lick #6
V IV Wonderful
V7 Chord: Lick #2
What's included
56 lessons • 40 charts • 39 Jam Tracks
Solo Factory: Chicago Blues
One of the most common questions I get is "how do I build a solo? I know a lot of licks, but I'm not sure what to do with them". I find this is very common with guitar players. Licks are all over the place but without knowing how to use them in the proper context they can be somewhat useless and frustrating. What I will help you do in this course is to put together a solo. Music is a language, it's a perfect analogy actually, the licks can be thought of as words. A solo can be thought of as a complete sentence or paragraph. The goal of this course is to help you learn how to speak the blues! The blues progression is actually follows a fairly static formula the trick is to keep it interesting. So let's get started!
Intro Licks
In this section I'm going to show you four classic intro licks. All four of these licks start with as a pick up, meaning they start off the tune before the band kicks in. The cool thing about these licks is they also work as a bit of a turnaround to bring us back to the beginning of the blues. It's hard to imagine a BB King tune without one of these licks starting it off! These are all tried-and-true so let's get to learning them.
Sweet Intro
Here is a classic blues intro borrowed from Matt Guitar Murphy from his into to the Robert Johnson classic "Sweet Home Chicago". I got this from one of my favorite movies of all time "The Blues Brothers", if you didn't know, the band in that film is made up of cream of the crop with members like Steve Cropper, Matt Guitar Murphy, Donald Duck Dunn, and others. The lick is a classic intro that can be used at the beginning of many different feels and grooves. Experiment!
Sweet Hits
I called this one Sweet Hits because I am playing a rhythm figure in unison with the band. The are often referred to as "hits". I picked this lick up from listening to Earl Hooker. Hooker was a Chicago blues guitarist who died at age 41 from tuberculosis in 1970. His influence can still be felt today especially in his slide work. Most notably his instrumental "Blue Guitar" was the background track for Muddy Water's "You Shook Me". All Muddy did was overdub his vocals on the track. That intro is one of the greatest moments in slide guitar. Earl Hooker deserves a greater place in blues history!
Dust My Intro
Although initially played on slide guitar going to re-figured it for standard guitar. This classic Elmore James intro is a one of my favorites. I got it from his version of the sky is crying, which is the original of course! It's pretty classic sort of sound heard often from Jimmy Reed to Jimmy Page. I had a lot of fun reworking the lick into standard tuning, so take your time with it really think about the bends to emulate a slide.
My Name is Earl
I love this intro lick. I first heard this lick in Earl Hooker's tune "My Man". This one is a little tricky to play and can be played out of time as an intro to just about any blues tune. Robert Johnson was famous for this kind of intro. He would often use a standard intro and use it over many different feels, many of them were unrelated. I really like the contrapuntal motion at the end of the lick.
I7 Chord Licks
In this section I'm going to show you some cool licks to play on the I7 chord of the blues. For all these examples are going to stick to a G blues, this is by design on my part. Once you learn the licks over as I show them to you. It's important to try to take those same licks and put them over different feels, and grooves. After that try different keys as well! Part of the fun of this is making a lick that you learn over shuffle to work on a slow 12/8 blues.
+ 49 more lessons
Reviews
37 results
italiandude3
Verified buyer
08/26/25
Great Blues Lessons
Jeff is a great instructor and I like the way he put this course together. The first section has some cool blues licks. Then he has 3 sections focusing on licks over each of the chords ( I, IV, and V). He has a section for turn arounds. Then in the last section, he puts the lessons together and has full solos using the lessons you've already completed. Some nice licks to build off of.
arpeggio5
Verified buyer
01/20/25
Jeff very good teacher explains clearly
Juergen1964
Verified buyer
01/14/25
I like it very much, helps to improve the blues soloing. This is a lot of material to work with !
brosblues
Verified buyer
08/26/24
Insightful and Worthwhile
Another useful, informative and approachable course by Jeff Mac!
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