Learning Guitar Now Blog

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  • My Health Scare

    My Health Scare

    Two months ago on Sunday September 11th 2022, I noticed that my left arm and hand started swelling up and turning blue seemingly out of nowhere. I thought it was a pulled muscle or something from all the guitar I had been playing that week as I was spending lots of hours trying to write a new lesson.

    So I went to the ER that night and after they did an ultrasound, they told me that I had a Blood Clot in my left arm and they were going to do all they could to keep something fatal from happening. I had to stay in the ER for several hours while they did more tests and put me on an IV of Blood Thinners to keep it from moving to my lungs. I don’t think I’ve prayed that much at once in my lifetime.

    It seemed to come out of nowhere as I just had a full check up and everything came back great. My cholesterol which has been high in the past even came down to 156. So this event was a real eye opener.

    Fortunately the CT scan was clear so no clots were in my lungs and they said I was able to go home.

    When I arrived back home at around 7am I started on 5 days of Blood Thinner injections and then moved to capsule Blood Thinners which I’ll be on for 6 months.

    I guess God is not done with me yet on this earth. It was an extremely scary event and the doctors said I was lucky that I came in when I did.

    The past two months have been pretty difficult as I’ve been trying to make sense of this whole thing and also figure out how am I going to move forward with everything. Sleeping has been difficult and my arm has been hurting a pretty good bit so it’s been a challenge.

    In the last few weeks though things have gotten much better.

    I started doing sessions with Jerald Harscher about Body Mapping to learn how to move more while I’m playing and understand more about how my body is supposed to move. It’s based on the Alexander Technique which many Classical musicians study and will help me learn how to get in a better position when playing guitar and sitting at a computer. So far it’s been extremely helpful and I feel like after this is all over I’ll be playing guitar better than ever.

    One of the main reasons I contacted Jerald is that he has treated a drummer who had pretty much the exact situation I have. He had a DVT out of nowhere in his arm. This was many years ago but Jerald told me he made a full recovery and has been fine for years now.

    After doing a lot of internet research myself after this event occurred I came across a high profile YouTuber iJustine who had a very similar experience except she waited longer to go to the ER and ended up having the clot go to her lungs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzE0eLu6bsw

    Since the Doctors said this was a provoked DVT I will need to get more movement throughout the day as well and not sit so much. I decided to get one of those Apple Watches to remind me to get up and move every hour but also it tracks your standing minutes per hour which is great. I’m trying to get at least 5-10 standing minutes per hour and it’s been really helpful for me feeling better.

    Anyways, hope to make some videos relatively soon. I’ve worked up a different set for the videos moving forward that I think works well so I don’t have to be in a cramped position for the camera and when I’m writing music at the computer.

    Thank God I am still here as if I would have waited to go to the ER say till the next day I’m not sure what would have happened. The 15 Year Anniversary of the site is early next year and looking forward to the new era for my lessons.

    Thanks to all of you who have watched any of the videos. Back in 2007 I decided to make this website my career and thanks to all of you it has worked out. Looking forward to the next 15 years!

    John

    [ Update Sunday 11- 6 – 2022 ]

    A few other things to point out. I have no family history of clots or disease that we know of. I have an ultrasound and a full blood work test scheduled in January to see if the clot is gone and also to see if I still have any blood issues that could cause possible clots in the future. Right now all the swelling is gone and my arm seems to be back to normal. Just gets a little tired as I haven’t been using it a lot.

    Will keep you updated. Thanks so much for all the positive comments and prayers! It really means a lot.

    [ Update 2 – 6 – 2023 ]

    The Ultrasound was done and the clot is still there but has gotten much smaller. Previously 4 of the veins in my arm were being affected but now only 2. Seems to be moving in the right direction but may take a few more months. I will get the full Doctor Report on February 10th.

    [ Update 5 – 7 – 2023 ]

    I am now off Blood Thinners and all my Blood Tests came back great so seems everything is almost back to normal. I do experience a bit of pain and tightness occasionally so just have to keep moving during the day and doing range of motion exercises. It’s great to be able to play again without discomfort after about 8 months. It seems all the body mapping and Alexander Technique lessons have really helped!

  • The New All Access Lesson Video Player

    The New All Access Lesson Video Player

    The video player being used for all of the lesson videos in the All Access Pass has been changed and a lot of new features have been added. In the video below I’ll go through all of the main features the player has and how this can help you to use the lessons much better.

    Main Features

    • Keyboard Shortcuts
    • AB Looping
    • Video Bookmarking
    • Video Zoom
    • Picture in Picture
    • Lefty View
    • Speed Control
    • Roku Airplay support

    Keyboard Shortcuts

    • Space bar toggles play/pause.
    • Right and Left Arrow keys seek the video forwards and back 5 seconds
    • Up and Down Arrow keys increase and decrease the volume.
    • M key toggles mute/unmute.
    • F key toggles fullscreen off and on. (Does not work in Internet Explorer)
    • Mouse Scroll Wheel Zooms the Video in and Out
    • < key (with SHIFT) decrease playback speed
    • > key (with SHIFT) increse plaback speed
    • i = in, o = out, r = reset for AB Looping

    Start improving your blues and slide playing today with an All Access Pass

  • The Best Guitar Amp Plugin for Blues

    The Best Guitar Amp Plugin for Blues

    Throughout the years I’ve always experimented with Guitar Amp plugins and they have come a long way from when I first started using them back in 2006. Although many of them can sound great, they seem to lack the feel of a real amp or they require a lot of tweaking to get them to sound good.

    So I thought I would give another one a try as I usually do every so often just to see how they are improving. While I love using my amps it’s very convenient just to sit down, plug my guitar into my audio interface and then start playing at low volumes. The latest plugin I tried last week, the Neural DSP Tone King completely blew me away so I thought I would make a video about how it sounds and how you can get similar tones using it that I get in my lessons. In the video below I used my Motu M4 interface and was listening back on Yamaha HS8’s.

    I don’t have any affiliation with Neural DSP and don’t receive any compensation for anyone who decides to purchase the plugin. I just really like the way it sounds and I can get asked time and time again about getting tones that are like the lessons I put out. I’ve also made a few presets that sound great to me and anyone that joins the Free newsletter can download them.

  • Vidami Video Looper Support for All Access

    Vidami Video Looper Support for All Access

    If you have followed the site over the last 14 years you will know that I never promote and products but I think this is a good one to tell people about.

    I had some All Access members start inquiring where the Vidami foot pedal was compatible with the site around this time last year.  I started having more members ask about this over the last few months so I decided to contact them to see what it would take to have my site work with their pedal.

    I’m happy to say that the lesson videos and all of the Soundslice videos are now compatible with the Vidami Looping Foot Pedal.

    I also want to point out that I don’t receive any compensation for any of these sold using the link below. Just wanted to make that clear.

    https://vidami.com/pages/vidami/?ref=JohnTuggle

  • Practicing Scales with Soundslice

    Practicing Scales with Soundslice

    Practicing your scales with the Soundslice player can be a lot more helpful I believe. Especially if you are not sure about the rhythms you are practicing or want to make sure you are getting the positions and timing correct. Check out the video below to learn more about practicing your scales with the Soundslice player.


    You can gain immediate access to this Soundslice Scale practice page by joining the All Access Pass. If you’re unsure about learning your Pentatonic Patterns and the rhythms you should be practicing to sound great over a slow blues then check out my Beginner Slow Blues Lead Course. This course is available with an All Access Pass.

  • Learning Licks with Soundslice

    Learning Licks with Soundslice

    Soundslice is an amazing tool to learn from in my opinion. I wish I would have had something like this when I was learning. It would have sped up the learning process for me no doubt about it.

    I recently updated all of the Soundslices in the All Access Pass where you learn a solo to have two new files in the recordings menu at the bottom of the player.

    This will give you access to seamless loops and also the ability to change between the backing track and performance with no lag. To me this is a great feature you can use to test how well you have learned any section of a solo.


    To gain access to all of the Soundslices on the site check out the All Access Pass.

  • All Access Pass Tour

    All Access Pass Tour

    In this video I want to give you a rundown of all the content that is contained in the All Access Pass and how to navigate around the site when you become a member.

    You can learn more about the All Access Pass at the link below.

    Learn more about All Access

  • NEW All Access Visit History

    NEW All Access Visit History

    A new feature that has just been added to the All Access is the ability to view all the lessons you have visited on the site.

    With so much material now in the All Access Pass, sometimes it can be hard to remember what lessons you have viewed in the past. Now you can view all the these lessons at your Visit History page.

    This page remembers all the content you have visited on any device so if you switch computers frequently or maybe have numerous devices that you access the lessons on all this will be the same across them all.

    To access this page, you will now see a small clock in the header. Each time you view a lesson page you will now see the image for this page, the date you last visited, how many times you have visited this page, the category the lesson is in, and a link back to the page.

    Learn more about the All Access Pass.

  • How to Use the Interactive Tabs in All Access

    How to Use the Interactive Tabs in All Access

    One of the most helpful pieces of technology in the All Access Pass is the Soundslice Interactive Tabs. When the All Access Pass debuted back in 2014 I knew I had to get this technology working on the site as it can really help you when trying to learn different licks and solos.


    In the All Access Pass there are over 200 Soundslice Interactive Tabs to help your blues and slide playing. You can gain immediate access to all of these when you become a member. Learn more about Membership

  • Guitar Pro Files Added to All Access

    Guitar Pro Files Added to All Access

    I’ve recently updated all the Podcast and Course solos that you learn to contain the Guitar Pro file associated with that lesson. These are .gp files and are compatible with Guitar Pro 7 and Tux Guitar which is a free program that will read these files.

    Also the layout that contains all the materials for each lesson has been updated to make it much easier for you to access them.

    Now below each lesson you will see the Soundslice Tab, PDF Tab, Guitar Pro, and Backing Track buttons for each of these media types. This makes it a much better user experience all around in my opinion so you can quickly access all the materials.

    Some people really like the Soundslice Tab but some want to see the full PDF as well.

    You can gain instant access to all the courses and lessons on the site with an All Access Pass.

  • How to Set and Achieve Goals with Your Guitar Playing

    How to Set and Achieve Goals with Your Guitar Playing

    We’re headed into a new year and a new year and now is the time many people are thinking about what they want to achieve in 2022.

    Hopefully you’re super pumped that this WILL BE the year that you make some significant progress with your guitar playing.

    I’ll also assume that you might be really excited about that new piece of gear you may have gotten during the holiday season and are probably thinking about how 2022 is going to be the year that you really start to get serious about improving your blues playing.

    This year YOU WILL PLAY LIKE SRV! Or whomever you are trying to play like.

    So what happens to most people who start the year off with this type of attitude?

    I would say that the majority of people have really good intentions when the new year arrives, but for some reason things just don’t go as planned, and soon they are back at the computer, researching what tubes are best to put in that new amp. Because you can’t play with stock tubes lol. Without the boutique tubes, you’re tone will be lame at best, and you won’t be able to brag on Facebook about how you got “THE” tubes in your amp.

    I am having a little fun with these situations, but I bet people can relate to this on some level.

    So what goes wrong for the majority of people who set out to accomplish their big goal such as, “Play Like Eric Clapton?”

    Here’s what I think happens.

    They don’t set their Goals properly. I’m not kidding. As Ziz Ziglar says, “Aim for Nothing and you’ll hit it every time.” This is very true and I’ll even take it a step further and say that if your target is too big, then you’ll probably hit it, but you won’t hit the bulls eye, which is where you need to be to achieve your goal.

    So let’s take for instance the Goal of “I want to play like Eric Clapton.” Now this is a very lofty goal and at it’s current state is already setting you up for failure.

    I mean you write down that goal, look at it everyday, and it’s just like trying to climb Mt Everest.

    What I think you should do is break this goal down into smaller steps that are actually attainable.

    Here’s Zig Ziglar’s 7 Steps to Goal Setting

    • Write down your goals
    • Put a date on them
    • Identify the obstacles
    • Identify the people / groups you need to work with
    • Find out what it is you need to know
    • Develop a plan of action
    • Write it down and write down WIIFM – What’s In It For Me

    Taking a look at these steps gives us some valuable insight into how to turn that goal of “Play Like Eric Clapton” into some manageable steps that will allow you to actually achieve being able to do this.

    So let’s break down this goal using Zig Ziglar’s steps.

    1.  Write Down Your Goals – Ok.  This is simple enough.  I want to Play Like Eric Clapton.  I feel like you need to be more specific when setting a goal like this.  Do you want to play solos like him?  Or maybe there’s a particular song you want to learn.  Do you want to learn this song note for note, or just understand how to improvise like him.  The more specific you get, the better a chance you have at achieving your goal.

    2.  Put a Date On Them – Here you need to be realistic.  If you’ve never played guitar before, then you’re setting yourself up for failure if your goal is to play like Eric Clapton within 3 months.  BE REALISTIC!  If you don’t give yourself a reasonable amount of time to attain your goal, you’ll be setting yourself up for failure. If you’ve been playing for a couple of years or so, then I think that setting a goal such as. “Improvise over a Slow Blues using some of Eric Clapton’s style within 9 months” would be a good goal to set.

    3.  Identify the Obstacles – Here you need to define what is prohibiting you from playing like Clapton.  Things such as improvisation techniques, getting the feeling of his playing, scales, vibrato and his bending style, how much practice time you will be able to put in,  and how consistent you can be with your practicing.  These are just a few things you can think about when setting this goal.

    4.  Identify the people / groups you need to work with. – If you don’t already know what it takes to play like Clapton, then you’re going to have to either find a teacher and have them guide you, or figure it out for yourself.  Trying to figure a bit out on your own is actually a good thing to do no matter if you have outside help or not.  Spend some time listening actively to how the guitar sounds, and how he reacts in certain situations.  It will make you a much better player because of it.

    5.  Find out what it is you need to know. – This kinda goes along with the one before it.  In this example you need to know, ( In my opinion) scales, intervals, muting, raking, phrasing, vibrato, singer type licks, and how to go about improvising blues solos.  These are just a few things you could start working on to start playing like him.

    6.  Develop a plan of action. – This is where you get down to business and write out a practice routine that will get you there by the date you set.  For example: 5 days a week you will practice for 1 hour on the practice routine you created. This could be something such as.

    5 minutes of warm up exercises

    5 minutes of Clapton vibrato practice

    10 minutes of scales and intervals

    25 minutes of memorizing Clapton style licks or learning a solo

    15 minutes or more of improvising over backing tracks.

    You can change the time of each activity if you need to.  After 6-9 months of focused practice like this, you will see a dramatic change in your playing.

    7.  Write it down and write down WIIFM – What’s In It For Me. – I believe this is really important as well. Write down what the emotional impact of achieving your goal will be.  This may be the ability to play in a band, feeling of accomplishment, or the ability to record Hendrix style leads on an original song you write.  If you’re already a guitar teacher, then this may be the ability to get more students by teaching slide guitar or something.  That’s what I did.

    You could also record a video of you playing over a slow blues or something and put it on YouTube. You may get some great comments. You never know unless you put yourself out there.

    That’s my take on how setting goals properly can actually make them happen for you.  I have actually done these steps and continue to do them with all different areas of my life and I can honestly say that once I started setting goals like this back in 2007, my entire life has changed dramatically for the better.

    I urge you to start setting goals immediately not only with your guitar playing, but with all aspects of your life.  I can guarantee you will see a difference.

    I hope all your goals become a reality in the coming year!

    All Access Pass members will receive detailed instructions on how to set goals, create a practice regimen for your playing, and guided help by me and a community of like minded guitarists to help you figure out how to get better. Learn more about All Access Here

  • The Best of 2019

    The Best of 2019

    It’s hard to believe, but 2019 is quickly coming to a close. It’s been a great year for LGN and I’m really pleased with all the lessons that were released. I think you’ll learn quite a bit from these lessons about different nuances and styles used to play powerful blues guitar.

    Best of 2019

    As there are more than many 160 hours of lessons on the site I wanted to give you a quick rundown of my personal favorites that I’ve released this year and a few Free lessons that were released based on previous year courses.

    8 Bar Blues Solo – The most popular course released this year.

    Beginner Slow Blues Solo – Has become by far the most popular free lesson on the site.

    Danny Kirwan Style – Really laid back vibe with a unique vibrato style.

    SRV Rockin Shuffle – Great for mixing rhythm and lead.

    KWS Slow Blues – Power slow blues with that Texas Flood vibe.

    4th Position Minor Pentatonic Solo – Very popular one position solo using the Clapton Box.

    ZZ Top Slow Blues Solo – One of my favorite players of all time. Fairly easy to learn but fun to play.

    Slow Blues Supplement Solo – Beginner slow blues in the meanest key of all, E :)

    Duane Allman Cross to Bear Style – Slow Blues in the style of Not My Cross to Bear.

    60 Courses Now Available in the All Access Pass

    As of Dec 2019, there are now 60 Full-length Courses you can gain access to that will teach you the concepts and techniques to play improvisational blues and slide guitar.

    Browse All Courses

    Courses Released in 2019

    Texas Walking Blues

    Slide Techniques

    Slide Method 1 Open E

    8 Bar Blues Rhythm and Solo

    Slow Blues Supplement in E

    Play Like Peter Green

    Learn 111 Blues Solos

    In the All Access Pass you’ll gain access to 111 different blues solos I’ve written and recorded over the years. These solos cover a wide variety of styles, keys, and blues genres to help you get a better grasp on learning different kinds of blues solos. You can preview all of them at the link below.

    Preview All the Solos Now

    Thanks for all of the support this year and look out for many new lessons in 2020!

    John

  • 3 “Must Have” Skills When Playing Blues

    3 “Must Have” Skills When Playing Blues

    This is a question I have thought about a lot in the past and after thinking it over I came up with what I consider to be the Three Skills you MUST have to play great blues guitar.

    Ability

    This pretty much covers all the technical aspects of playing blues guitar such as vibrato, bending, speed, articulation and other technical areas.  Now that we’ve gotten this out of the picture we can move on.  You MUST have ability.  I don’t care how much heart and soul you have, if you don’t have any technical ability it won’t matter.  Without technique, you simply won’t be able to play what you want to communicate with your heart and soul.

    So how do you get the ability?

    It’s simple.  Practice, practice, practice, and more practice.  Once you have the ability, then you can move on to the other 2 areas which are just as important.

    Emotional Connection

    To me this can be very hard.  What I mean by emotional connection is connecting your heart and soul with your hands.  Even if you have ability, it doesn’t mean that you will be able to communicate to the audience the heart and soul of what is inside you.

    You need to learn how to connect the feeling of your heart to what comes out of your fingers when playing guitar.  This is not easy in my mind.  You can’t be thinking about impressing the audience or showing off.  You must remove all those thoughts from your head and start playing from your heart.  You will now be able to translate the feelings of your heart to your fingers and an emotional connection can be made.

    Have you ever had one of those nights where everything you play is great, and it’s like you’re not even trying?  I have.  Somehow things just flow out of you.  It seems like you can do no wrong.  Every time you play, it seems like all the emotions you carry are perfectly translated through your fingers like something else has taken over, and you’re just the vehicle for your spirit to control your ability.  It’s quite an experience and is very hard to just re-create.

    To me, it seems like you have to put yourself in the right frame of mind before you start playing to attain this and the more you play the easier it will be to get there.  This skill can also be very difficult to master because if you start thinking too much about it, then it probably won’t happen for you.  I think it can happen easier by arriving at a more peaceful place in your mind where you are very comfortable with yourself playing the music you love for people. If this can happen, then I think everything else will take care of itself.

    Confidence

    Now that you have ability and can translate the emotion from your heart and soul to your fingers, I believe you must also have confidence to complete the triangle.  I can tell you from experience that without confidence, you will not be able to really put on a great performance.  I remember playing a gig where I definitely had the ability and felt like my mind was in the right space, but for some reason my confidence was shot.

    I was playing pretty good I thought, but it seemed like I was very timid and had no confidence about what I was playing.  It showed too.  That made it even worse.  What I’m trying to say is that you need to have it in your mind that you are going to play a great gig.  I don’t mean you have to be cocky about it, but you do have to tell yourself what a great performance you’re about to put on in your head.

    Think about what baseball players experience. Do you think great home run hitters go up to the plate saying, “I hope I don’t strike out.”  NO!  They go up there saying, “I’m going to hit this one out of the park! Bring it pitcher!”  I think when hitters get into slumps, they do start thinking about striking out and getting out of the slump can be a very mental thing about building up their confidence again.

    After thinking about this for a while, it occurred to me that all three of these skills are needed.  You can’t successfully play the blues without each one of them.

    Think about it.

    If you have confidence and an emotional connection but no ability, then you won’t sound good.  If you have ability and the emotional connection but no confidence, then you won’t sound good. If you have ability and confidence but no emotional connection, then you still won’t sound good.

    No matter how you stack them, you need all three in my opinion.

    So those are the three skills I believe are needed to play some great blues guitar.

  • My Squier Affinity Makeover Project

    My Squier Affinity Makeover Project

    A couple of weeks ago I found a pretty nice Squier Affinity Strat for only $119 so thought I would pick it up. I’ve been wanting a cheap Strat for a while now to show people that you can get a decent tone with an inexpensive guitar. Many may see the guitars I use and think that you really need an expensive one to sound good but that’s far from being true.

    For the demo I’m using a 1966 Vibrolux amp into a Two Notes Captor and using an EVM12L IR. For strings I’m using DR Pure Blues .010s. Settings for all the gear used are in the video.

    Here’s a quick pic of the guitar before the makeover.

    Here’s the breakdown of all the upgrades I did to this guitar, what this project cost, and links to where you can purchase the items I upgraded. This doesn’t include the cost of sandpaper and any tools that would be required though. All the prices listed are as of August 14th 2019.

    Disclosure: Most of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you make a purchase.

    Squier Affinity Strat Guitar Used – $119

    Graph Tech Bone Nut – $10.13

    Graph Tech String Tree – $12.71

    Tone Shaper Wiring Kit – $30

    (1) Capacitor, .022µF Orange Drop
    (1) Jack, Switchcraft 1/4″ Mono
    (3) Pot, CTS 250k Audio, Low Torque (1/4″ Bushing Length)
    (1) Switch, 5-Way, CRL
    (3) Wire, 22 AWG Cotton Push Back w/ Tinned Overcoat, Black
    (3) Wire, 22 AWG Cotton Push Back w/ Tinned Overcoat, White

    Fender Locking Tuners – $49

    Musiclily Pickguard – $10

    Fender Pure Vintage 65 Pickups $109

    This comes to a total of – $339

    The stain, which I will have extra leftover was $45 so add that in if you wanted to stain the neck. I probably used half of each can so however you would want to count that. The stain would be optional. I also picked up a Fender waterslide decal to put on the headstock but I haven’t put it no yet.

    Stewmac Tinted Vintage Amber Nitrocellulose Lacquer $20.68

    Stewmac Clear Gloss Nitrocellulose Lacquer $15.27

    An equivalent guitar would be a Squier Classic Vibe Strat for $350-$399. I believe this build would have better wiring, pickups, nut, and tuners than that guitar though. To me, this Strat before I did the mods was a better guitar to play than my Classic Vibe Tele. Not sure what the new ones are like but that guitar is hard to play due to the smaller frets and doesn’t stay in tune that great if you are using .010s in standard tuning. That’s why I keep it in Open G.

  • Are You Playing Blues Guitar Like a Singer?

    Are You Playing Blues Guitar Like a Singer?

    [update May 14th 2019]

    After listening to music for so many years, there is one thing I have realized when it comes down to feeling the emotion from a guitar performance.

    Almost every time, the most passionate blues solos that make the hair on the back of my neck stand up are the ones that imitate the quality of the human voice.

    If you really want to take your blues or slide guitar playing to the next level, then learning how to play with the feel and emotion of a singer is where you need to look to.

    How?

    So how do you start playing vocal-like blues guitar that makes your audience stand up and listen?

    I believe it first starts by listening to classic vocal melodies that really stand out from the pack.

    No, I don’t mean Beyonce’s XO. :) She has a great voice no doubt and you can probably find some really cool licks in there, but this is a blues guitar site so first start with the Masters. :) This is where Beyonce learned her style from. Have you seen Cadillac Records?

    You might think that learning these simple vocal patterns will not help you to play better blues solos, but YOU are wrong. All those speed licks you are playing WILL NOT mean a thing if you can’t communicate a melody to a listener.

    FACT – The average listener will not be impressed by your blazing speed unless you have unbelievable chops. And even then once they’ve seen it, then it’s not very impressive anymore. Maybe kinda like a circus act.

    The fastest licks in the world won’t mean a thing unless they are setup properly and executed in a manner which sounds great in the context of the song and has some memorable parts.

    Why do most people love certain songs?

    The lyrics, and the melody of the chorus.

    Sure there are those who just love only the guitar in songs, but this is not the majority of listeners, and if you think this is the case then you are kidding yourself.

    Even then, just take a look at the Allman Brothers. Why are they so popular? One of the main reasons is that they have GREAT SONGS with GREAT MELODIES!!

    Most people want to hear a great chorus and a melody that they can remember. You should use this idea to your advantage with your guitar playing.

    If you want your playing to be heard and enjoyed by the majority of people out there, wouldn’t you want to add this element to your playing? I can’t think of one reason why you wouldn’t.

    Listen to any great guitar player, and you’ll hear lots of melody in their playing. They all have excellent rhythm, phrasing, and melodies within their chaotic solos.

    SRV
    Steve Vai
    Van Halen
    Derek Trucks
    Warren Haynes
    Eric Clapton
    Dimebag Darrell
    Tom Morello
    John Frusciante
    Albert King
    Jimi Hendrix
    Albert Collins
    BB King
    Wes Montgomery

    and many other famous guitar players play vocal-like guitar licks as solos and guitar parts and have a very large following because of it.

    Now back to the “How”.

    To start playing vocal-like guitar licks, you need to start listening to the greatest vocal melodies of all time.

    For me, this would be the melodies of Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, Beethoven, Ben E. King, Chopin, and Ray Charles are a few to get you started. But there are so many amazing vocalists that it’s impossible to list them all here.

    More than 10 years ago I sat down with, “When A Man Loves A Woman” and learned all the main melodies using Open E Tuning Slide Guitar. I, later on, would learn many more and I believe this really shaped my slide guitar style.

    By learning the vocal melodies of legendary vocalists, you will learn to think in a completely different way.

    Singers naturally phrase different than guitar players, and their vocals make for some very tasty guitar licks.

    Singers have to breathe in between phrases. Utilize this element in your playing. I’ve heard many a guitar solo where if the guitar were actually a singer, then they would be dead from suffocation. ;)

    I urge you not to miss out on these awesome guitar licks that are waiting to be unlocked! This technique WILL set you apart from your average guitar player and you don’t want to be average, do you?

    Commitment

    Make a commitment today to learn at least one vocal melody a week, and in the next year, you will have 52 melodies that shaped the world of music at your fingertips! This is powerful stuff that WILL make you stand out from the pack.

    To learn more about vocal melodies, please check out my Slide Guitar Method 2 Open E Tuning.