Jeff McErlain’s – Beginner Blues-Rock Soloing-0daytown

Essential Building Blocks & Creative Approaches for Soloing You’ve got a grip on a handful of chords, can play a few blues rock rhythm patterns, and you might even know a few tasty licks, but can’t yet pull off an engaging solo. No worries — you’ve done a great job getting here but it’s now time for you to push through to the next level with Jeff McErlain’s Beginner Blues Rock Soloing.

Music is a language and a solo is just like telling a story with notes and phrases instead of words and sentences. And just like any language, you need to first understand the fundamentals of the language before you can start telling your stories. Jeff’s hands-on curriculum will equip you with all of those fundamentals, stoke up your vocabulary of licks, and then have you playing full-length solos by the end of the course.

”In the first part of the course, we’ll work on the building blocks of your soloing skills, with a series of playalong exercises to help you develop techniques like bends,vibrato, slides and other essential techniques. Next, we’ll apply those techniques across 10 vocabulary-building blues rock licks. In the final section of the course, you’ll learn how to connect the licks into full solos, in different feels and keys, just like you would on a gig.”

You’ll play your way through the entire course — no tedious theory or boring exercises to struggle through. Plus, Jeff includes playalong practice sessions throughout all six sections of the course to help guide your practice regimens and maximize results.

SECTION 1: Picking – “In this section, we’re going to look at basic pentatonic picking patterns and melodic phrases. These patterns are essential to any musicians vocabulary, going all the way back to basic piano studies, Renaissance music, and beyond. Melodic patterns are the cornerstone of any form of music, so the more we know the better! Melodic phrases also help us understand the instrument and develop the fingerboard memory, knowledge, and intuitive skills that are essential as well.”

SECTION 2: Legato – “In this section, you’ll learn the basic techniques for legato playing. These include hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides. Like any technique, we need to spend equal time on each item. Take nothing for granted! Just because you feel confident in your pull-offs, doesn’t mean your hammer-ons will be equally as good. That’s a fact jack! You gotta practice everything!”

SECTION 3: Bends & Vibrato – “In this section, you’ll work on two essential techniques for any guitar player, especially blues rock guitarists: bends and vibrato. These two techniques are at the heart of your musical voice and personality. I suggest spending a huge amount of time on these often overlooked techniques. As I have stated many times, take nothing for granted.”

SECTION 4: Connecting Pentatonics – “Connecting some basic pentatonic patterns is next. After you learn these patterns, do me a favor and watch The Song Remains The Same by Led Zeppelin. Once you get over the fantasy montage interweave throughout the movie, (what were they thinking?) Check out Jimmy Page soloing and I guarantee you’ll see some of these pentatonic position-changing patterns.”

SECTION 5: Lick Studies – “Let’s build your vocabulary with 10 essential licks that utilize the techniques that you’ve worked on in the previous sections. Learning licks is important for many reasons besides the obvious one of giving you something to play. Licks help you to understand the instrument better, they help you develop technique, they give you a foundation from which to develop your own ideas, and they help you test out a guitar in a music store.;-) Take your time and go through all 10 of these. Then move them to different keys and positions on the neck.”

SECTION 6: Solo Studies – “Here’s where we put it all together and graduate you into a blues rock lead guitarist! We’ll work through 4 different grooves, in 3 different keys, and utilize all of the licks and techniques that we’ve covered in the previous sections and put them into real-world musical situations. I have channeled some classic rock’n roll tunes to show you how easily we can apply these ideas and get you started!”

Jeff demonstrates all of the solos and key examples over backing tracks and then breaks them down by stepping you through the key concepts, techniques and creative approaches that he used in the demonstration.

All of the key examples, licks and performance studies are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop and/or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons. Plus, Jeff generously includes all of the backing tracks for you to work with on your own.

Grab your guitar and let’s start soloing with Jeff McErlain!

Jeff McErlain's - Beginner Blues-Rock Soloing