Freebo Artist Series

Artist Series Guitar Course from Freebo

Freebo, acclaimed bassist, guitar player and songwriter walks you through the craft of writing and playing songs.

26 Lessons

Complete course with step-by-step lessons and practice examples.

Multi-Camera

Course filmed with 6 cameras for the perfect angles.

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Included

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Full Course Breakdown

Freebo, most commonly known for his ten year stint with Bonnie Raitt, is an accomplished bass player and guitarist. He is also a songwriter and musician who has released four of his own albums. In this series he will talk about playing the guitar and writing songs.

1

Introducing Freebo

In the first lesson of his artist series, Freebo introduces himself as both a person and musician. He moves on to talk about his guitar, choice of strings and even throws in a bit of philosophy.

31:15 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

2

Tuning Your Guitar

Freebo jumps into his first official lesson on the basics of the guitar. Before anything else, you must learn how to tune your guitar. Walk through the process with Freebo in this lesson.

15:53 Runtime

1.0 Difficulty

3

Basic Theory

Freebo touches on some basic theory in this lesson, including the very helpful I-IV-V progression. He uses a keyboard for visual reference.

33:51 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

4

Introduction to Songwriting

Freebo starts talking about basic songwriting in this lesson. He uses an original song, "She's My D.O.G." as an example, which is a simple I-IV-V progression in the key of E.

18:30 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

5

Basic Song Structure

Freebo talks about basic song structure in this lesson, covering the verse, chorus and bridge. He uses his original song, "If Not Now When" as an example.

24:45 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

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6

Relative Minors

Freebo continues his discussion on songwriting with a lesson on relative minor chords.

17:00 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

7

Chord Inversions

In his newest lesson, Freebo talks about chord inversions.

28:38 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

8

Seventh Chords

Freebo talks all about seventh chords in this lesson.

22:17 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

9

The Pentatonic Scale

In this lesson, Freebo gets bluesy and takes a close look at the pentatonic scale.

24:32 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

10

Circle of Fifths

Freebo takes some time to talk about the circle of fifths.

13:18 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

11

Alternative Chord Progressions

Freebo uses his original song, "My Personal GPS," to demonstrate concepts such as blues riffs, slash chords, and secondary dominant chords.

24:55 Runtime

3.0 Difficulty

12

The Songwriting Process

To help explain his songwriting process, Freebo talks about his thoughts and choices behind one of his original songs - "When There's No Place Like Home".

32:46 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

13

Picking Techniques

Freebo talks about some picking techniques using an original song called "To The Light" as an example.

30:35 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

14

Pedaling

In lesson 14, Freebo uses an original song, "How Do I Say Goodbye," to talk about pedaling.

26:00 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

15

Trouble

In this lesson, Freebo teaches an original song called "Trouble." This catchy tune provides a great opportunity to practice more right hand technique.

30:02 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

16

Time Signatures

Freebo takes some time to talk about time signatures in this lesson. He uses two songs as examples and also touches a little more on groove.

39:16 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

17

Right Hand Groove

Freebo talks about right hand rhythm and groove using two original songs as examples: "The Beauty Of Life" and "Sometimes It's For Nothin'."

37:43 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

18

The Rule of Two

Freebo takes some time to talk about the "rule of two" and how it can be useful in songwriting. He uses a couple song examples to show how it works, including one of his originals, "We Are All One People."

32:36 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

19

Alternate Tunings: Drop D

In this lesson, Freebo talks about drop D tuning using his original song, "A Soldier At War" as an example.

16:42 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

20

Alternate Tunings: Double Drop D

Freebo continues his discussion on alternate tunings with a lesson on double drop D tuning. He uses an original song called "More Like You" as an example.

18:04 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

21

Partial Capo

Freebo talks about partial capos and shares some cool ideas for using them. He uses his original song, "She Loves My Dog More Than Me" as an example.

32:08 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

22

It Goes By Fast

Freebo talks about his original song "It Goes By Fast". He uses this song to talk about his songwriting process.

25:56 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

23

Before the Separation

Freebo continues his partial capo and songwriting discussion using one of his original tunes, "Before the Separation," as an example.

23:08 Runtime

2.0 Difficulty

24

Something to Believe

Freebo continues the topic of the partial capo and songwriting by using his tune "Something to Believe" from the album of the same name.

16:17 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

25

On The Parallel Together

Freebo continues his discussion on partial capos in relation to songwriting using two of his original songs - "On the Parallel Together" and " That's What Love Is."

22:24 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

26

Standing Ovation

Freebo leaves us with one last lesson in this series; he performs a beautiful song called "Standing Ovation". He also concludes his discussion on songwriting and partial capos, and gives his final thoughts on the series.

26:26 Runtime

2.5 Difficulty

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Bonnie Raitt, Ringo Starr, Neil Young

  • Los Angeles, California
  • Playing since 1954
  • 57 lessons at JamPlay


Freebo is an award-winning singer/songwriter and blues folk icon. For 30 years, Freebo played bass on recordings and toured with some of the great artists of our time; people like Bonnie Raitt (10 years), John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, CSN, Maria Muldaur, Ringo Starr, Michelle Shocked, Neil Young, Loudon Wainwright III, Dr. John, and many others. He has alsoappeared on Saturday Night Live, Midnight Special, Muppets Tonight, and in concert with the legendary Spinal Tap.
Reviews & Feedback 100/100 with 23 ratings
dan schmidt

All of the above... practical, simple, and encouraging.

bwfabq

Freebo is awesome!! Great music....I've learned a lot.

DJR4321

great aha moments to me -- this was a super helpful lesson -- thank you Freebo

proofed

very articulate man who I have alredy picked up on a philosophy to have what he has or at least work towards thanx

MJsixstring

Thanks Freebo!

kurtdrum

Thanks Freebo. Met you at Far West and you gave me a card to Jam Play. I'm really excited to dive in to the lessons !

jzstudio

This guy is awesome. Holy shit