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Finding your own personal style as a soloist should be your goal early on. All of the key concepts and approaches in Blue Highways will help you find what makes you “you.” We’ll talk about the head, the hand, and the heart. These are the building blocks and basics needed for building your skill as an improviser: knowledge, technique, and soul!
Complete course with step-by-step lessons and practice examples.
Course filmed with 6 cameras for the perfect angles.
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Josh Smith organized Blue Highways into two sections. In the first section, he passes on 11 key concepts and techniques that comprise his singular style and approach to blues guitar: The Basics, Phrasing and Time, Honoring and Disregarding Heroes, Roadmaps, Goals for Blues, Working Towards Goals, Exploring Outside The Pentatonic, Melodic Minor, Rhythm Approaches, The Right Hand, Building a Vocabulary, and Your Personal Style. In the second section of the Blue Highways, you’ll play your way through a series of 8 soloing performance studies, across a variety of blues feels, keys, and tempos. Josh will overview the backing track and feel, and then solo over the track. After the performance, Josh breaks down the solo emphasizing the approaches and techniques in play.
Hello, I'm Josh Smith and welcome to Blue Highways.<br><br>I've been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play and record professionally from a very young age, and to do so with so many great musicians, across so many diverse styles.<br><br>These experiences helped me develop my own sound, which while rooted in the blues, is also heavily influenced by jazz, country, rock and pretty much everything in-between.<br><br>Here in Blue Highways, I'll pass along many of the key concepts and techniques I've picked up along the way and we'll also work through 8 performance studies together spanning 8 of my favorite stylistic approaches.<br><br>All of the performances are tabbed and notated and you'll have the jam tracks to work with on your own. You can loop and slow down the videos so you can work with the lessons at your own pace.<br><br>Grab your guitar and let's get started!
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0.0 Difficulty
In this first section of the course, we're going to dive in to some of the things that make me "me", and some of the concepts that I use. Let's go!
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Let's talk about the head, the hand and the heart. These are the building blocks and basics needed for building your skill as an improviser: knowledge, technique and soul!
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3.0 Difficulty
Phrasing and time is what seperates a good player from a great player. They're critical elements in telling your story as an improviser. Let's dig in to ways to improve them.
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Here we'll be working on phrasing and time exercises using devices like limitations, building themes, etc. These are the ways you start building a vocabulary.
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It's important to honor and learn from your heroes! It's equally as important to let them go during the process of finding your own voice. Let's learn how to truly honor our heroes while still working towards that individual sound.
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Lets examine the difference between playing just like our heroes and playing things influenced and informed by our heroes as filtered through out own ideas.
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The idea behind "roadmaps" is being informed so you're able to read the situation musically at all times. There are so many things that can inform your playing as an improviser if you just listen!
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This an example of reading the signs and reacting in a natural way to what's going on musically. There are tools you can use to do this - big ears are the key.
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Let's talk blues. This is the foundation of everything I do and the heart of most improvisation. Let's dive deep on why this music is so special.
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It's important to have goals. You need to have somehting you are working towards that keeps you motivated; a real sense of purpose.
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Everyone wants to get outside the pentatonic box. The concepts to do this are not rocket science. Lets explore a few ways to start adding new ideas to our improvisation.
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Here's some examples of ways to break that box. These simple idead can lead you down many new paths!
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Melodic minor is an incredibly useful sound when trying to break out of the box. Let's quickly touch on ways to use it.
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Rhythm is the most overlooked but important aspect of music and guitar playing. It's hard to play anything if you can't play good rhythm guitar. Lets talk about what makes a good rhythm guitar player and part.
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Here's some examples of rhythm guitar playing with the goal of making things feel good. Try these useful and economical shapes and make them feel good and groove unnacompanied.
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Let's talk right hand since we've got two of 'em! Picking techniques are half the battle and an important tool in developing your vocabulary and working towards the goal fo telling your individual story.
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Building a vocabulary is the longest lasting goal you have as an improviser. You never stop working on this. The key is putting in the time in all aspects to make your vocabulary as big and informed as possible. The more you have, the better you're able to tell your story as an improviser, which is the ultimate goal.
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Finding your own personal style as a soloist should be a goal early on. You want to find what make you "you". It's important to listen and learn and have influences while always working towards finding your own thing.
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Time to get to work! Let's apply everything we've been talking about to some music!!
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This minor funk track in D features an eight note pulse and a dominant 4 and 5 chord, but a minor 1 chord. I'm digging in hard.
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Check out the performance using many ideas we talked about in the first section of the course.
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Let me explain a little what I was thinking and how I was building my story over this track.
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A good old school walking bass line shuffle in A. This is an essential groove to be comfortable soloing over!
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Now I'm getting My BB King on. I'm really laying hard into the shuffle!
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Now let's break down some of my thinking on this shuffle. Here we move from a traditional approach to more of my own style halfway through.
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A slow blues in a tough key of Eb to not only working on feeling and expression, but work on being comfortable all over the neck.
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On this track, I'm showing you how I solo on a slow blues and how I deal with keys that aren't always immediately comfortable.
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The idea here is to be as direct as I can possibly be. Feeling comfortable in Eb all over the neck is something to work towards. I'm trying to convey my feeling in the moment.
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This one is a syncopated New Orleans style groove in Bb. Syncopated grooves create so many rhythmic possibilities.
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Really working my way in and out of the groove/beat. Dig the way im pushing and pulling the time.
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I was tryng to play from the heart here, playing what I really hear and feel. I'm moving in and out of the beat over this syncopated groove.
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Garage blues is like a 2 beat. You can impart country feels and hybrid picking here.
I'm really laying into this 2 beat, using hybrid picking and a real rhythmic approach. Lots of doublestops, trills, open strings, etc.
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This shows a whole other side of my playing - dig in on the doublestops and hybrid picking.
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Let's have some fun! I'm rocking out on the strat with a fuzz. Sometimes it's OK to just let it all fly.
Check out my approach to a heavy rock blues track. I'm letting it all go here.
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Let's talk about how tone and gear inform my playing, and then listen what I play on a heavier track using different gear.
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Blues with changes baby! This is in the style of Ray Charles. Make them changes!
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These are Gospel type RC style changes. Listen and go slow, feel it.
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I'm really trying to highlight the chords here and play like a singer or horn player would. These changes are essential to blues and soul music.
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A good old fashioned swing in Bb. My favorite!! Let's take a look.
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There are lots of things happening here, but don't be afraid to just play the blues!
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Now let's take a look at my approach to this jump blues track in Bb. Work those chromatics, turnarounds and diminished licks!!
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Thanks so much for checking out Blue Highways, I hope you found a few things in here to take home and add to your toolbox! See you down the road!
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