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Ben's Blues Guitar Lessons

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44 contributions to Ben's Blues Guitar Lessons
Sorry for the short notice...
Hey guys, Apologies for the short notice. I can't attend this week's or next week's live hangs. I have a random Thursday pub gig next week, and I forgot about a social event my wife's attending this evening. So I'm on kiddy duty! However, I've created a Zoom link that requires no host. Fingers crossed it works. So what this means is you can join the call and hang out with your fellow members, socialise, and get to know each other. That'll be for this week and next week. I'm going to record some video tutorials tomorrow and Monday and will post them for you guys to look at, so when I come back, I'd like the call to be geared around answering your questions. Enjoy this evening's call. I hope it works.
0 likes • 9d
@Bill Stringfield No, but there it was!!!
1 like • 5d
@Bill Stringfield I intend to make it. Talk then.👍
Stumble
Not exactly like the lesson in the classroom by @Ben Johnsen I am having lots of fun with it though :) Just have to work on some turnarounds and anything else anyone can suggest. Thanks for watching
Stumble
1 like • 6d
Great stuff. Everything starts with the rhythm. Keep at it!👍
A noodle. Knocking on Heavens Door.
Inspired by Paul’s progress towards pentatonic noodling here’s a noodle over diatonic chords. I think this is easier than playing over a dominant blues progression because harmonies come easier? They seem to for me at least. Easier to sound melodic. Anyway keeping it fairly simple I hope, using the Em scale….E natural minor I guess…..but resolving to the G notes where needed? It’s a good YouTube backing : Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door- Epic Backing Track in G ( Solo Friendly).
A noodle. Knocking on Heavens Door.
1 like • 9d
@Paul Bridge I hope it’s constructive. Listening to you noodle in Am, I thought you could do something with this KoHD progression. You have to play in Em, which is the relative minor of G, the key of the tune. Em pentatonic has almost all the notes you could need. You just resolve to a G note on the G chord, to keep it anchored, some of the time. The only problematic note might be the C, which is the flat 6th….in the minor scale but is not in the pentatonic. But you have the 3rd and 5th of C. I suggest this progression because it seems to me one over which it is hard to play anything really ugly if you stick to the scale, and so noodling over it can really bring a kind of confidence and growth? Anyway, take it in the right way, and hopefully enjoy it!👍🎸
1 like • 9d
@Paul Bridge Great. If I can help at all. The Stumble is more difficult, but well worth a try. 👍🎸
Something I am Having Fun With
A couple of you have already seen this video but I wanted to post it here and get some feedback from @Ben Johnsen and anyone else with thoughts other than I should pick a different instrument to play. 😂. I have had fun playing around with this backing track, not always the case but for once I had more ideas that I could include unless I wanted a five minute video.
Something I am Having Fun With
1 like • 9d
Really tasteful treatment. I dig the variation in attack…..soft and louder. Dynamics I guess. That’s something I neglect, so lesson learned! Thanks for sharing and keep them coming. We can all learn from each other as well as from Ben.
My first time videoing myself
Hi all this is a old video of me learning my way around the minor pentatonic scale
My first time videoing myself
0 likes • 11d
@Paul Bridge That is definitely progress! You’re on a great place on the road….progress from here will be really fun. I’d suggest, as Ben said, noodling over a backing to get that time thing, and to start interacting with the chords. Ben said a blues in A. That’s where I started out, but I found I made more progress as regards my ear and finding melody when I started trying to play over maybe simpler chord progressions. The basic dominant blues is not, I think, strictly diatonic, in that three seventh, or dominant, chords can’t all be in one key. Although we play it as if it’s 1 4 5 with the root of 1 as the key. Also we play that minor third thing against the Maj chord, and micro bend it towards the Maj, but there’s a slight ambiguity? That’s what gives the blues its uneasy vibe….all’s not well. A diatonic progression is, I think, easier to play over, and all the chord tones are in the underlying scale associated with the key. So….I’m going to post a noodle, kind of inspired by you, over a very simple, melodic, diatonic progression in G/Em……relative Maj/min…..same notes. All the chord tones are there although the C is not in the Emin pentatonic being the flat 6th. But it’s a great progression to sound good over if you noodle in Em, resolving to the G note? I’ll post it separately. Hope it is interesting.
1 like • 10d
@Paul Bridge This sounds tighter than unaccompanied. Good job. If you keep doing this fluency and accuracy just increase quite quickly. Keep at it!👏
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Iain Brown
4
71 points to level up
@iain-brown-9771
Retired hobby player. Hendrix, Cream, Peter Green, Knopfler, Dylan. Into blues and rock.

Active 4h ago
Joined Mar 19, 2026
Scotland
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