Pathway through lessons?
I am new to the forum - and to electrics (if you ignore a brief stint in high school). I've been playing for 40 + years, but strictly acoustic (bluegrass, gypsy jazz - poorly - acoustic swing, some classical, and various finger picking styles). But, at least so far, I have no idea how to deal with playing the electric; it feels like a different instrument. There are so many different possibilities for tone creation, it's a little bewildering. I've got a pretty simple set up: a Vintage Guitars (UK) Tele knock off (and a similar knock off Strat), a Line6 30 amp, volume pedal, and (soon to be) wah pedal (suggestions?).
Enough background! I'm going to start with "Awful Pretty/Pretty Awful" because I like the tune so much, but I'm wondering what suggestions that people have for a lesson path. I'm interested in all of the styles that Jim plays and I have no performance agenda. My apologies if this has been covered a million times already; I'm just looking to get started.
Thanks,
-Paul
Enough background! I'm going to start with "Awful Pretty/Pretty Awful" because I like the tune so much, but I'm wondering what suggestions that people have for a lesson path. I'm interested in all of the styles that Jim plays and I have no performance agenda. My apologies if this has been covered a million times already; I'm just looking to get started.
Thanks,
-Paul
Comments
This is what I suggest ...
Arpeggios As Exercises
SAMPLE CLIP
Learn arpeggios (major/minor/diminished/augmented) with application tips and helpful exercises. Learning arpeggios is a great way to develop speed, improve strength and dexterity while simultaneously helping you to internalize and memorize chord tones. This is a great "long term" lesson that the intermediate and advanced student can work on in conjunction with other songs/lessons. Guaranteed to take your playing to the next level and applicable to all genres and styles of music.
Playing The Blues
SAMPLE CLIP
An hour plus of user friendly, fun and practical application of the pentatonic scales and the blues scale up & down the fingerboard. Eliminate those "dead zones"! Included for application are some tasty blues rhythms and lead lines that are easy to memorize and easily applicable in countless "real" playing situations. Also included in "Playing the Blues" is a valuable study in string bending with exercises for application - a tried and proven way to simultaneously improve your technique and your ear.
In addition, the lesson includes an original 12 bar blues entitled “Blues For Elmore“ that incorporates many ideas and concepts from the lesson while providing the student with a grab bag of fun an easily accessible licks.
A perfect lesson for both the beginning guitarist with some rudimentary knowledge of the blues and for intermediate players who are looking to gain fluency and freedom on the fingerboard while ultimately, expressing the blues.
Playing The Blues - Nailing the Changes
Difficulty level: 3-5 Proceed to Playing the Blues - Nailing the Changes
Intermediate / Advanced

SAMPLE CLIP
This lick filled lesson continues where “Playing the Blues“ finishes by demonstrating how to nail the changes of a 12 bar blues in G (G7 C7 D7). This is a succinct and precise lesson chock full of useful tips and tricks that should easily result in immediate and dramatic results.
The student is walked through a bending exercise that demonstrates how to “bend the changes“ and how to work some passing tones into a lead lines via Buchanan, Albert, Burton, Clapton, and Nichols.
Difficulty: 3-8 Proceed to Bb Blues Concepts, F Jazz Blues Concepts
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Understanding Progressions & Voice Leading
SAMPLE CLIP
This mind expanding lesson promises to open up your rhythm and lead playing regardless of your skill level. We will cover basic Jazz chord grips that almost EVERY guitar player should love - How to apply these chords and then ... Voice leading which provides insight into how to effortlessly create your own chord melodies. Highly recommended!
Difficulty: 3-10. Proceed to Over the Rainbow, Smoke Get's in Your Eyes, Danny Boy, Polkadots and Moonbeams, When You Wish Upon a Star, Smoke Get's in Your Eyes, Danny Boy
Thanks! This is hugely helpful. I will begin with these after I've gotten a feel for "Awful Pretty..." I see that you use a Cry Baby Wah, and also that Dunlop makes several variants of the Cry Baby. Can you recommend one particular type? I have zero knowledge of this stuff...
Thanks again!
-Paul
I have been woodsheding for the last four months. I was taking lesson from a Berkley College of Music graduate. He was teaching me and helping me understand Jon Damian’s book “ The Guitarist Guide to Composition and Improvisation” and his 2nd book “Chord Factory”. I wrote about these books on the forum under the subject “I love this Book”.
Several readers suggested I read books by Mick Goodrick, Garrison Fewell and Mickey Baker. I took everyone’s advice. Reading all three books by these great teaches made me decide to stop my lessons for a wile and just woodshed on what I thought these teachers were stressing was essential to master.
Triads! Everything seems to come down to triads once you had mastered all the basics. Jon Damian and Goodrick had these exercises that were very similar. Play the C scale starting on the E string on the 8th fret. Play the C major, minor, dominant 7, harmonic and melodic minor scale in that position. Once you have mastered that play through all the modes from the C root; then play the C major scale through both octaves in 3rd, 4th, 5th etc up to 7ths. Next play the C scale up down and up in triads.
I think there point was to emphasize there is endless possibilities in just one scale in just one position on the guitar neck.
I stared practicing every morning for a couple of hours staying right in that C major 8th fret position. After about two months I could see a whole new world of notes and possibilities in just a single scale. I could see how composers use intervals to make a leaps in a melody lines and how the minor and major 2nd ‘s #4, #5’s and 6th are used to create a different sound or feel.
This leads me to my lesson recommendation, “Last Date”.
I went searching for a lesson that was in the key of C and was in the 8th position so I could apply all I had been practicing for the last three months. The lesson “Last Date” will not disappoint. The song is a series of intervals hammering up a step bending strings that create cool sounding classic country intervals.
It starts in the C major 8th position and moves in triads along the bass strings goes back to the C major scale them moves along the g, b and high e string. The song covers the 1st to the 15th fret and is so pretty. To me the entire song is triads and intervals moving gracefully all over the guitar neck. It’s a great way to practice the exercises Damian and Goodrick advocate as essential in your growth as a guirtist.
Lastly, Jim frequently mentions Bach in his lessons. I attached a Bach guitar piece for anyone who is interested.
Neal T
All the best- Jim
Thanks for this. I love picking through Bach although getting it up to speed is always a challenge.
-Paul
Hi Paul,
I’m glad you liked the Bach piece. I know what you mean about “getting them up to speed”. Here are a few sort excerpts from several compositions. They are a little easer to get up to speed because they are so short. –they are nice to warm up.
Jim has a lesson called “I Got Rhythm” you might want to check out. If you play the lead right through it spells out the changes so clearly you don’t need the rhythm. The lead sounds like Bach wrote it after listening to Charlie Christen and Hank Garland.
Neal