In this lesson, I'll be sharing with you how to play the groove to one of John Lee Hooker's best-known songs, "Boogie Chillen." To play this song, we'll be tuning to an open A tuning, and we'll be using a capo on the 2nd fret to move it up to B concert pitch.

Hailing from a Mississippi sharecropping family, Hooker learned to play blues guitar from his stepfather, and he rose to fame performing an electric style heavily influenced by Delta blues.

Now, you may be thinking what style of music is Boogie Chillen? Well this song has that exact deep Delta-style blues groove to it, and it's pretty tough to emulate, but I'll break down a number of the techniques and riffs you can use to get the sound.

What tuning is Boogie Chillen in?

Let's first talk about what tuning Boogie Chillen is in. The tuning is open A tuning. To get to an open A tuning from standard tuning, we'll need to adjust strings 4, 3, and 2 from our typical standard guitar tuning. The notes from low to high for...

Today I want to bust a myth floating around out there in the guitar world about guitar solos! For some reason a lot of players, especially ones that are newer to improvising often think, “Well to really be doing it, I have to be able to play up and down my entire guitar neck”, or “I'm not really a soloist until I've mastered all the positions of my pentatonic scales, and blues scales etc.”

Maybe they had a teacher tell them in a lesson, well if you want to solo you’ve got to learn more theory first. I love how often guitar players speak of music theory as if it's some magic pill. Like “oh yeah just learn more theory, and then it will all make sense, and you’ll be able to solo.”

While that stuff isn’t going to hurt you, and yes, if you want to become a complete zen master musical guru than by all means study it all.

However, is it necessary to know a lot if you just want to start playing some licks or trying a...

Do you find yourself wondering how to get a bluesy sound out of your guitar?
Are you trying to learn to play like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, or Eric Clapton?

Well if so this lesson can help!

In this guitar lesson, I am going to share with you the #1 scale that you need to know for playing blues guitar. 

Blues Scale Theory

The scale we are going to cover here is the blues scale, so let's first start by talking a bit about the theory and how this scale is constructed. The blues scale is a six note scale, and to form this scale we can start on any note, and play a sequence of other notes after it and this will build the scale. The intervals of this scale go like this: 

• 1 (root note)
• b3 (minor third)
• 4 (perfect fourth)
• b5 (diminished fifth)
• 5 (perfect fifth)
• b7 (minor seventh)

Now it's important to note: that when guitarists typically refer to the blues scale what they actually mean is the minor blues scale. So this is what we are building here, and when you use these...

INSTANTLY Change The Way You Solo (DO THIS!)

Call and response is a common technique used in blues guitar solos, where the lead guitar player will play a phrase, or "call," and the rhythm guitar player or the band will respond with another phrase, or "response." This technique creates a back-and-forth conversation between the lead and rhythm guitar, giving the solo a dynamic and interactive feel.

One of the key elements of call and response in blues solos is the use of the blues scale. The lead guitar player will often use the blues scale to play their "call" phrase, and the rhythm guitar player or band will respond using a similar answer type of phrase. This creates a cohesive sound and allows for a seamless transition between the lead and rhythm guitar parts.

Another important aspect of call and response in blues solos is the use of dynamics. The lead guitar player will often start off with a low-key phrase, and the rhythm guitar player or band will respond with a louder, more...

I’ve noticed over the years of being at countless jams and sitting in at shows and venues that “Superstition” is a song that a lot of bands call.

It’s a universal jamming song, for sure at least here in Los Angeles. 

One of the great things about it is that the main part of the tune is just a groove over one chord Eb minor. 

Then there is a B section…

Today I’m going to break down the iconic original by Stevie Wonder. But also a great blues guitar version done by Stevie Ray Vaughan. 

In fact, I’ve been onstage so many times and this song has been called that I even created a unique tuning for it. 

This tuning allows you to play the riff and get a really full sound, without having to tune your whole guitar down ½ step. 

(This is covered in the Stevie Wonder lesson video)

Tuning down all the strings can be a pain to do onstage quickly with just one guitar. So this hack is a lifesaver.

For the Stevie Ray...