Being able to solo successfully is something most of us would love to do. Having a player like Nat Martin show you how to do it is a gift. Nat’s mastery of blues and its associated music has led him to become one of the most highly respected players in the country.
In this first session you’ll learn the formula to a blues progression and begin your journey to creating your own licks and solos that sit beautifully over any chord progression.
Over the one hour lesson you will establish the chords for a 12 bar blues progression in the key of A. Nat will take you through the chord sequence using both barre chords and CAGED triads based at position V around box 1 of the minor pentatonic. It will be useful for you to know the barre chord shapes shown below ahead of time, but please don’t worry if you struggle. The idea of also showing the triad shapes is to not only give you a greater music vocabulary, but also to give those struggling with barre chords an easier approach. Everyone should be able to master something in the lesson, and for anything you struggle with, that’s what the lesson video is for. You can practice as much as you like afterwards.
Once Nat has covered the chords, you will then learn an initial solo, focusing on a few licks (notated in standard notation and TAB) that correspond to each of the specific chords in the blues progression. The licks will be numbered sequentially for reference. You will be shown the picking techniques and fingerings used for each lick to develop your technical approaches.
A Minor Pentatonic Scale Guitar Pattern 1
Below is pattern one of the minor pentatonic scale. The numbers inside the dots indicate the fingers to be used on the frets. The red dots in the pattern refer to the root of the scale.
Barre chord shapes
Lesson 1 – See above
Lesson 2 – developing on session 1 by recapping previous materials and adding in 7th arpeggios, a new solo and picking/fingering techniques.
Lesson 3 – you’ll learn a 3rd solo plus further take away techniques that will allow you to develop your blues vocabulary. You’ll examine the minor pentatonic box 3 known as the ‘The B.B. box’ and discuss how B.B.King mixed minor and major pentatonics.
• You can purchase all three lessons as one course. This is the advised option as the lessons develop on each other to give you an in-depth practice regime. It’s also cheaper at £50 for all three lessons.
• Purchase lessons individually at £20 per lesson.
The level is ideal for players who want to:
As a guide you should be familiar with:
Things you won’t need to know (but you should definitely not ignore them):
By default, you’ll start every session with complete anonymity i.e. with your mic muted and your camera switched off. You have total control of these at your end.
You can ask questions at any time:
It’s all very friendly and there isn’t such a thing as a daft question – they usually lead to deep, interesting streams of very relevant stuff!
If you want to come along but can’t make the sessions just book in and you’ll receive the full materials and lesson video.
BUT this shouldn’t put you off booking in as you’ll receive the full materials including the video of the complete live session.
Start slowly – if you decide to book just one session but then become interested in other sessions just buy them on the website.