5 Easy Blues Songs

[JffKnt]

Griff

I just now counted. I have 29 of your courses/content. Granted, that includes some "bonus" freebees that came with other courses, BGU2, for example. Point is, I'm a customer that is familiar with your courses.

The format of 5EBSNGS is by far, better than any of the other stuff you put out in my opinion. Here's why.

You have 2 guitar parts to learn for each song; rhythm and lead. Playing with backing tracks is all well and good. But playing with another musician is much better. This course is perfect for that.

Not only that, but with your other courses you have minus1 backing tracks (no guitar). 5 EBSNGS has the minus 1 backing tracks for each guitar. AND it has minus 2 backing tracks (with no guitars, only drums and bass) so if 2 people want to get together, they can each play their own guitar parts over the bass and drums backing tracks. That's pretty near half of a band playing live. Good stuff.

AND I noticed on another thread it came up that playing over only drums and bass (no other harmonic instruments) is good practice in and of itself to keep track of time and where you are in the progression. With this course I can practice either rhythm or lead without the other guitar, only bass and drums. That in and of itself is a "hidden" bonus that comes with the course.

I also like the *easy* format. *Cough*Cough* It ain't that easy for me. But not so difficult that I can't learn it. I've only gone over 2 songs so far (Al's Blues and King Strutt). I'm not quite done with the lead on King Strutt (the extra long licks are a challenge to memorize). I am really enjoying the course.

I would like to see more course content like this.

Also, since this course is designed for 2 guitars, I am a little uncomfortable sharing with others who have not paid. But it seems like it would be okay to share with someone who wants to play the songs in this course with me since that is what the course is designed to do. What are your restrictions on my sharing your content with others in this regard?

 

[JffKnt]

Been working on this "course" for a couple months (I think it's been that long; time flies). I've gotten 2 songs memorized start to finish. Not memorized good enough, but pretty good. That's Al's Blue's and King Strut. I'm working on Juke Joint Shuffle now. It's coming along pretty well.

Here is my main observation after having this course for a couple of weeks. I love it.

To be honest, I wasn't going to buy the course because on the course description page the songs all sound so flippin' "hoaky" (or something that isn't "cool"). To my surprise, I can't believe how much I like playing these songs. I feel like I can actually play. And it's fun playing them. And they sound good when I play them.

I haven't played any of these tunes with anyone else so far...the course is written with 2 guitar parts for each song: rhythm and lead. But the rhythm guitar parts seem pretty easy for the most part (some of the timing is a little weird) so that a reasonably proficient intermediate guitarist should be able to play any of them in pretty much no time at all. I'm looking forward to really trying to commit these 5 songs to memory so I can play them instantly at any time. Maybe one day I'll run into someone who can play a little and wants to think of something to play. Well, these songs are it. And maybe I'll modify/tweak a little in certain places so that they don't sound so hoaky. Griff seems to encourage this by inviting students to substitute other rhythm ideas and lead ideas with what's in the course's content. I don't think it would be hard to make the songs sound quite a bit different than how they're presented with just simple changes.

If you're thinking about this course and you're not sure...don't let the sound of the songs put you off. They really are very cool. And they are challenging (for me) to learn but not so difficult that they're too far beyond my current abilities.

As an afterthought, I think Griff is a brilliant guitar teacher. All the materials in all his courses, including this course, he wrote/composed for students to use to learn how to play the guitar. This is what makes learning with Griff so good.

And to think Griff wrote these 5 songs from scratch to be used by students as a learning tool. It's remarkable.

 

[JffKnt]

Update. Today I just played the *lead* guitar part for Juke Joint Shuffle in it's entirety start to finish with the lead and rhythm guitars playing on the backing track. The next step in the process, for me, is to start playing it over the backing track without the lead guitar part and determine whether I'm even getting close. I haven't played it flawlessly. I played it about 90-95% with no mistakes. A few rough spots, but I mostly have it memorized. It's time to start playing it without the lead guitar playing on the backing track which is a crutch for me. Now I want to start playing it with no help from Griff.

Before I started learning the last part of this song today, I played through King Strut and Al's Blues. I can pretty much play them, but I don't "own" them. They're coming along. I think the next one I'm going to start is Banana Phil. That will leave the slow blues (Back Alley Blues) as the last one in this course.

Griff mentions this at the beginning of the course, and I alluded to it in a post above this; the course is called *Easy*. And so it is. But not too easy. It's been taking me 4-5 weeks or so to memorize a song. And that's probably an hour or more of practice 6 days out of the week. The songs are not out of reach for me, but there are parts where it is definitely a stretch for me to play. But nothing that's so far advanced that I can't do it. I like this course a lot. At my current rate, this may be the first course I got from Griff that I learn all of the material included in the course. 2 more songs to go. The course is a lot of fun.

 

[JffKnt]

Okay. Here's another update. I played all the way through the "melody" and the "solo" of Banana Phil today. I can play the other parts of the "lead" guitar part. I'm playing over the full backing tracking including Griff's lead guitar to help me with my timing (and choice of notes). This is important. With this one, to learn it I reduced the tempo (without changing pitch) by -15%. +++ This really helped me learn it. I'm also looking at the tab while playing, so I don't have it memorized yet. (Same with King Strut)

I don't have it down yet, but I'm getting it. My next step in learning is going to be to speed it up to 100% with Griff's lead guitar still playing on the backing track until I can play it up to speed. I don't think it will be a problem as the major challenge with this songs (as with the others in this course) is memorizing the licks. Playing them I don't find too challenging except for playing the *major* notes especially in box 1. Griff mixes the major and minor sounds in the same licks and that kind of threw me when it comes to learning/memorizing.

Overall, I think I'm getting close to learning Banana Phil. And I've been practicing/learning/playing Juke Joint Shuffle this last week. What a fun song to play.

So now I'm going to be trying to get somewhat proficient at playing these first four songs. Banana Phil, Al's Blues, King Strut, and Juke Joint Shuffle. In the meanwhile I'll be starting on Back Alley Blues pretty soon.

To be honest, I haven't spent any time on the *rhythm* guitar parts in any of these songs beyond listening to them and watching Griff go through them when I begin to learn each new song. So I don't know what, if any, challenges the rhythm parts will present. I don't think it will be too tough to play the rhythm parts in any of these songs except for maybe Back Alley Blues. But we'll see when I go back to revisit the rhythm guitar parts.

If I keep going at this rate and learn the last song, Back Alley Blues, this will be the first course I have from Griff that I went through the ENTIRE course without letting anything else distract me before completing the course. And I've been with Griff since 2014. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever finished any of the courses I've got from Griff. This will be the first. And by far, for me anyway, this course has turned out to be the most fun.

+++ I use the free, open source app Audacity to reduce the tempo without changing pitch. Audacity is free to download. To slow the pitch I load the song into Audacity. Then I select the part of the song I want to slow down (in this case I selected the entire song by hitting ctrl/A). Then go to the EFFECT tab and in the drop down click TEMPO. Then in the box that opens I change the PERCENT by typing in the minus sign and then the number, -15. Maintains the pitch, but slows the song so it's easier to learn. OR I can work on any part of the song by selecting it (hold the button down on the mouse and drag across the section of the song you want to work on). Then when you play it, Audacity will only play the part of the song you "selected". To put it on a repeat loop, hold down the Shift key while pressing play. Then you can focus on the part of the song you need to by selecting it, slowing it down, and repeating it. One of the most effective ways to learn new material, and Audacity is free (if somewhat "clunky").

 

[jmin]

Good work Jeff! I keep telling myself that I've got to get focused on something again. This sounds like a fun course!

 

[JffKnt]

Good work Jeff! I keep telling myself that I've got to get focused on something again. This sounds like a fun course!

I've had a lot of fun with it so far. I made a concerted, focused effort to do this course. But I've gone through it too fast to get a good handle on any of the songs (so far). After I learn the last song, I'm going to spend some time going over all these songs to try to really memorize them and learn them so I can just play them automatically, on demand. I'm not there yet.

One thing I'm beginning to realize; I'm going to quit getting in a hurry to learn the next thing be it a new song or lesson. I need to step back and just enjoy the ride.

While learning and playing these songs, it occurs to me that Griff really choose his licks carefully for this course. I haven't taken the time to analyze, but from the sounds of it Griff matches the notes in the licks with the chord tones, and they just sound amazing. And when I am counting through a lick that I know well, WOW, those notes just sit with the chords so naturally. A few times while I was playing, I caught myself listening to the sound almost as though it were someone else playing...it sounds good. That messes me up because the sound distracts me and I just stop playing trying to process the amazing sound; meanwhile the backing track keeps going. It took me a little while to get used to how good it sounds where it doesn't distract me from playing.

The nice thing about this course is that when you finish a *lesson* you know a whole song, not just an isolated 24-bar solo. When you finish the course you'll know 5 whole stand-alone songs. And each song sounds different than all the others so there's a lot of variety.

Highly recommended. If you get it and decide it's not for you, get a refund. Nothing to lose.

 

[Tangled_up_in_Blue]

Thanks for the update on your progress with this course Jeff.
I too have spent a lot of time with this course since it came out and absolutely love it. Like you I have found the songs so much fun to play. I have 4 songs committed to memory and now work on them daily to get them right in the pocket. I have gone through the rhythm part to each course, as well as the lead, and find it is a great way to practice rhythm work in context. I have found the rhythm to Back Alley Blues to be very tiring on the fretting hand so that is a good lesson in its self!
I am working on this course alongside HTJTBA, and Texas Hideout (much harder than 5EBSNGS but I have been working on it for several months). They are both a lot of fun, classic blues licks and rhythms.
In a few months when I am happy with how the 5EBSNGS sound (at least to me!) I want to progress to BGIAB songs. I really enjoy learning full songs like this and get a great deal of satisfaction from putting the jam track on and playing through the whole song.
BGU has been such an inspiration to me since I discovered Griff late last year. Thanks @Griff for your amazing courses.

 

[Griff]

Man, so great to hear all of this, and somehow I missed it until just now! @Tangled_up_in_Blue thank you for @ tagging me so it was brought to my attention.

@JffKnt if you want to play with a buddy and want to share the rhythm part, for example, I'm fine with that if it makes it fun

 

[Silicon Valley Tom]

This looks very interesting! For some reason the name "5 Easy Blues Songs" frightened me, as I thought that you had to sing along with the music. No one - even myself - wants to hear me sing anything!

Tom

 

[BraylonJennings]

I like Jeff's comment on enjoying the lessons a bit. Its a great joy to be able to rip off a solo in a blues, even if it's not perfect. A 36 bar solo took a couple months just to memorize, a month later it's not perfect, but it gets closer every time. The learning is tough but the payoff is worth it. I try to find or create backing tracks in different keys, also, for variety.

 

[JeffreyS]

Maybe obvious but you can record yourself playing rhythm to the bass and drums only track then record the solo over the top. You could even play a second rhythm part that you write. Think I will but this course

 

[JffKnt]

Maybe obvious but you can record yourself playing rhythm to the bass and drums only track then record the solo over the top. You could even play a second rhythm part that you write. Think I will but this course

I did that last month in another thread entitled "Al's Blues". I'm not real happy with it, my first go at any of the 5 songs in this package.

 

[JffKnt]

I'm getting to learn the 5th song for me in the series, "Back Alley Blues". For some reason I put if off until last. Turns out I like playing it a lot just like all the rest of them. My favorite is "Juke Joint Shuffle". Without a doubt.

I plan on eventually recording both parts of each song over Griff's Drums/Bass backing tracks. I rushed out my first attempt at recording "Al's Blues". I'm not real happy with it. I just barely got it to the point where I could kind of sort of play it when I recorded it. I know I can do better. And even though I can kind of play the rest of them there is at least "one little part" in each one where I have to smooth out the rough spots before I record. But I am going to record all 5, both guitars, at some point. As a matter of fact, in keeping with the theme, "I'm not buying another course until I get through this one", I may not even record anything else until I record both parts of all 5 of these songs.

This is my favorite course of all the ones I got from Griff (and I have several dozen or more). I hope Griff follows up on this course with at least one or two more just like it. And Griff, by the way, I have both of your "Blues Gig In A Box" courses and if you could replace the keys with a second guitar part you could put out a couple more courses without too much more work. Sell a discounted add-on to the originals by creating a second guitar part with new backing tracks. And the new 2-guitar course could be a stand alone for anyone who hasn't purchased the original (with keys) if they'd rather have no keys and 2 guitars.

If you do make a new course like "5 Easy Blues Songs" try not to make it too much more difficult from a technical standpoint than the original as this one is not necessarily that easy for me. And thanks for this great course as well as all your other courses, paid and gratis. I wish I had this kind of stuff when I first picked up a guitar all those years ago. Of course, no computers and internet back then, so I don't know how this kind of content could have been packaged for a self learner. But at least it's here now.

 

[JffKnt]

I just uploaded my 1 recording of King Strut on another thread. Not perfect, but it's coming along.

 

[leftymike01]

Jeff
Thanks for the Insight on this course,I will have to dig into it today

 

[Chris_NC]

Good reviews and feedback in this thread. I've been working on Back Alley Blues for a few weeks and love both the rhythm and lead parts. The last part that I need to work on is the section with the tremolo picked triads. I can follow along and get the triads, but have some work to do on the tremolo picking. Any tips out there for how tackle that technique?

 

[PeterSchroeder]

I don´t want to perform threadomancy but this seems to be the right place to ask - I bought this course but haven´t started it yet as I still work on BGU2.0 . Currently working on rhythm up to minor blues and solo 2 - is this course about as difficult as this or do I need to train more before I tackle it ? Absolutely love the idea of learning both rhythm and lead and would like to team up with a friend to play together and swap roles...

 

[JffKnt]

I think you can start working on 5 Easy Blues Songs anytime. Just don't let your BGU course gather too much dust while you learn 5 Easy Songs.

 

[BraylonJennings]

If you are up to solo 2 in BGU2, you are probably ready for at least a couple of these songs if not all of them. Only one way to find out!