This is a great traditional blues lick from Lonnie Johnson in the style of him playing, “See See Rider.”
What I love about this lick is how it shows the mashing together of the major and minor blues sounds to create an unmistakable sound that is so authentic for the blues.
I hope you dig the video!
The TAB is HERE if you need it.
21 replies to "A More Traditional Lonnie Johnson Lick"
I instantly took to this lick and decided I must find the time to learn it well and experiment with it. Throughout the lesson I was hearing places where I felt a strong inclination to proceed slightly differently by making a small modification. Whether I can do that very well remains to be determined, but I think I can..
Griff, that was a simple but great lesson. You are an inspiration.Thank you.
I tried to post two links that might not have gone through. But to find two good resources with links and videos to Lonnie search for the NPR article “Saluting Lonnie Johnson” and a blog by music critic Jas Obrecht “Lonnie Johnson – The Most Influential Blues Guitarist Ever“
Love it! I am a huge Lonnie apologist, even more so after reading Dean Alger’s book. Recently taught myself “Too Late to Cry” and “Tomorrow Night,” but want to learn so much more. It’s just a shame to me he doesn’t get recognition as one of the top guitarist of all time. He played with Bessie Smith, Clara Smith, Vitoria Spivey, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington. Made one of the first jazz guitar records with Eddie Lang. Had pop hits in the 20s, 30s, and 40s, and was part of the folk revival scene in the 60s. A phrase I love about Lonnie is that he is “the guitar hero of your guitar heroes guitar hero.” Truly one of the best.
Thank you.. great lesson. 😎👍
For a little more about Lonnie Johnson, take a look at activemelody.com -EP 248
I love bluesifying notes. I look for them in my lessons! You’re the best Griff! Many thanks!
This sound very much like some of Alvin Lee’s playing on the early 10 Years After recordings.
Agreed, Gary!
Just thought of the song – Me and My Baby off of Cricklewood Green.
Love it!
Thanks Groff. This one is fun to play.
Your as amazing as ever Griff. This is so accessible
This is just terrific. Easy enough for me to play and just sounds wonderful!
Absolutely Awesome
Shows it doesn’t have to be technically difficult to sound good 🙂
That was a good little lick to work with and modify to your own song.
Thanks!!!
Jim Pileggi
That was a good little luck to work with and modify to your own song.
Thanks!!!
Jim Pileggi
always like the mix of major and minor…thanks…later.
cowboy
Hey Griff. Good lesson. Last week (or thereabouts) you did a lesson on arpeggio shapes that I’ve been practicing on every day. I was wondering about how to put those exercises into some sort of use able context to apply them to our playing. Perhaps a lesson on that soon?
Griff you are an awesome tutor, love the great facial expressions you use to highlight key issues, these blogs are brilliant little takeaways and fit so well into the Excellent “How to Jam Alone” (a.k.a. “Playing on the Porch” ) Course that I am at present hammering. Thanks they are much appreciated.
Griff, I’m a relatively new BGU member….working my way through BGU2 (and AGBU). Enjoying them both very much. I love how you teach licks like this one and explain how to use them. I’ve seen (and paid for!) way too many other courses with fancy 5 hour videos of “50 Blues Licks You Need to Know” but they provide no instruction on how and when to use any of them. I’d rather watch a 1 hour of video on 3 or 4 licks with a good explanation of how to use them like you provided here. I’m looking forward to getting through BGU2 and moving on to other courses like Soloing Without Scales and Gig in a Box… Thanks for your efforts!
“one big mess of notes” “bluesifying the third” Griff, what a great teacher you are! Many, many thanks for the exposition and leading this journey.