It’s been a while since I’ve written a new article for you, and as you may know I’ve recently returned from Lake Arrowhead for the annual Blues Guitar Unleashed Live event.
What’s always interesting to me is how at each event I notice a common theme… a similar thing that the players seem to struggle with. And with this being the 7th(!) one of these events, I’m encouraged by how the “theme” seems to push forward bit by bit.
This year I saw quite a few players try to “drop in” solos from one of my courses – which is perfect (that’s what they are for, after all!)
For some folks it was Solo 2 from Blues Guitar Unleashed over “The Thrill Is Gone,” for some it was Solo 1 from 5 Easy Blues Solos over “Further On Up The Road.”
Some of the guys that were are little more experienced even went for Solo 4 from Blues Guitar Unleashed over “Stormy Monday” or some other slow blues in G (and they did a pretty fine job of it too!)
Now, you probably know that I believe it’s important to learn complete solos from start to finish – you should at least know a few of them. Learning complete solos gives you something to use in those situations and helps to show you the thousands of intangible little things about learning to play the blues. Things like phrasing, and melodic flow, and what I call the “story form” of your solos… among other things.
But… what happens when you make a mistake or get tripped up in the middle of your solo and get lost?
This is where you ability to improvise comes into play. By also knowing scales and maybe some theory, along with some classic blues licks that will work in most any situation, even if your solo doesn’t go as planned, you can probably still come up with something that will get you by for now.
In modern cars it’s what I call the “limp home mode,” where something is wrong but the car runs at least enough to get you home. All the dashboard lights are on, it’s sputtering, and it’s only going 30 miles per hour… but it’ll get you that last few miles to your house or the service station.
So when you’re practicing your solo that you’re going to drop in to a tune, think about how you’ll handle having to bail at any point in that solo.
Would you go to box 1 and use some licks there?
Would you go to the house pattern and try to make something happen there?
Do you have a few licks that you play all the time that you can use when things go wrong?
If not, that tells you that you might want to get some… and you probably want to spend at least 20% of your time just “winging it” over the tune you plan to play.
Because I think most of the folks will tell you that once you get on stage, the likelihood that it will go as you planned is about .0000000000013%. So you’ll want to give yourself a good chance of hanging in there when things go south 😉
25 replies to "When All Else Fails…"
I’ve been a student of Griffs pretty much since the beginning and have all his courses, I have learned more from him in the last few years then many years of trying to learn from teachers in person and the web combined ! I just get what he puts down and to me thats priceless ! Thank you Griff from the bottom of my heart and I’d like to thank Laura, Griffs wife, for allowing so much of his time to be dedicated to teaching us ! thanks again my Brother !!! Joseph Gasbarrini
Oh, did I forget to mention that Griff is the best teacher on the net… learned more from his exercises than all the other net dudes put together ^ 🙂
I agree whole heartedly!
I get lost all the time in solo’s… ‘ain’t nothing new to me’ Hey, what a great title/theme for a song… Oh shucks, Blue Rodeo probably already gone and done it?
I generally escape back to a root note or a shape I know in the key I’m playing in when the white knuckle panic ride sets in!
Hey Griff,
Looks like y’all had a great time at Lake Arrowhead in Early April 2017, I hope you took some Videos of the Jam sessions (to share with us BGUers in far away countries like Australia) like you did for the last BGU Live in Memphis so that us all BGUers can see how it all went and get some tips from watching how the more experienced BGUers play and learn..
This is a awesome subject which has yet to affect me as I am still learning most of the BGU Courses I have so far but good to know what to do when the time comes.
I have been a bit side tracked by learning some songs on my Electric Acoustic from some song books which shows the Chords as well as the Tab Intros and Solos as well as Getting plenty of learning from the BGU V 2 and other BGU Courses.. It’s a bit of a jumble but giving me plenty of experience in my learning and Practice journey. I am a long way from the solo element yet but will get there.
If I win the lottery one day, I will be coming over to USA to attend one of your BGU Live events..
Michael-Sydney-Australia 14 April 2017.
Yes sir, I have locked up, frozen, forgotten every note on the fretboard, and looked at my bandmates like they had two heads. But, in some rare moments I also got goose bumps during my solo. That was a rare treat. I don’t know what the audience heard, but I loved it…
I totally get the goosebumps thing!…..what a HIGH!!!
As someone who continually screws up the planned solos, I couldn’t agree more with the topic of your Blog!
I seem to always have to fall back on a bunch of licks to get me through my mistakes.
Great Post Griff!
Sorry Griff. Didn’t see your earlier reply about the “guy” thing.
Logically as we were all sailors BGUers could be considered “guys”. If it works for your wife it works for me.
I suggest BGUERS get your course on How to Improvise. Then people would sound better at the jams you organize for us all.
Griff you are the best teacher ever.
I own most of your courses and just purchased soloing without scales and the music theory course.
I’m a guitarist of 50 years.
You are adding so much joy of music to my life. Sounds corney but true.
We women do feel a bit left out. Guitar is a man’s world.
I served in US Navy which was also a man’s world, but even when I was in service women were essential to the Navy. In WW11 women were referred to as WAVES. (Auxiliary heh!) When I served we were all sailors and officers.
I know your wife is a musician too.
I’ve had to play bass just to join the “guys” as often times nobody wants to be the bassist.I prefer rocking out on my Les Paul.
Props to you as a great teacher. How about addressing us as BGUers more often? Or perhaps your wife could think of a better idea.
Thanks for all you do.
Roxy
Griff, Have almost all your courses. Love the new Classic Rock. Can we talk a bit more about Classic Rock too? BTW you never answered my email. How do I actually get in touch?
Thanks, Erik
Good advice Griff.
I have a mate who I play along with regularly in our church who has a saying about such things (and the setting up of equipment).
“Things don’t work until proven otherwise”
The skill is in the proving otherwise, especially when it goes pear shaped halfway through a song. As mentioned by others, the skill is developed by practice and experience.
Truth is if you’re up there playing you’re way ahead of the crowd of could-a-dones and wanna-be’s anyway and any decent muso in the crowd will be cheering you on to greater success. Just do it.
Yep, the moment you stand up on stage something will happen to throw you off your carefully prepared “knock-em-dead” plan. I’m a keyboardist who is learning rock and blues guitar having played bad guitar for years, and only two things get you through: practice and experience. Practice the stuff you know, try new stuff you hear, and get up there and try it. And have a back-up plan – as Griff says, think about what you do if something doesn’t work as expected. Although I did get up on stage once to guest on keys and the entire instrument went dead – not a lot you can do about that except smile sweetly and mime backing vocals.
I have found myself trying to play lead to some some song I know well and just staying mainly on 5 notes of the scale the song is written such as house of the rising sun . It was pretty simple playing something that sounded good. After realizing what key the song was in
What I do, a lot, is just put on the blues channel (usually TV as my cable company offers a bunch of music stations), or even the radio, and try to play along with what ever is on. Sometimes I switch to the jazz, rock or standards channels as well. And I’ve gotten a lot better at doing it over time. Thanks to a lot I’ve learned from you Griff.
Sometimes I work on improvising and playing along with a specific song using youtube. And I find, over time, I get better at that as well.
Maybe this approach will help others.
Thanks Griff!
Hi Griff,
I have enjoyed your newsletters and courses throughout the years.
As a woman, when I read them it can sometimes feel excluding to be referred to as “you guys”, as I’m sure you know that women play blues guitar too. So, in the spirit of inclusiveness, I hope you remember to include us the next time we’re all addressed. We thank you ahead of time.
Koula
I think of that often, as one of our BGU live attendees is often a woman and I’m well aware that there are many great female blues players out there. My comments are never meant to exclude the great women out there – I’d call any group of people “you guys” regardless of their gender, much as my wife does with her friends.
Right on Griff, I’ve only been on stage once, about two years ago. I was only strumming and singing songs that I’d played 100 times before. However, as soon as I stumbled a bit, I fell flat on my face. It was as if my brain had gone to the washroom and left me sitting there. I can only imagine what it would be like to add soloing to that mix. Great advice though, thanks.
I’m more of country music singer I would like to learn more strumming / picking and learn more chords . I have some health issues with neck and shoulder and loosing use of my left arm . Need more time to play and cash so I buy your products looking forward to starting from the beginning of the series . Thanks
Steve
Never a truer words Griff. When you step onto the stage, it ALL changes! Great thoughts and advice as always.
I understand you have redone your blues guitar unleashed program. I purchased mine several years ago and I am curious how much it would cost to get the upgrade. Life took me away from playing for a time and would like to get back into it.
Thanks
Bruce
shoot an email to helpdesk@bluesguitarunleashed.com and we can get you sorted out. There is an upgrade you can use that’s very reasonable.
Excellent advice Griff! Thank you.
Great point! It’s not just when you get off the happy path yourself, it’s figuring out how to bring things back (or keep things from getting worse) when someone goes off path. That’s one thing that comes with practicing with other life forms that you can’t get from backing tracks.
And that happens to *everybody*. When I saw AC/DC last year (about a week before Brian Johnson had to bow out), the first verse of “Have a Drink on Me” was an utter train wreck but they played through it and pulled things together.