Calling All Electric Blues Lovers!
Boost Your Confidence, Skill, and Creativity
By Learning 3 Awesome Blues Tunes!
Imagine having three complete electric blues guitar songs that you can play from start to finish, that sound great – even without a backup band or a singer or anything but you, and your guitar. Pretty cool, right?
Too many people are stuck in a rut of learning the intro riffs for a dozen songs, without ever mastering the entire thing. There’s lots of value to learning complete songs, because you have to learn how to hold someone’s attention by playing something interesting for a longer time. You won’t find any musician getting up on stage and only playing intro riffs or signature solos to a bunch of different songs! Nope – if people are listening to you play guitar, they want to hear something that sounds like a song.
The Challenge of a Single Guitar Player Entertainer
As a single guitar player, you’re pretty limited in what you can do. Let’s face it, you could be the best guitar soloist in the world, but without a band to back you up, it’s all going to fall totally flat. Or, you might be a rock solid strummer, but who wants to listen to you go through a G C D Em progression 6, 7, or 100 times? If you sing, that can help a lot, but now like it or not, your voice has become the main event, carrying the melody, and the guitar is now a backup instrument. Plus, many guitar players can’t (or prefer not to!) sing.
So what’s the alternative?
Spice it up, that’s what! While rhythm on its own quickly becomes boring, and a lonely solo has no context, as soon as you add just a little bit of solo to a little bit of rhythm, and keep the ping pong ball bouncing back and forth between rhythm and riffs, you’ll find that your audience is ready to sit up and pay attention!
One of the most fun and popular ways of learning to do that is to begin learning the:
Rhythms & Riffs of Classic Electric Blues
My name is Colin Daniel, and as a guitar teacher with more than 45 years of experience, I know that some kinds of music lend themselves to teaching certain skills a little better than others.
Early electric blues is filled with lots of great songs that have strong rhythm, but at the same time really leave things open for a single guitar player to be able to stretch his wings, so to speak.
That’s why I decided to put together the Rhythms & Riffs of Classic Electric Blues course. The entire purpose of this course is to teach a single guitar player to be able to play rhythms & riffs together, in one great-sounding, fun-to-play guitar piece. To accomplish that, we’ll be using three very different electric blues songs, each chosen to add something new to what we’re learning, or to add a new style of playing into the mix.
If you want to start learning to play lead guitar, this is a great place to start. You’ll learn some really classic, foundational riffs, how they come out of the scale, and how they fit into the rhythm picture. You’ll also develop your technique for switching between rhythm and lead. Many players have a really hard time switching from one to the other (rhythm to lead). Their perception of where the rhythm is at is off, or their timing is off, and this leads to confusion especially when trying to end off a riff and re-enter the rhythm. This course will address those issues head-on.
Watch Your Creative Abilities Soar To New Heights
Sometimes when you’re playing rhythm for a song, it can begin to feel like it all sounds the same, line after line, verse after verse… If that’s the case, then it’s a sure sign you need a good injection of creativity into your rhythm playing, because rhythm can actually be just as much fun as a solo – it’s just the other side of the same coin, when you’re looking at it the right way.
In order to be creative on the guitar, you need a few different ingredients, all working together. You need to understand some theory, which provides the framework around which you’ll be working. You need the “chops” to physically play the things you want to play… and lastly, you need some good examples to draw from. Throw all that into the pot, give it a strum, and some pretty cool stuff comes out!
In Rhythms & Riffs of Classic Electric Blues we’ll cover all three of those ingredients so you’re left with a complete approach to being creative with your rhythm playing.
The end result will be that your playing naturally stands out from others, it will be tighter and more interesting – and you will have much more fun playing as well. That’s actually a really important piece – if we can get you having fun whenever you’re playing the guitar, then it multiplies everything you learn, automatically. Natural motivation is a powerful force, and if we can but get that engine started, there’s no limits to where it can take you.
Guys like Eric Clapton never got to where they did on pure hard work alone. Sure, they worked their buns off, but there’s a vital ingredient that I’m sure made all the difference – and that’s this: they were making music while they practiced.
The difference between practicing for the sake of practicing, and practicing while you’re creating music is massive. Part of the goal of this course is to get you to the place where your practice time is in fact a time when you’re being creative, because that is far more rewarding than simply doing another scale!
Calling All Classic Electric Blues Lovers
The heart of this course is comprised of three great classic electric blues songs. If you haven’t heard of these songs before, let me tell you that they are all a lot of fun to play, and each one brings its own character to the table. Additionally, each song gives us an opportunity to expand your skill set in a new direction.
Heart Beat Like A Hammer
Peter Green & Fleetwood Mac
Heart Beat Like A Hammer is a real classic dirty electric blues song from the early days of Fleetwood Mac, with Peter Green. This song has a really groovy rhythm riff that you’ll find in tons of blues songs, plus it is loaded with classic 12-bar turnarounds that can be applied universally to nearly any other blues song you want to. If you’re looking for a quintessential blues song that has it all, this is it.
Not too many people know this story, but in some ways, the British artists of the 60’s actually saved American blues and brought it back to the mainstream. Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Keith Richards, among others, were all deeply digging the American blues musicians that were all but ignored in America at the time. The Brits recognized the beauty in the music, added some of their own, and brought it back to American shores where it became bigger and better than ever. Songs like Heart Beat Like A Hammer were part of this early renaissance, and thus form an important part of the story of the blues.
The guitar parts you’ll learn in the course are not an exact transcription of a specific version, but rather a close look at how you, as a single guitar player, can pull off a great sounding blues song like this, all on your own. The focus is on getting the rhythms and riffs all coming together so it sounds awesome even if you’re the only one playing.
Born Under A Bad Sign
Eric Clapton & Cream
This song was written by Albert King – a genuine blues legend – but was picked up by Eric Clapton’s Cream. Learning this song will really make you look at your fingerboard differently, as Clapton used some really cool intervals to pull off the song in the way that he did. This song is a great example of classic blues converted to heavy blues – in fact, Cream did this with a lot of their songs, and this heavy blues approach later became a key link in the bridge towards heavy metal. For instance, Tony Iommi always considered Black Sabbath to be a heavy blues band, despite their association with heavy metal.
In this song, you’ll learn some really cool rhythm riffs, along with enough theory so that you can understand what’s happening and move it to other songs of your choice. Too often guitar players simply learn a song for the sake of the song itself, and forget to draw on the song to learn principles that can be applied to the rest of their playing. In this course, you’ll not only learn some cool songs, your whole level of playing on the guitar is going to increase as you become equipped to figure out what’s happening in songs, and do your own thing with it.
We’ll cover some cool fill riffs – all tabbed out for you – which will give you a perfect opportunity to stretch your skills and morph the rhythm and lead parts together. These are the kind of classic tried-n-true electric blues riffs that everyone wants to have in their back pocket!
Guitar players today are still discussing Clapton’s early playing, which should give you an idea of how influential songs like this have been!
Shame Shame Shame
Jimmy Reed
It’s quite possible you’ve never heard the name Jimmy Reed before, but the Rolling Stones sure knew his name. In fact, they were jamming with Jimmy in the early 60’s – rocking out all those classic blues songs was how they got their start. Jimmy had a unique way of looking at his music that we can learn from.
In this song, we’ll mix three different guitar parts into something that a single player can use to sound awesome. You’ll learn about using triads in your playing, as well as how to do some pretty cool rhythm tricks. We’ll study the pentatonic major, and even break into a bonus section where we’ll look at All Shook Up by Elvis Presley, and how to play it on the guitar. You won’t want to miss this!
The riffs you’ll learn in this song are staples in classic electric blues, but also in today’s rock’n roll. You simply can’t go wrong by adding these to your collection.
Building Your Confidence, One Lick At A Time
Throughout this course, you’re not just learning songs, or interpretations of them. You’re learning how it all works. Truthfully, that is the focus, and the most valuable part of the whole thing. Once you can identify and learn the principles that these great guitar players are using to create their music, then you’ll be able to do the same yourself. Anytime, anywhere.
Say goodbye to the days of the parrot player, only able to repeat what he just heard. Instead, you will be fully equipped to play what you heard AND understand it so it becomes your own, and you’re able to draw on it any time and in any situation you please.
It is important to note that we’re simply using interpretations of these songs and progressions to learn how to play riffs along with our rhythm. If learning these songs note-for-note is what you’re after, then you will be disappointed in this course. We’ll be using different keys than the original, and you will not find any lyrics or transcription of the originals in here either. That being said, from what you learn here, you’ll be close enough that you can easily learn the original on your own later, should you choose.
One of the reasons for this approach is that I want to help you begin to think on your feet, as a guitar player. I want to give you the tools and ideas you need to start getting really creative in how you weave your riffs in between your rhythms, and let’s face it… if I taught you a few songs note-for-note exactly as they were originally written, we’d be going in the opposite direction, wouldn’t we? I don’t want monkey-see, monkey-do students, I want students who understand the concepts behind the songs and are able to apply them creatively to their own playing in whichever way they choose. That’s what I aim at in my courses, because I know from experience that is the approach that will make you the strongest guitar player possible.
At the end of the course, you will find that your confidence on the guitar has improved dramatically. You will have the theory, ability, and know-how to play these songs, and to apply the principles you’ve learned to figuring out other songs on your own later on.
Learn How To Be Creative On Guitar
Learning to be creative on the guitar can be one of the most elusive skills for many players, and yet, once found, one of the most rewarding. Thankfully, being creative doesn’t require any fairy dust – in fact I can teach you ways of looking at the guitar that will naturally bring out your own creativity.
In this course, we’ll be taking a close look at a number of different scales, because the scale is the foundation for all your creativity; it represents some of your most important building blocks that you have to work with. Once you understand that, I’ll get you setup with proper technique for scale practice. Sound nice and creative so far? Haha, I bet you’re thinking I’ve lost it now! No – this foundational stuff is in fact the basis for creativity, and I will demonstrate that to you in the course. We’ll also cover things like how to move the scales up and down into different keys, as well as how the 12 bar works in multiple keys, how it is constructed, its common patterns, turnarounds, and endings. You’ll learn some chord theory, and about chromatic passing notes – also called the blues notes. By the time you get to the end of the course, you will indeed be choosing (and perhaps writing!) your own riffs to add into rhythm parts, giving you a truly creative expression on the guitar.
Of course, we’ll be looking at a ton of practical things in addition to theory – you will find lots of instruction on foundational riffing techniques like hammer ons, pull offs, slides, string stretches, bar chords and other techniques that are very important for playing the blues. We’ll also look at your rhythm playing and cover many different techniques for making that as interesting and captivating as possible!
Learning To Balance Rhythm & Riffs
The heart of this course is to help you learn how to play not only cool electric blues rhythms, but to take that to the next level and throw in some great licks and riffs right there in the midst of your rhythm work. A lot of players really struggle with nailing the timing of that though, and so in this course we’ve included drum tracks to really help you nail the rhythm. Every riff and rhythm you learn will be demonstrated with the drum track on video, and of course, you will have access to the tracks as well to aid your own practice. Once you see and hear it all fitting together, that really starts helping.
Once you’re able to balance out the rhythms and the riffs, and move between them seamlessly, you’ll be amazed at how much your day to day playing changes. This is the kind of playing everyone loves to hear around a campfire or an open mic… and now you’ll be your own jam band! Learning to play in this fashion is also great preparation for joining a band, if that’s something that interests you, because you’ll be a much more versatile player. In a band situation, where you’re actually given some room to have a proper solo, with the skills you learn in this course, you’ll be able to put together a great sounding solo when the need arises.
Is This Course For Me?
This course is not designed for straight up beginners. If that’s you, then head over here instead.
This course is designed for intermediate level players who are already familiar with their chords and rhythms to some degree, perhaps a scale or two, and are now wanting to take their playing to the next level. One of the main goals of this course is to enable you to seamlessly add riffs into your rhythm playing, going back and forth with ease. Along the way, you’ll learn a lot about soloing too!
This course is designed for someone who is struggling to break through to the next level, but even more advanced players will find some valuable gems inside. This is also a great course for players who want to start learning about lead guitar. Whether you know a scale already or not, we’ll get you setup with the scales and techniques you need to make you a better player.
You will develop proper technique for switching between rhythm and lead... seamlessly!
Q. But what if I don’t know the songs that the course uses?
A. That’s okay – it isn’t necessary to know the songs beforehand in order to learn what I’m trying to teach from each one. If you are familiar with the songs, it may help you learn a bit quicker, because you’ll already know where the song is heading, but it isn’t strictly necessary. Everything you need to learn is included right here in this course.
Also, it is important to note that we’re not learning specific songs so much as we are using these progressions to learn a style of playing. The song selection is really just a means of teaching you how to play classic electric blues guitar.
Camera Angles That Guarantee A Good View
In shooting this course, we used three separate camera angles in order to guarantee you always have a good view of the action on the fretboard. There’s nothing quite as annoying as not being able to see what the teacher is trying to convey, and we’ve pulled out all the stops to make sure that isn’t a problem. Sometimes we’ve even pulled the various angles together into a split-screen view, so that you can get the best view of each area as it happens.
An Extra Bonus
Every now and then, you’ll come across a guitar course that actually comes with a book to go with it. I’ve read many of these, and I can tell you from first hand experience, they’re usually little more than collections of (sometimes incorrect) tablature. That’s a big part of why I decided to make a proper book to go with this course. The Course Supplement is a full 92 page book, complete with crystal-clear diagrams, chord charts, tabs, and in-depth explanations of the relevant theory. My diagrams have each been custom-created to match exactly the way I’ve drawn them out by hand for thousands of my one-on-one students.
If you follow the book closely while you watch the DVD, it will magnify what you learn. There are some things covered in one, but not the other, so it really is like a totally separate bonus lesson that thoroughly complements the main video lesson. I know most of my students learn best by seeing things from more than one perspective, and by adding in the written component with the book, I’m giving you that second perspective.
Have you ever looked at a far off object with one eye closed? That’s like what you get with just the video. You can see it clearly, but you can’t quite tell how far away it is… Add the book into the mix and it is like opening your other eye – now you can see everything clearly and the full picture falls into place much more easily.
This book, if it were available to purchase on its own, would easily go for $25… but because it complements the course so completely, I’m including it for free. If you order the DVD version, you’ll get an actual printed copy of the book, and if you order the Download-only version, you’ll get the book on PDF.
100% Risk-Free Satisfaction Guarantee
If you’re hesitant about purchasing online, that’s okay – I understand. In fact, that’s why I stand behind all my guitar lessons with a 100% Risk-Free “No Weasel Clauses” Satisfaction Guarantee. My guarantee states that if for any reason you’re not completely satisfied with the guitar lesson, I’ll give you a complete refund within 60 days of purchase, with no hassles. This completely eliminates the risk on your part – you’ve got nothing to lose, and everything to gain by trying Rhythms & Riffs of Classic Electric Blues!
45+ Years of Guitar Teaching Experience,
At Your Service
So who is this Colin Daniel guy? Well, without tooting my own horn, I wanted to assure you that you’re in capable hands. I’ve been a professional musician and teacher for nearly 45 years… I’ve played hundreds of gigs, led dozens of bands, written dozens of original songs, and personally taught 5147 guitar players, many of whom have gone on to become professionals in their own right. Recently I’ve been able to reach thousands more students via the internet, and I’d love to help you learn guitar too!
Let's Recap What's Included
In this 4 DVD, 5+ hour video course, Rhythms & Riffs of Classic Electric Blues, you will gain:
Are You Ready For Some Serious BLUES Action?
The heart and soul of Rhythms & Riffs of Classic Electric Blues is three amazing blues songs. We'll learn the rhythm parts, as well as how to slip riffs in and weave it all together into a single, seamless piece of music!
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$100
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Are you ready to become a Riff Ninja like me, and take your guitar playing to levels that you never before dreamed possible?
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Keep on Rockin’
PS: Rhythms & Riffs of Classic Electric Blues will teach you how to develop creative and interesting blues rhythm parts, and it will give you a solid foundation in weaving riffs seamlessly in between your rhythm playing.
PS. If for any reason you’re not satisfied, you’re protected by my 100% Risk-Free Satisfaction Guarantee for a full 60 days.
PS. Both the DVD and the Download Only version include the same lesson material: the main video lesson, as well as the bonus book. The DVD version includes download access, with the additional convenience of having everything on DVD as well.