30 Easy Blues Riffs That Will
Inject New Life Into Your Solos
Playing great sounding blues licks or solos is easier than you think...
Perhaps you’ve watched someone play a guitar solo before, and thought to yourself “I wish I could do that!” Well, I’m happy to tell you it’s probably easier than you might think. In fact, if you have some basic familiarity with the guitar (can play a few chords), I can get you on the road to jamming the blues.
In order to play great sounding blues riffs, there are two important steps to get started.
The first step is learning a scale pattern. Why is the scale so important? Because all the notes you’ll play in a riff or solo will come from the scale. Once you know your scale, you know what you have to work with, and things become a LOT simpler! Many people try to skip this essential step, and instead try playing ‘by feel,’ in other words, just rummaging around on the fretboard looking for notes that sound good. That way is inefficient at best, and by simply learning a basic scale pattern you can put yourself far ahead of such players.
The second step is learning riffs that work with that scale. What is a riff? Well, it’s a group of notes played in a pattern to create a mini melody. Sometimes it’s used to begin a song, or maybe it is part of the rhythm and repeats many times. Or, it can be part of a solo, which is constructed of many riffs all pieced together to create a complete musical story.
Why Do I Need Riffs?
As we just discussed, a riff is a phrase of notes that creates a mini-melody. Most solos are actually just a long string of riffs, one after the other. Sometimes you’ll hang on a particular note for a while, before launching into the next riff, but generally speaking, a solo is 95% riffs. Therefore, if you want to solo, you’d better know some riffs!
The more riffs you have at your disposal, the more options you’ll have at your fingertips when it comes time to solo. If you find yourself constantly running out of ideas when you solo, then it might be time to learn some new licks!
Why The Blues?
Over the years I’ve taught thousands of students, and they always bring me their favorite songs from different genres that they want to learn. In many of these situations, I’m able to show them how the song they want to learn traces its roots back to the blues. In fact, many of the artists they like got their start playing the blues! It might surprise you that rock, metal, country, pop and many other genres have been heavily influenced by the blues.
For that reason, the blues is a common denominator, which makes it a great place for all guitar players to start. Once you learn a cool blues riff, it can be very easily adapted to the style of your choice. For metal, add some distortion, play it really fast, maybe add in some chromatic passing notes. For country, play it clean with a little twang. Regardless of the style you want to play, the blues is a great foundation and will work as a springboard into whichever musical style you choose.
You’ll find that the 30 blues licks I’ve taught in this course are definitely bluesy and have been influenced by many famous blues artists, but these riffs really are universal guitar riffs that sound great in any genre, and can also be easily adapted to the style of your choice.
In the Beginner Blues Riffs course, we’ll cover 30 unique riffs. In most cases, I’ll let you know where the influences for those riffs came from. You’ll find influences from these artists, and more:
Is This Course At My Level?
This course is not a full “beginner” course in the sense that it teaches you how to play guitar from the absolute beginning. You do need to know a little bit about your guitar, and you should already be comfortable playing some basic chords. If that’s the level you’re at, and you’re looking for an introduction to blues riffs and soloing, then this is the course for you!
This course was designed with the beginner in mind, as all the riffs have been chosen to be fairly easy for an inexperienced player to learn and master. My goal is for the course to be enjoyable, and when you master something quickly, that’s fun! In the course you’ll learn all about the scales you need to know to play these riffs, so if you’ve never played a scale before, that’s okay!
Neither is this an advanced course on soloing. If you already know some riffs and scales, and how they fit together, then this course is going to move too slowly for you. I cover the material quite slowly, which is perfect for a beginner, but can be frustrating for someone more advanced.
Many people try to learn new riffs simply by copying how they are played, without relating them to a scale pattern. In this course, you will learn them from the scale, so you really learn where they come from. This really helps you remember them better, and have them easily accessible to you at all times.
The Best Place To Start - Open Scale Riffs
The riffs taught in this course are all taught from open scales, which are the easiest for a beginner to start with. The great thing about learning this way is that the open scales can be easily adapted to closed scales later on, and then moved up the fretboard into other keys. In this course, I’ll show you how to do that, so even though we’ll be spending most of our time in just one key, you’ll actually be learning how to move these riffs into any key of your choice. This multiplies the 30 riffs many times over!
PDF Course Book Included
In my one on one guitar lessons, I’ve always blended written material and practical teaching. I find that the combination is a more powerful approach than simply using one or the other separately. For that reason, I’ve included a course supplement book along with this course. This book isn’t simply a collection of tabs to help with the video, but you’ll actually find some of the theory and concepts we talk about explained and even diagrammed in there. If you follow along in the book as you go through the course, you’ll find it really helps confirm things you’re learning!
Tabs for all the examples are included in the PDF book as well, along with the names of the influencing artists where appropriate. The book is available as a PDF file, so you’ll be able to download the book and print it out yourself, or just use it on your computer.
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 Beginner Blues Riffs!
100% Risk-Free Satisfaction Guarantee
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 over 40 years… I’ve played hundreds of gigs, led dozens of bands, written dozens of original songs, and taught over 5000 guitar players, many of whom have gone on to become professionals in their own right. Recently I’ve been able to reach even more students via the internet, and I’d love to help you learn guitar too!
Are You Ready To Start Riffing Like Never Before?
Beginner Blues Riffs is a three-hour lesson focused solely on the basic scales needed to learn riffs, and then of course, the riffs themselves which is the bulk of the course. You'll get:
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Are you ready to become a Riff Ninja like me, and take your blues soloing to levels that you never before dreamed possible?
Keep on Rockin’
PS: The Beginner Blues Riffs lesson will give you a solid foundation in basic scales, with 30 cool blues riffs to use in your soloing. You can benefit from this course up even if you’ve never played a scale before or soloed a note in your life.
PS. If for any reason you’re not satisfied, you’re protected by my 100% Risk-Free Satisfaction Guarantee for a full 60 days.