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If you’re a blues guitar player who is eager to “jazz” up your musicality or a jazz guitar player who feels the need to revisit your roots to bring out a little more soul in your playing, this is the perfect set of lessons for you. Ted Ludwig’s Blues To Bop is an accelerated curriculum designed specifically for blues guitarists who are eager to “jazz up” their soloing and rhythm playing, elevate their harmonic understanding, and take what they already know and expand their improvisational palette of creative approaches.

Building on a foundation of familiar blues chord progressions and scales, Ted demonstrates the root qualities that Blues and Jazz both share. You’ll play your way through a series of soloing performance studies that illustrate how those blues roots evolved in the hands of jazz guitarists – from Blues to Bop!

What is Bop Guitar?

Firstly, Bop guitar playing is a style of jazz guitar playing that emerged in the 1940s and 1950s during the bebop era. Typically comprised of playing fast, complex, and virtuosic solos, bop uses advanced chord voicings and dissonant harmonies. Bop is characterized by its syncopated rhythms, its use of unconventional chord progressions, and its virtuosic and technical demands on the player.

Furthermore, Bop guitarists often use a “walking bass” technique to play a steady stream of eighth notes, similar to a bass player. They also often use fast, complex runs and arpeggios to create a sense of forward momentum in their solos. Some of the most notable Bop guitar players include Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Tal Farlow, and Barney Kessel.

Let’s dig into Ted Ludwig’s course Blues to Bop! These free lessons will help showcase how you can supercharge your blues guitar playing using jazz and bop techniques and styles. See the whole playlist here.

Bop Guitar Lesson #1: Simple Blues in Bb Performance

 

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Free Lesson #2: Visiting the Dom7’s in G – Overview

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Free Lesson #3: Dominant 7 Applications – Demonstration

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Free Lesson #4: Visiting the Dom7’s in G – Performance

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How Does Bop Guitar Help a Blues Player?

Blues guitar players can learn much from bop, as the two styles share many common elements. Some of the key things blues guitar players can learn from bop include:

  1. Improvisation: Bop players are known for their virtuosic and complex solos, which involve a lot of improvisation. By studying bop guitar, blues guitar players can learn how to create more interesting and sophisticated solos.
  2. Chord voicings: Players often use advanced chord voicings and dissonant harmonies, which can add depth and complexity to a blues guitar player’s sound.
  3. Rhythm: Syncopated rhythms and fast runs in solos add a lot of energy and forward momentum to blues compositions.
  4. Technique: While known for its technical demands, studying bop can help blues players improve their technique, especially if they want to play fast and complex solos.
  5. Harmony: The use of unconventional chord progressions is commonplace in bop, which can inspire blues players to create unique chord progressions and add more harmonic interest to their solos.

It’s important to remember that bop guitar and blues guitar are different styles of music and should be approached differently, but incorporating some bop guitar concepts and techniques can help to improve a blues guitar player’s overall sound and technique.

Free Bop Guitar Lesson #5: All Turns in F – Performance

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Free Bop Guitar Lesson #6: Alice and the Bird in Bb – Performance

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Free Bop Guitar Lesson #7: Visiting the Dom7’s in G – Breakdown

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Conclusion

Summing up, There are a few ways you can incorporate jazz guitar techniques into your blues playing to improve your overall sound and technique:

  1. Learn and practice jazz chords: Jazz chords often have more complex voicings than traditional blues chords, which can add depth and texture to your playing.
  2. Study jazz scales: Jazz musicians often use a variety of scales, such as the Dorian, Mixolydian, and Lydian modes, in their solos. Incorporating these scales into your blues playing can give your solos a more sophisticated sound.
  3. Use syncopation: Syncopation is a key element of jazz music and can add a lot of interest and rhythmic complexity to your playing.
  4. Learn to play chord-melody style: This technique is a popular way of playing jazz guitar which involves playing a melody line and accompanying chords simultaneously. This can add a lot of harmonic and melodic interest to your playing
  5. Listen to jazz and blues music and emulate the guitar players you admire. With time, you will develop your own style.

Finally, It’s important to remember that incorporating jazz techniques into your blues playing will take time and practice. Take it one step at a time and have fun experimenting with different ideas.

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