Lost your password?

These 5 free guitar lessons are from Brad Carlton’s Guitar Lab: Solo 12-Bar Blues. This course is organized to guide you through the basics of playing a 12-bar blues progression in the key of E with a fingerstyle picking hand approach. Each lesson examines specific rhythmic gridworks for both the bass (thumb) and melody (fingers). This approach will systematically increase your coordination, thus freeing you up to play unison as well as contrapuntal lines.

Guitar Lab: Solo 12-Bar Blues: Rhythm 101 pt. 1

Download the tab & notation for this guitar lesson.

The simplest rhythmic approach is to play quarter notes in both the bass and/or the melody. This lesson will focus on playing just the thumb or just the finger to prepare you for later lessons which will use them both at the same time.

Guitar Lab: Solo 12-Bar Blues: Rhythm 101 pt. 2

Download the tab & notation for this guitar lesson.

This lesson will demonstrate shuffle 1/8 notes and how to apply them to the bass and melody.

Guitar Lab: Solo 12-Bar Blues: Rhythm 101 pt. 3

Download the tab & notation for this guitar lesson.

This lesson will demonstrate 1/8 note triplets and how to apply them to the bass and melody.

Guitar Lab: Solo 12-Bar Blues: Two Voices pt. 1

Download the tab & notation for this guitar lesson.

Whenever the bass and melody are playing notes of the same time value, it’s beneficial to think of the thumb and finger(s) as playing “together” as opposed to the opposite scenario, where the fingers are “alone” (bass and melody playing opposite of each other). This lesson is an example of the “together” approach in a 1/4 note grid.

Dig these Guitar Lab: Solo 12-Bar Blues guitar lessons? Download Brad Carlton’s Guitar Lab: Solo 12-Bar Blues for much more including tab, notation, and jam tracks!