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In the realm of blues guitar, there are a vast array of individual styles and fusions. We can find one of these unique fusions in the soloing styles of Jim Oblon. When we blend the early styles of greats like Howling Wolf and Willy Johnson with modern American and British blues concepts, we get a style that Jim likes to call, RetroACTIVE Electric Blues.

In his course, RetroACTIVE Electric Blues, Jim Oblon digs deep into this style and passes on essential, traditional blues techniques and approaches.

Here are eight electric blues guitar lessons from the course. For the full course, check out Jim Oblon’s RetroACTIVE Electric Blues on TrueFiere

Soloing Over Changes


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Now that we have our feet wet in this concept, we’ll grab our snorkel gear and swim to the deep end of the pool! This is a country type background track, and it features four chords to play over. All the same rules apply. Blues on the 1 chord, and the 9, b7th, 5 and 3 on the other chords.

South Indian Polyrhythms

In this section, we’ll learn an introduction the the South Indian rhythm system called solkattu. This is something that can be practiced away from your instrument, and it will make your brain work in a way that it’s not used to. If you would like to study this further, there’s a wonderful book by David Nelson called Solkattu Manual.

Two-Beat in A: Overview


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Blues in A. This is my version of “Nashville guitar” playing. Here’s some chicken pickin’ along with a licks that lives in the fast lane!!

Two-Beat in A: Performance


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Don’t be afraid of playing above the 12th fret. It’s important to note that everything you can play below the 12th fret, you should be about to play above the 12th fret. That’s my belief and philosophy. Do you need to practice getting some licks going “high up” on the fretboard?

Two-Beat in A: Concepts & Approaches


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Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons are a couple of great boogie-woogie piano players. One of the first phrases I played comes from being influenced by piano players. Check these two guys out. Are there some phrases you can “borrow” from these guys, and use them to play over this two-beat in A?

Slow Bb Blues: Overview


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On this blues, we stay on the 5 chord with no “walk down”. This is an older style blues, and can give you a chance to focus on playing over the 5 chord.

Slow Bb Blues: Performance


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In the opening lick, I play what I consider a organ sounding lick. If you’d like to check out organ trio style music, make sure to check out the Jimmy Smith tune “Back at the Chicken Shack”.

Slow Bb Blues: Concepts & Approaches


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This is the second time I’m mentioning it, but I think it’s a really important track. The Sidney Bechet song “Blue Horizon” is a powerhouse of blues licks. I would suggest transcribing the whole solo, and incorporating these licks into you vocabulary. I still find inspiration in this solo.

Digging these free electric blues guitar lessons? Check out Jim Oblon’s RetroACTIVE Electric Blues.