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If you are striving to become a seasoned blues guitar player, learning the art of crafting compelling chord melodies is essential. Learning to solo is one thing. But, having the chops to solo while holding down accompanying harmony parts is a whole other level of sophistication.

Jason Loughlin breaks down how to develop this skill in his Blues Chord Melody edition of Take 5. By starting off simply, you will be able to work your way up to crafting more complex, and compelling chord melody solos.

Here are 3 free blues chord melody guitar lessons from the course. For the full course, check out Jason Loughlin’s Take 5: Blues Chord Melody on TrueFire!

Blues Chord Melody Guitar Lesson – Level 4: Overview


Download the tab & notation for this blues chord melody guitar lesson

Here we’ll be using blues scale and harmonizing it different ways. No matter how we harmonize, we want to keep the blues scale as the highest note of the voicing. In the etude, the scale is supported by major 6th chords, 13th chords and stack 4ths. Using the augmented sound on V chords and V/V chords will help maintain the overall b3rd or bluesy sound for the etude.

Blues Chord Melody Guitar Lesson – Level 4: Performance


Download the tab & notation for this blues chord melody guitar lesson

This etude is over a 12-bar blues in A. In the last four bars, we’re playing the V chord for the first two bars. There is no V|IV progression in the last four. The turnaround is I|bIII|II|bII. We’ll be harmonizing each of these chords with Dom 7th shapes. To recap, the last four bars will sound as V|V|I-bIII|II-bII.

Blues Chord Melody Guitar Lesson – Level 4: Breakdown


Download the tab & notation for this blues chord melody guitar lesson

In this breakdown, we’ll go through our study note-by-note looking at how to harmonize the blues scale with major 6th chords, dominant 13th chords, and stacked 4ths.

Digging these free blues chord melody guitar lessons? Check out Jason Loughlin’s Take 5: Blues Chord Melody.