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Over his life, Josh Smith has earned himself the opportunities to perform and record music professionally from a relatively young age. At just 14, he was sitting in with musicians like Jimmy Thackery, Tinsley Ellis, Kenny Neal, Lucky Peterson, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Johnny “Clyde” Copeland, Double Trouble, and other great influential players. Since then, he has climbed the ranks to become one of the most lauded blues players in the world.

In his course, Blue Highways, Josh Smith lets you in on some of the best tips and approaches he’s picked up over his years of playing with the greats.

Here are 10 free video blues guitar soloing lessons from the course. For the full course, check out Josh Smith’s Blues Highways on TrueFire!

Blues Guitar Lesson – Exploring Outside Pentatonics: Concept 6


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Everyone wants to get outside the pentatonic box. The concepts to do this are not rocket science. Lets explore a few ways to start adding new ideas to our improvisation.

Blues Guitar Lesson – Exploring Outside Pentatonics: Application Demo


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Here’s some examples of ways to break that box. These simple idead can lead you down many new paths!

Blues Guitar Lesson – Rhythm Approaches: Application Demo


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Here’s some examples of rhythm guitar playing with the goal of making things feel good. Try these useful and economical shapes and make them feel good and groove unnacompanied.

Blues Guitar Lesson – Minor Funk in D: Overview


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This minor funk track in D features an eight note pulse and a dominant 4 and 5 chord, but a minor 1 chord. I’m digging in hard.

Blues Guitar Lesson – Minor Funk in D: Performance


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Check out the performance using many ideas we talked about in the first section of the course.

Blues Guitar Lesson – Minor Funk in D: Approach


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Let me explain a little what I was thinking and how I was building my story over this track.

Blues Guitar Lesson – Walkin’ Shuffle in A: Overview


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A good old school walking bass line shuffle in A. This is an essential groove to be comfortable soloing over!

Blues Guitar Lesson – Walkin’ Shuffle in A: Performance


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Now I’m getting My BB King on. I’m really laying hard into the shuffle!

Blues Guitar Lesson – Walkin’ Shuffle in A: Approach


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Now let’s break down some of my thinking on this shuffle. Here we move from a traditional approach to more of my own style halfway through.

Blues Guitar Lesson – Ray Slow Blues in A: Performance


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These are Gospel type RC style changes. Listen and go slow, feel it.

Digging these free video blues guitar soloing lessons? For the full course, check out Josh Smith’s Blue Highways.