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A well-planned and easy-to-follow compilation of basic blues courses. I found having the tab to refer to quite useful. Looking forward to moving on to the next set.
i finished all the parts but now i want to go back and go over the riffs and combining them, etc..but it won’t let me. why not?
A well thought out and easy to follow collection of of basic blues lessons. I found having the tab to refer to quite helpful. Looking forward to advancing to the next set.
Good question, Natasha! Switching gears is never easy at first. Tabs will really start making sense when you finger-pick rhythms and play melodies. Tabs are visual helpers to achieve the right notes. Do you absolutely need them? Maybe not right now but, as you become more adept and adventurous, you’ll grow to love tabs.
great
I finally master the lesson, though not at top speed. I sat back and waited for my agent to call me with a booking, but the phone line must have been down………….but I had a hoot. yee haw.
Love it!
Marked complete! That feels great. And I’m relearning to read music as well. PLUS my eyes are keeping up with the music, the chord, and single note changes. Ready for this weeks blues jam!
Finally, a small win! Was able to play along without totally messing up!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Really enjoying this. …how long before my finger tips stop hurting 🙂
Never. It’s a good pain, though.
I like the layout of your lessons. They are challenging for a beginner and reinforcing at the same time. I wish there were a way to access the tab without having to print it out.
the download tab does not match the jamming video
Love the teaching style, very easy to follow
Cool I now know 12 barr blues……
I just realized that I am suppose to make a comment at the end of each lesson. Silly me. This is very exciting as I feel that I am close to putting chords together and making music that makes sense or at least that I am starting to actually play the guitar. Since I didn’t make comments on the previous lessons I will say I am ecstatic on your teaching and my progression. I can’t wait to go further and show my wife.
Wow!!!
This is actually the first time I’ve tried a riff with a backing track! I had to play it a number of times before I could play without mistakes… but I did it! This style of learning really is exciting
Been away from this site for awhile owing to family illness (mom and sister both have been diagnosed with colon cancer and sister recently staged at IV). Life is not for the meek. Trying to get back on track as this offers an opportunity for another kind of focus, peace, and serenity. Every time I hit those strings I am at the ocean (my fave place) smelling that wonderful salt air and the warmth of the sun on my back. These courses offer me a chance for re-entry into my lifelong wish — to play guitar.
Blessings on your guitar time, Pamela. Your description of the peace you find there shows great opportunity for self-renewal to care for your family.
Tried using the A minor pentatonic blues scale for jamming over this and it seemed to work okay. Any other scales you’d recommend?
I’m loving it. Look forward to each lesson.
I’ve been teaching myself with cords i’m Finding it hard to switch to tabs is it a must?
Natasha,
Tabs are a great way to interpret and communicate music, especially on the guitar. I won’t say that they are a must, but I would strongly recommend continuing to work with them. The more ways you can interpret music the better off you are 🙂 It’s like having a toolbox with a bunch of tools in it. It will take some time, but hang in there you will get it 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
You’ll get it Natasha. Keep up the good work!
well done got it
THIS IS GREAT, I LOVE IT.
Great stuff. Sure wish there was three speeds like in the daily lessons though. Would love to pump that jam track up double time!
Great blues riffs .Whats next?
Can hardly wait. I completed this a week ago .
Albert,
Dive on into the academy you can pick from a whole bunch of different courses 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Very enjoyable.
I have found that there is a comfort level between playing different guitars. I have a Taylor and an Ovation. The Ovation seems to be easier to navigate. My guess is with comfort of consistency, other guitars will be easier to adopt?
I have a $250 Yamaha. My friend who is a professional musician has a $2,500 Taylor which I played. It was 100 times easier to play than my guitar hands down. I need to find another guitar. This thing is turning the tips of my fingers into nerve damaged lumps of stone.
The first step might be a set up by a good repair person? I got an old 12 string from a friend, which he didn’t like because of complaints similar to yours, so I had it set up with my preferred strings. Ease of playing and intonation improved greatly. Some set up may be necessary on any guitar you upgrade too?
Thank you for the tip. I have been trying to play / practice for two years now but find my fingertips get too sore to practice. Some days it feels fine, others, it doesn’t take long for them to hurt too bad to continue. I have two guitars and one seems better than the other at times… but not always.
Playing along with Tony; that was fun. I hope to play that groove with my guitar pal, Alison.
re fresh does not work still stuck lol
Thanks Terry I have received every one of your messages and am still working on trying to find what is causing the issue. Thanks for your patience while I try and work this out, in the meantime try clicking the gray checks on the course home page to see if that will allow you to complete the course in it’s entirety.
Cheers,
Tony
I completed 11 of 12 lessons at 91%, how do I get to the 12th/100%??
Carl,
Sorry about any confusion, at the course home page you can click on the greyed out check next to the lesson and that will mark the course complete. We are currently working on fixing this issue 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
I’ve completed 10 of 12 blues 101 classes and don’t see how to get to the last 2 lessons. Help.
Michael,
I believe if you refresh the page it marks it all complete… trying to sort out a technical bug with that at the moment 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Great. Thanks for letting me know. Refreshing didn’t solve the issue. Still showing 10 out of 12 steps completed – 83%. I’ll check back at a later time. Gonna move on to the next lessons. Great stuff! Thank You!
I’ve completed 10 of 12 blues 101 classes and don’t see how to get to the last 2 lessons. Help.
Roger,
Shoot support@tonypolecastro.com a quick email and we can help you out.
Cheers,
Tony
Do you want to jam with B.B. King? I heard a song today called ” Chains N Things” and had a light bulb moment. You can play the 12 bar blues riff starting at the 5th fret just like in the video and it sounds great. I pulled it up on YouTube, it’s the one that has over 1.6M views. That way you can practice it over and over again. Have fun.
Hey Carl. Thanks for the tip. I´m going to look that up. 🙂
Good deal Peter. Let me know how it goes.
Thanks Carl, just gave that a try…..not very (audibly) pretty on my part but some of it sounded okay and hey, I was jammin’ with the King!
Appreciate the suggestion
THANKS for the sweet link – once you take the FretWiz class you find you can apply this pattern in just about any key with any blues song. Keys to the kingdom!
Ok, need some help here, can’t seem to find the backing track. Does anyone know where it is located? 🙂
I believe its the blues jamming
Thanks Ed, I found it when I went to the next lesson. Got confused because he said the track was way back when, lol, and since I couldn’t find it in the previous lessons, I just went to the next and there it was!! 😉
small win, although my Timing is off, it did it!
Great lesson thanks
#cheeeehoooo
ouch…my fingers have blisters…a beginner at this and learning to do something I have always wanted to do. This is exciting and fun regardless of how my fingers feel at the moment….lol
I am in the same position as you. And I could not agree more.
I was almost through the Slide Guitar lessons with Tony F. when I had to complete these building block courses. Happy I did now, as it gave me some fundamentals I needed. I already varied my approach at a local blues jam to include picking the E and A strings instead of just strumming the chords. Just have to keep working on it.
This helped me so much and has given me confidence!!!!
It has been 45 years since I touched a guitar and man, this blues beginner taught me so much….and kicked my butt at the same time. Nice sense of accomplishment and love the way the course is taught and progresses. It took me only two run throughs with Tony’s backing track to match the beat……now to keep practicing this whole course for a few more days till it’s solidly in place (hope that’s all the longer it takes….lol).
Great work Robert!!! Glad you dove right in and are feeling the momentum build!!! Keep it up!!!
Cheers,
Tony
This was so much fun. As always, I love Tony’s approach to straight forward teaching. Each concept makes sense right from the start. I never find myself wondering how or why he got there.
Yup! These are bottom end bass guitar lines in a Blues Jam. Nice to revisit
Help. I have completed Blues 101 through Blues Riffs, Blues Jamming and it says I am 83 % complete, but I can’t see how to finish Blues 101 because there are no more courses listed and it says I can’t go on to the next set of classes because I haven’t finished Blues 101. How do I get to the last 17%???
Elizabeth,
It sounds like one of the topics may be left unchecked. Be sure to go through and make sure everything is marked complete 🙂 If for any reason everything checks out just shoot us an email at support@tonypolecastro.com and we will be sure to get you all setup 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Yes! Playing the “riffs” is new language for me, and in the key of A on the fifth fret was really cool along with the playback.
Big light on for me! Thanks!
Enjoyed playing a sound I’ve heard frequently. I wasn’t so good at jamming and doing my own thing with it, but there’s always tomorrow and next week. Thanks Tony.
Wow! I’ve loved this, Ive heard it so many times, did not realise how relatively easy it was.