Welcome to the Blues College!
I’m so excited to have you here, and I can’t wait to see how much progress you make over the next few months.
The aim of the Blues College is simple: to give you all of the tools you need to understand the blues, play it with confidence, and make it your own.
By the time you’ve worked through this programme, you’ll be able to jam over backing tracks, hold your own at a blues jam night, learn your favourite blues songs much more quickly, and understand why they work the way they do ā not just how to play them.
And crucially, you’re going to be able to do this with both rhythm and lead.
How the programme works
The Blues College runs over 12 weeks and most weeks are built around the study of a famous blues song.
We’ll look at what’s happening in that song, why it’s so effective, and we’ll pull out the key elements of the track that you can bring them into your own playing.
Each week covers the song from both a rhythm and a lead perspective, and finishes with a challenge that puts everything together.
At the start of each week you’ll find an intro lesson that sets out the themes for that week and collects everything you need in one place ā practice plans, backing tracks, chord diagrams, scale diagrams and any other downloadable resources.
Life gets busy, and I appreciate that there will be weeks where you can’t get through every lesson. With that in mind, in the introduction lesson for each week you’ll see the “essential” lessons from the week highlighted – so even when things are very busy week you can keep moving forward.
Here’s what the full 12 weeks looks like:
Weeks 1ā2: The Foundation
Before we get into songs, we’re going to lay the foundations. We’ll cover how chords are formed, how chord progressions work, and the CAGED system ā giving you a framework for playing chords all over the fretboard.
We’ll also look at major soloing approaches and how to target chord tones. Everything comes together in these two weeks with a fun challenge over the blues pop ballad “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton.
Week 3: Dominant 7th Chords and the Blues Feel
This is where things start to sound like the blues. We’ll look at dominant 7th chords in depth, work through the 12 bar blues form and its variation, and dig into the triplet feel, swing time and note values. And we’ll bring all of this together with a challenge over B.B. King’s slow blues track “Don’t Answer The Door”.
Week 4: Texas Flood
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Texas Flood” is one of the great slow blues recordings. We’ll look at chromatic chord movements, extended voicings like 9ths and the “Hendrix chord” and on the lead side, how to add licks between chords and mix major and minor approaches.
Week 5: Damn Right I’ve Got the Blues
This high octane Buddy Guy track introduces riff-based blues rhythm playing, swing feel and how to get creative with chords and licks. It’s a different flavour and pace compared withthe previous weeks, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Week 6: Office Hours
After 5 intense weeks of studying and playing, there are no lessons this week. This is a chance for you to catch up and take a breath, and book a 1-1 session with me, where you can ask questions and get help on the areas most important for you.
Week 7: I’ll Play the Blues for You
In week 7 we’ll switch our focus to the minor blues and its completely different character. We’ll cover the minor blues form, minor chord voicings across the neck, and introduce syncopation. And we’ll do all of this by looking at the beautiful and funky track “I’ll Play The Blues For You”, by Albert King.
Week 8: Help the Poor
Another week, another King of the Blues. Here we’ll study B.B. King’s “Help The Poor” and dig into more complex concepts like triads and how to map them across the fretboard, and ways of targeting chord tones when soloing.
Week 9: Since I’ve Been Loving You
To finish off our focus on the minor blues, we’ll look at Led Zeppelin’s powerful blues rock track “Since I’ve Been Loving You”. This will introduce us to more complex minor blues forms, major 7th chords, and the Aeolian mode for lead playing.
Week 10: I’m Tore Down
The final three weeks is all about the blues shuffle ā one of the most important and recognisable feels in the genre. We’ll look at this by studying “I’m Tore Down” by Freddie King, which introduces the classic shuffle pattern, how to lock into the groove, and how to solo over a shuffle.
Week 11: Have You Ever Loved a Woman
Eric Clapton’s slow shuffle version of this Freddie King classic takes things deeper ā teaching us how to extend the shuffle pattern, mix licks into the groove, turnarounds, and how to phrase with space in a lead context.
Week 12: Sweet Home Chicago
The programme closes with one of the most iconic blues songs ever written. We’ll cover blending the shuffle with chords, adding complexity, and we’ll study turnarounds in depth before finishing with a solo performance challenge that brings everything together.
There’s a lot for us to learn and look forward to, so grab your guitar, grab a tea or coffee, and let’s get into it.
See you in Week 1! š