Hey Blues Fans,
Here’s the last blues lesson for 2009. This lick is similar to what Eric Clapton plays in the Cream version of Crossroads. This is played in the key of A, but it’s one of those licks you can move up and down the neck to play in other keys.

I’ve broken the lick into two parts: Part 1 is where he comes out of the intro; part 2 is the turnaround. You can see the tab for each part below.

One of the keys to make this lick sound good is nailing the quarter-note bends. It’s a slight nuance, but it makes a huge difference.

Another tip for playing part 2 is to keep your index finger barred across the top three strings so it’s in position to play the 1/4-bend note on the 5th fret G string.

As always, have fun.

[flv:crossroads_turnaround.flv 550 412]

Have you ever wanted to loop a section of a guitar lick AND slow it down without changing the pitch? I have found a nice FREEware utility that does just that.

Hey Blues Fans,
I came across a cool utility that allows you to slow down or speed up flash videos, such as the ones on this site or YouTube. The utility is called “Enounce MySpeed”. You can download a demo here. I was just playing with it and it works great with the videos here at www.learnblueslicks.com. I tested it on Firefox and Chrome and everything worked fine. I’m using WinXP.

The utility sits in your system tray and when it detects that you’re playing an FLV file, a slider bar pops up that allows you to slow or speed up the video. The nice part is that the audio stays at the same pitch, so if I lick is in A, it’s still in A when slowed down.

I am not affiliated with this company in any way. I came across it while I was researching something else and though it would be a nice addition to your blues-learning toolbox. Try listening to one of my lessons while at 3x speed…it’s pretty funny. If you do try it, leave a comment here an let the other readers know how it works.

I hope this helps.