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Hey Blues Fans,
Sounds like a silly question. But really, why are you here on this website? Did you stumble upon the site accidentally? Do you want to play in a band? Do you just want to jam with some friends? Or do you just want to sit in your spare room and play along with jam tracks? Are you just starting out on the guitar, or are you picking up again after 20 years of not playing? The reason I’m asking this question is because I want to make this site better and provide the content that you want. What do you want see more of, or less of? Are the licks to complicated? Too easy?
Please, leave a comment with your thoughts.
Thanks,
Haywyre
Thanks for sharing your gifts, insights, and most of all, your time and effort to make this a great site.
I’m 60, and have bounced around with different styles, but blues are my favorite!
I like that you present your lessons, wearing a black shirt, against a black background.
Makes it easy to concentrate on your fingers.
The only improvement I could wish for, is that you provide a visual of your right hand also.
Perhaps a split-screen?
I have become aware of how important right-hand tecnique is, and am experimenting with both fingers as well as picks.
Thanks again, for a great learning resource!
I’m about 18, been messing around on the guitar, learning by ear and tabs/instructional video since i was about 16. stumbled on your site today, and LOVE it! You do a fantastic job in your presentation, playing through so you get a feel for it, and then slowing things down (not too slow) and really letting people get a feel for the way it’s played. Thanks a million for taking time out of your day to run a free site with such quality!
I’m 62 , had guitars all my life but never invested the time and effort required to learn. 2 years ago I bought a LP copy on the internet and promised myself to learn to play.I found your site quite accidently while serfing blues lessons on youtube.You are a fantastic teacher and I love the way you slowly break down every lick so we can see just what you’re doing.If I had any suggestion for you it would be to demonstrate an example of just how to employee the lick you’re teaching, maybe at the end. Just so we could see how to use the lick in a song. I find myself learning the licks and practicing them , but not actually using them in my improvisations, if that makes any sense. Thank you very much for what you are doing. Its super nice of you to take your time to help guys like me. I know its got to be time consuming.By the way , I just finished building a Carvin kit. Its sweeet !
Another old(er) dude here, two clicks past the half-century mark.
Been basement playin’ since about I was 11 or 12 – wore out a 45-rpm of “Journey to The Center Of The Mind” trying to learn Nugent’s puffy-shirt classic on my sister’s $2 Epiphone electric played through an Ampex reel-to-reel tape box. In ’75 I obtained my personal Holy Grail: a tobacco burst Les Paul Custom. It has helped keep me sane all these years. I will be buried with that piece of artwork.
Anyway, I am here mainly because of SRV. After being a faux power rocker (Black Sabbath, Rush, etc.) most of those younger years I heard this little tune called “Pride and Joy”. Shortly there after I scraped together $350 for a cheap Mex Strat and have been playing SRV and other blues tunes badly ever since.
So I am here to learn anything and everything I can – even if none of it ever gets outside my basement – and you do a great job in presentation.
That, and it’s just kinda cool to see how “the other guy” does it!
Keep up the great work.
Hey Haywire,
I’m 64 stopped playing for 40 odd years and am now back with a bunch of guys playing Blues with a bit of R&R & country thrown in and it is the most important thing that’s happened to me since my kids. Got a US standard strat 96, Epi Lester, Fender Roc Pro (which never really caught on but I think are excellent) and a Line 6 XTLive. Like a lot of other guys, I stumbled upon your site via U Tube. I think you’ve got it just about right! As you get older your dexterity goes a bit so there are some quick licks that I may never be able to reproduce but that’s life. Your teaching technique is spot on keep it going.
Terry.
I’m trying to be a singer-songwriter, and I took up guitar last year out of necessity, as there was nobody else to accompany me live. Then it became an addiction and passion, and I’m finding it’s broadening my songwriting scope. This is site is wonderful because there are lots of handy licks and ideas to create new ones, and because you show the way so clearly and concisely. It’s much appeciated! Thanks from Tami Jones in Hiroshima Prefecture.
I played in a road band for 15 years. I have been off the road for many years now but still play gigs… even though I am now a certified day job guy. I always liked guitar but played bass in bands. I thought now was as good a time as any to get the guitar really down. This site has taught me a lot and I’m almost ready to go to a jam as a guitar player. Thanks for helping get me to where I am now.
Like your site, and like your method, Im 45, sold my business and have a lot of free time, toted my uncles equipment to many grange hall dance’s in my teens. this is the one thing I alway’s wanted to learn, I have a les paul studio & Schecter S-1 Elite & fender Acoustical, with a fender super champ XD, looking for a mesa boogie not sure of which one of those to get would like a tube amp, any sugestions would be helpful. thanks for your help and your knowledge.
Jim
I just love this site – you really know how to show us how to do it. I’m 60 but my love fore the blues has never ended. I found your site on You tube a year ago.
I’m playing on my 1958 LP goldtop – since 1964.
PS.
Don’t forget “Hide Away” and “Steppin’ out”
DS.
best regards from
Sweden
admin Reply:
January 10th, 2010 at 8:52 am
Wow! a 58 Les Paul Goldtop. That baby is worth a few krona! Maybe you should take a picture and post it on the forum.
I’ve been on a 40 year break
I played classical guitar as a kid. Lost interest when i discovered motorcycles. Pick up a guitar a while back and been re-learning. I like the bluesy texas boogie. Your video lessons are a great help as I attempt to re-learn and this time have more fun.
admin Reply:
January 10th, 2010 at 8:53 am
The guitar is a patient instrument. It’ll wait years for you to come back to it and welcome you with open strings!
Hey blues fans
I’m here to learn more of the blues,been playing since i was 12 and now 35 and finding my rock days are turning towards the blues. Would love it if you could post some blues lessons from the crossroad movie with ralp macchio. I use a les paul 100 and have a line 6 spider 3 150 amp and the blues sound great through it. This is the best blues site I have found. Keep the lessons comming.
Thanks
Greg Armstrong
admin Reply:
January 10th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Greg,
The LP/Line6 sounds like a great combo. I like Line6 products and I’m thinking of picking up a Spider4 as a practice amp and to use to create these lessons.
I’m here to learn as much as possible. I’ve been playing guitar on and off (mostly off) for twenty-five years. I played regularly as a teenager, I wanted to be a rock star you know, but left music on the back burner while I did a couple of stints with Uncle Sam, went to college, and built my career as a school teacher. A few years ago I was looking for a way to relieve some stress, teaching is probably the most stressful civilian job there is, so I took a trip to the local pawn shop and purchased an Epi Les Paul and amp for $150 and haven’t put it down since. Making music is a wonderful, productive way to manage stress. I’m so glad I decided to pick up a guitar again. Since then I’ve added three more guitars, a keyboard, a 250 watt amp, and all other odds and ends. Now that I’m older I have developed a much deeper appreciation for my ability to create music. I’m here to learn all I can, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for providing this wonderful resource to help me improve my craft.
I’ve watched the 1st and 2nd greatest guitar lick videos. How about a third one?
Great site – many thanks for Haywire.
I was playing in few bands when I was younger (70′s) then that “marriage and kids”- syndrome happened to me also. But I started to play again seriously about 5 years ago.
This site has helped to enhance my “lick repetoire” a lot.
What I would like to see some day is a blues lick covering maybe 3-5 boxes i.e. blues runs up and down the neck. That kind of lesson would be nice to have also to get new ideas for playing.
I check this site at least couple of times per week and it’s always nice suprise when you see a new lesson arrived.
hey haywire.
well i’ve been at it for quite a while. you have tasty stuff. i like the way its all broken down, slowly like. some sites offer licks, however the breakdown is poor. you might think of posting more of the demented type licks or harmonic minor things.
i find these type of licks really break things up from the blues scale lick style.
regards paul
I have been seeking specific instruction on how to play classic blues licks for some time. I have really wanted to have some tasty licks and embelishments to make my playing more interesting. I have had a hard time breaking out of the “scaley sound” rut. Your straitforward approach to teachiung has allowed me to do so and integrate your licks into my songs. Thanks Man!
Great website Haywire. We are lovin it in Australia.Its great to see a song/lick broken down and patiently simplified into something that,s reachable for my skill level. Would love to see some Black Crowes,ZZ’s Just got paid,etc but i aint complainin’. Keep up the grouse work cobber.
I love your videos and they’ve helped me expand very well. However i think you should upload some more aggressive blues licks like SRV.
admin Reply:
November 28th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Make sure to sign up for the newsletter so you get the link to the special SRV lesson. It’s not “aggressive” but it’s definitely SRV.
Great question. I am here because I want to learn. I am also here because of the superior quality of your videos and lessons. The quality of audio/video is fantastic. I can see your fingers clearly and hear what you say as well. It is all too often that online videos are shot from further away so that you can’t really follow along. You take the time to teach each lick in well thought out stages. Many people use online guitar lessons as way for them to show off, you actually teach us! I love having the tab with the lesson, makes it easy to go back and break it down even more.
I really enjoyed some of the 3-part lessons…Clapton, Hendrix..etc. More advanced but I seemed to take away a lot from those licks. I would love to see some Freddie King.
Thanks for the time and effort that has clearly gone into these lessons. I am improving because of them. 100%.
Mike
admin Reply:
November 28th, 2009 at 9:42 am
I’m glad you like the quality of the lessons. I guess I’m too self-critical because I think it can be better. If Santa is good to me this year, maybe I’ll get the equipment to make even better quality videos.
P.S. Sign up for the newsletter and you’ll get a link to an SRV-style lesson not listed on the site.
Enjoying the site very much,can’t for the life of me remember how I found it. Please keep up the good work.
this site is great.I get more out of it than any other so far.
I picked back up after 20 yrs while trying to spark interest in my son.You go over things in a way thats easy to understand.better than live lesson.I would like to see some old time stuff (hooker,m waters etc.)found this site whille surfing youtube.GREAT STUFF MAN happy thanksgiving and God bless.Im thankful for the blues
admin Reply:
November 28th, 2009 at 9:50 am
I have a 19 year old and I bought him a Squire starter set years ago…no luck. Kids these days! HAve a nice holiday season and enjoy the lessons. There’s enough to keep you busy.
I really like your way of teaching. After 25y of not playing guitar I rediscovered that great instrument(and the BLUES). Great progress in my play compared to the difficult times in the 70ties when it was tough to get the licks. You are one of the reasons why my inventory of guitars grew significantly. 16 guitars by now and love to play them all. (However, my family believes I need psycho treatment
). Keep on with this good work.
Greatings from Moscow(from a German)!!
admin Reply:
November 28th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Servus ichwills. Wie geht es ihnen? Ich habe in Munchen gewohnt fur vier jahre. Kann ich Englisch sprechen? Wow! 16 guitars. You’re not a Psycho until you hit 40 guitars! Of the 16, which is your favorite guitar?
Ahhh…I think marriage has destroyed many a dream to be a guitar hero. Keep plugging away and those fingers will get back in shape.
To learn blues licks. Like many I played guitar(poorly)when I was young and put it away when I got married. A couple of years ago my life changed (health issues)and I found myself wanting to play again. I love the blues and started looking around on the net. I don’t remember how I found you but I like how you show us the licks. I really enjoy your site and find the lessons very good. My 63 year old fingers are a little slow and get lost every once in a while, but I’m having fun. Thanks for showing us how to play these blues licks.
I guess it was one of those “Let’s search for blues licks on the internet”-moments that brought me here. Really like the stuff you’re doin and besides that youre voice sounds totally like Paul Gilbert
admin Reply:
November 25th, 2009 at 11:14 am
That’s the second time I heard the Paul Gilbert comment…just wish I could play like him.
By the Way, You are a great teacher, and I admire You for what you are doing on this site!
I am one of those “old guys” that don’t know what they want to do when they grow up. I probably would like to do all the things that you mentioned. I have loved playing guitar for over 40 years. Played in a band in the 60′s but was the Lead singer and rhythm guitarist. After 35 years of just playing the acoustic guitar, I picked up my old Gibson 335, because the internet offered so many opportunities to learn. Being close to retirement, I have vowed to make the guitar part of the center of my life, and learn as much as I can.
admin Reply:
November 25th, 2009 at 11:09 am
My YouTube videos (Haywyre62) have recently surpassed the 2 million view mark. YouTube has a nice feature that let’s you see the demographics. Your age group (55-64) represents about 30% of my viewers. If you expand the age range to 45-64, it represents about 65%.
i’ve found your licks to fit into many of the songs i try to play with on my ipod. i would love to be able to just ask you to cover a song and have you give us the rythym parts and cover the licks that would go with it. I’m musically challenged!
admin Reply:
November 25th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I would like to cover entire songs, and I’ll try to do that in the future. My problem is the time it takes to produce a quality lesson (write out the tab, record the video and sound, synching the video and sound, compressing the final video, etc.) But that’s my problem. Thanks for your comment and keep bluesin’.
site is great. Love your teaching method and the licks you choose to include. Wish you would use them with a backing track though at end of lesson. Thanks
admin Reply:
November 24th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Duly noted about the backing tracks. I think it’s a good idea. Performing the lick in context will help a lot.