My Favorite Music Lessons on the Web

Here’s some ideas for soloing on the chord changes to “Blame It On The Sun” by Stevie Wonder. This is a great platform for utilizing the chord shapes, arpeggios, scales and ear training!

Rory Gallagher's top 5 guitar riffs broken down by Mike Brookfield.

When you’re improvising, do you sometimes just start playing and don’t know where you’re going? Or how to end the lick to make it sound good? People often say, it’s the first and last things we remember the most -- and especially guitar licks. Guitar players from many genres especially blues guitar, including T-Bone Walker, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana tend to have a few ending phrases that they tag on to the end of their lines.

Not exactly a lesson, but Josh Smith does play parts along with talking about the arrangements.

Ever wonder why some funk grooves just hit different, while others fall flat? The secret isn't just in the notes you play, but the rhythmic backbone. We're about to unlock the foundational 3-2 clave, a rhythmic keystone that’s been the engine behind countless iconic funk tracks.

The Nashville number system is not just for country music.

"The Way You Look Tonight" Chord Melody Breakdown

This lesson revolves around a variety of classic British blues rock music from the late-1960s (and beyond). This includes chord-based and rhythm guitar parts pulled from songs such as John Mayall's Steppin' Out, Ten Years After's I Woke Up This Morning, Chicken Shack's Lonesome Whistle Blues, Spooky Tooth's Evil Woman, The Climax Blues Band's Hey Baby Everything's Gonna Be Alright, Savoy Brown's Louisiana Blues, Blodwyn Pig's Up And Coming, and MUCH more

Here’s a simple blues turnaround in E… Picked this one up listening to guys like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Real old-school feel. It’s built around those open strings… just letting it roll and breathe. You can grab that high E in there if you want, add your own touch to it. Plenty of ways to play it… but this is the heart of it.

Blackberry Smoke's Charlie Starr discusses how guitar playing relates to songwriting. As every guitarist knows, it’s all about the riff, and today, the riff in question is from BS's "Let It Burn" (2017).

I never try to sound exactly like the record, but it's interesting to hear someone break down a solo (and try to glean a couple ideas).

I talk a lot about Hendrix Doublestops. They're great! But there's so much more to unpack; dude was such an alien!

I feel like this is close to having a friend show you how to play some cool licks they learned.

Outro: Setup, Memberships, and Plugs: (18:58-20:15)

Today, we’re slowing things down and locking in 10 essential licks designed specifically for the classic 1–4–5 chord progression in C major. Along the way, you’ll learn which scales fit best over each chord, how to target chord tones with confidence, and how to build a stronger, more expressive blues vocabulary.