SRV is very hard for a beginner. First he tuned to Eb with very heavy strings, then also he used a kind of rotary action with his right hand which makes for very complex rhythmic patterns. Not that I could play anything of his note for note. It's a bit like taking on Jimi Hendrix or Van Halen.

I would suggest listening to some older blues players and building up your skills. My personal favourite would be the late, great, Freddy King. As a general move it's good to start adding in jazz extensions into your playing. Mickey Backer had a great series of books but they're probably 60 years old now.

There are many other great books and of course Youtube. If I were you, I would start to learn solos and songs from recordings. Years ago I learned the solo to Johnny Be Goode. I still use it. There's a link that I put on this site to a really ancient recording of a series of lesson by Kenny Burrell that is absolutely soaked in wisdom and approaches.

It sounds like maybe you're ready to move away from scales and patterns to listening to what you play and making up your own melodies. As Kenny Burrell says, sing, whistle or hum short melodies and then play them. If you find that too hard, learn to replicate nursery rhymes, Xmas carols, folk tunes etc, in different positions and on different combinations of strings on your guitar. Great for ear training.

Finally, don't just mess about. Pick one thing and practice. That makes for fast development. I spent a month on bar chords and cracked it. The same with scales and modes. Then I wasted 15 years playing what I knew - wasting time essentially.

Absolutely finally, try to always play with a metronome. Nobody seems to, but I believe it will save you 5-10 years of playing out of time and being useless in a band situation. Just my thoughts....... eek smile cool

Last edited by lambada; 10/20/16 11:23 PM.
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