20 Licks: Blues Techniques

Full of grit, attitude and a driving groove, Michael Wagner returns with his hot new track filled to the brim with aggressive bluesy techniques that you can start using today! Learn this raw yet masterful new song in 20 licks, then piece them together for a serious jam!

Michael says 'You may not notice it at the first glimpse, but this piece was heavily influenced by dub music! ...I visited a local dub party and while listening to the heavy 70 bpm bass groove I thought: "Wow! I really have to translate this into blues!", and here we are!

Composition-wise I tried to combine groovy blues parts that give you a lot of freedom. With a melodic C-part, strong harmonies force you to choose your notes wisely. For 'Hot Mustard' I also explored the whammy bar for the first time. Usually I'm a Les Paul player (and a strat owner for a few weeks now), so it was quite a trip to check out what sounds you can achieve with this tool! One of the most fun things was to create bottleneck style licks that you can hear in the main theme.'

This track is more about finding the pocket, feeling out your lines and really digging in. That said, for those of you interested in learning the theory and techniques behind the genius of Michael's playing then you'll be finding yourself using the following: Mixolydian, Aeolian, Dorian, Minor Pentatonic, Major Pentatonic, and Blues Scales along with arpeggios to follow the changes. You'll also find: hammer ons, pull offs, slides, double stops, bluesy quarter tone bending, whammy bar dips, fast blues rock phrasing and a lot more!

As this is a very thematic song, we have included two versions of the full backing track, one with melody harmonies and one without so you have the choice of playing exactly like Michael with underlying harmony parts, or making your own melodies as you jam over the second backing!

We've also included some extra material for you! Michael says 'In this package I also included some extra stuff for you. Since I had a lot of questions about the rhythm guitar in my last package '20 Groove Busting Blues Rock Licks', I decided to hook you up with two extra licks (complete with their own video, audio, backing & TAB/notation) that break down the rhythm parts.'

As ever, we have included everything you need to practise and perfect the material in this package. There are video and audio tracks for you to watch/listen and study, accurately transcribed TAB/notation for you to analyse and master, and backing tracks for everything! We've even included some text notes to help you really get these parts down!