One thing you can be sure of – if you are going to play guitar, you will run into a I to IV chord progression - usually in every other song! So it is a good idea to make sure you have some licks in your arsenal to pull out when it happens. The second chord of the 12 bar blues is the IV chord, and some interesting things can happen tonality-wise when that is a dominant chord. So rather than just blow notes over the top of it – this lesson digs a bit deeper and shows you a lick that takes advantage of the chord structure to create interesting harmonic tension. Or in layman’s terms...it just sounds groovy! So if you think you know the sound of the I, IV – check this out and see how else you can approach it...

>> Download some great sounds...

Guitarist George Benson represents the very essence of jazzed blues. He was originally a vocalist and R&B guitarist, which explains his love for pop music and blues at a very early age. Despite getting heavily into jazz in the sixties, he always remained true to his affinity for the blues, which accounts for his tremendous popularity outside of the jazz genre.

I began seriously transcribing GB's work some 25 years ago. Eventually I transcribed about thirty of his solos spanning a 15-year time period between '65 and '79, and extracted over 700 terrific blues licks along the way.

This month's lesson focuses on a sub-series I created several years ago for my students. "Blue Benson" is the title of the series, and it's broken down into three distinct sections that document the period mentioned above. "The Early Years" features some great slow blues ideas courtesy of GB's recordings from the sixties. Ready to get "Bensonized?"

>> Blue Benson - Part One...

One of our associates, Tom Yoder, is a truly awesome fingerstyle player and teacher. In "Borrow Don't Steal", Tom points out that it is easy to steal, but making it work for an original sound is more difficult. Randy Rhodes did a great job when he stole the chord progression from the first 16 measures of Leo Brouwer's "Estudios Sencillos #6". He used it for the intro of Ozzy's "Diary of a Madman".

In this lesson Tom reveals a killer arpeggio pattern that he used for a tune called "Zen Parked on Z", an exotic contemporary fingerstyle number in C Tuning (CGCGCE). In fact, the arpeggio pattern used in this piece was lifted directly from study #1 of the 12 studies by Heitor Villa-Lobos (1881-1959). This is a tough little pattern since it uses 16th notes (semi-quavers) that move along at quite a pace. You'll need to pay very close attention to your picking hand to get it right. However, if you don't want to attempt it in C tuning, that's fine. You can perfect this pattern using any chord sequence you like. And that's really the point of this lesson.

>> Borrow a bit for yourself...

There is much to be learned by practicing this classic fingerstyle piece. It uses a variety of techniques that are standard fare for all styles, bars, hammers, pulls, and scales. As usual, exactly how everything is done is of the utmost importance, and that means the exact fingers used, and how those fingers behave while they are being used. I am giving you all the fingerings to use, and also telling you exactly how to use those fingers!

>> Get moody...

From the very opening strains of Andy Timmon's gorgeous samba-tinged "Greensleeves," you know you've found a real treasure.

Every artist here brings a new sound, a new interpretation of the classics. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" takes a funky turn with Greg Koch and Adrian Legg puts his unique slack-key signature on "Jingle Bells."  From the Dillengers' rave-up version of "Run Rudolph Run," to Mimi Fox's sumptuous jazz sketch of "Winter Wonderland," "Acoustic Christmas" is as diverse as it is consistently beautiful.

>> Pick up a copy and get merry...