Jeff Mcerlain Blues Guitar Survival Guide Lead Edition – Truefire

Everyone knows that Robert Johnson really didn’t sell his soul to the Prince of Darkness at the crossroads of Highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale. Silly urban myth. Everyone knows that the devil always hangs close to a river and there’s no river anywhere near those crossroads. It was the crossroads of Highway 8 and Highway 1 in Rosedale where Johnson cashed in his soul for killer blues guitar chops. Ask Son House or check a map. But hold on… before you go rushing down there to do your own deal, Jeff McErlain’s got a much better proposition…

Jeff’s Lead Guitar edition of the Blues Guitar Survival Guide distills a massive range of blues-centric leads guitar techniques, stylings, harmonic knowledge and creative approaches into a hands-on, accelerated and highly intuitive curriculum. No tedious theory, no boring exercises — you will play your way through the course exploring and learning essential concepts and then immediately applying them in a musical context.

In the first section of the Survival Guide, Jeff presents and demonstrates what he considers to be the 35 most essential techniques, concepts and approaches for playing blues lead guitar: Minor Pentatonic Scale, Minor Blues Scale, Major Pentatonic Scale, Major Blues Scale, Mixing Major and Minor, Composite Blues Scale, Dominant Pentatonic Scale, Minor Pentatonic with 6th, Tritones, Chord Tones, Using 3rds, Using 6ths, Bends, Half Step Bends, Whole Step Bends, Minor and Major 3rd Bends, Tweaking the 3rd, Tweaking the 7th, Between Bends, Albert King Style Bends, Vibrato, Double Stops, Picking Methods, Dynamics, Phrasing, Dynamics of a Phrase, Sonic Choices, Hammer Ons & Pull Offs, Discovering the Upbeat, The Blues Form, One Note, Repeated Licks, Octaves, Melodic Patterns, and Blues Rhythmic Patterns.

In the second section, you will learn 10 lead guitar studies that apply everything covered in the first section. Jeff will demonstrate the solo study and then break down every note, every technique, every harmonic approach and every concept. Each lead guitar study is performed over a rhythm track, which you in turn will use to perform and improvise over as well. Of course, everything is tabbed and notated for you.

The 10 rhythm tracks cover all of the styles of blues you will encounter on the bandstand today: Jazzy Minor Blues, Straight Rock Blues, Rumba Blues, Classic Texas Blues, Uptempo Shuffle Blues, Classic Minor Blues, Call and Response Blues, Big Bend Blues, Slow Blues and a Southern Rock Vamp. and Guitar Pro files are included as well.

So, hold on to your soul for now. You’ll still have to shed the material but McErlain’s Blues Guitar Survival Guide is a much safer way to go.

And by the way, Robert Johnson never mentioned Rosedale in his original lyrics for Cross Road Blues — Eric Clapton’s version quoted those lines from Johnson’s 1937 recording Traveling Riverside.

I’m going down to Rosedale,
Take my rider by my side.
You can still barrelhouse, baby,
On the riverside.