Blues improvisation course structure

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Rohit Kashyap

3 months ago

Dear Tomo,

I have been a fan of your music as well as teaching for a long time.

I have been learning guitar for more than 4 years and I have a strong desire to learn to play and improvise blues like John Mayer and probably someday play live music in pubs.
Over the years I have taken the subscription of your site and also had different teachers, however I am totally lost in one thing. I don't know what path to follow.

My biggest question is what sequence of lessons should I take to learn blues improvisation. Is there a course or curriculum? I totally get lost to what lessons to start with and how to progress lesson by lesson. I can play and loop chord progressions, do basic improvisation on the licks and phrases I have learned, I can play and sing songs like Slow Dancing, Gravity, Cissy Strut, but I can't play any original improvisations.

A song I would really like to finish is "Born under bad sign-Jimi Hendrix"(just to inform what I want to learn).

I have taken the subscription again and I want to know what STRUCTURE of lessons should I follow.
Also, for example if I have to improvise on “Crosscut Saw- Albert King” chord progression or what should I start with, what should I try to play over chord changes or what scale should I learn or should I only start with playing triads on chord changes.

Please help me, kind of desperate
Thanks in advance and for any guidance :)

Have a great day.
Rohit

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Tomo Fujita Mod

3 months ago

Thank you for your kind words on my music and my teaching!

Blues music is very deep! I realized it when I graduated from Berklee. After that, I made a few decisions. 1) Stop listening any jazz or funk. 2) Only Listen Blues music 3) Only listen old blues music. I was making myself same experience as Stevie Ray Vaughan!

For learning blues, you should listen only a few records. 1) BB King “Live at the Regal” and two more of your choices. Less is better. If you don’t have blues in you… nothing will come out from yourself.

You can search lessons that you are looking for. This case, for blues improvisasion. So you need to know blues chord progression with Bassline (shuffle blues) and R 3 7 Swing Groove (Blues chord progression with simple chords) Did you study these yet?

You need to learn the fretboard. Essential theory section. Did you study this lesson? Please let me know. Major scale with One String One Finger approach is so important for learning the fretboard.
https://tomovhxtv.vhx.tv/videos/et01-c-major-scale

Then you should learn triad inversions so that when you play any simple blues phrase, you can hear each chord sound instead of thinking or playing one scale such as minor pentatonic scale. You need to play blues phrase with rhythm.

We don’t have exact course but we provided details lessons on each topics. Just like a private lessons.
If you cannot figure out the original solo then you need to master “foundations” No memorization!

Hope above ideas are helpful. Please let me know. I am sure that our regular members will support you.
Thank you so much for your passion! How long have you been at my Guitar Wisdom?

Tomo

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Rohit Kashyap

3 months ago

Dear Tomo,

Thanks you so much for the quick reply, it really means a lot and it clears a lot of doubts.

I will start with your advice and start with listening to those records. I definitely have blues in me and I can sing a lot of solos based on the rhythm in my head and out loud. Most of the times, over a blues progression I can hear what my head says to play but I struggle to express that with my hands on a guitar.

I have not studied the “R 3 7 Swing Groove” lesson how ever I studied the below things:
Major scale and Minor pentatonic scale with one string
Blues Shuffle exercise from your YouTube channel
Major scale shapes over the fretboard
Minor pentatonics over the fretboard
C major triads and inversions
Some of the foundations lessons like, chromatic scales, bending, vibrato.
CAGED system - chords and scale shapes

At one point of time I completely learnt songs like, John Mayer’s “A’int no sunshine” live version and Gravity when you and John played together at Berklee. I was able to play and sing. But then I left it because of the lack of learning structure. I took subscription couple of times in last 4 years and then I got lost on what to learn. I never really sat down and tried to do original improvisations until recently because I did not know whether to learn songs or how to start to apply these principles.
I will start with your advice and will start connecting the dots soon, and your answer gave me a lot of clarity and it really means a lot. Thank you so much.
Have a great day :)
Rohit

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Tomo Fujita Mod

3 months ago

You’re very welcome Rohit! So happy to hear that it cleared things in your mind. Glad to be helpful.

Good job! Please try follow those ideas. Listen music deeply is the most important part of all these.

R 3 7 Swing Groove is so good! You can hear chord progression so well. Plesae take yout time and enjoy your guitar journey!

You need to learn “Parents” part of John Mayer’s music, guitar playing. Anyone can learn what John plays… but that’s all… learn “Roots”

Guitar Wisdom….. since 2025. We worked on many aspects and we developed our forum as guitar community so please enjoy!
Do not rush! You are bulding your own house! You can not build it well in a few months!

Tomo

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Rohit Kashyap

3 months ago

That makes perfect sense, this guidance means a lot to me. I am already on it, thanks Tomo :)
Rohit

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Tomo Fujita Mod

3 months ago

My pleasure Rohit! Glad to hear that! Good job!

Tomo

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