Learn How To Play Guitar Arpeggios In A Blues Guitar Context

Are you trying to find new ways to make your blues guitar solos sound better? Know this: you are not limited to playing the same minor pentatonic patterns over and over while playing blues. Using arpeggios while soloing makes your playing sound more interesting and creative.

This video shows you how to make your blues guitar solos sound unique using arpeggios:

Click on the video to begin watching it.

Forward this video to your friends

See my other guitar playing videos, available to my YouTube subscribers - follow my channel by clicking the button below:

Here are a few more ways to make your blues and classic rock guitar playing sound a lot better:

Lead Guitar Tip #1: Practice The Key Blues/Classic Rock Guitar Techniques

Here is the list of the most important guitar techniques to focus on:

2-hand synchronization
Picking hand articulation
Vibrato
Slides
Hammer ons/pull offs
String bends
Tremolo picking
Double stops
Muting excess noise

Lead Guitar Tip #2: Refine Your Guitar Phrasing

Phrasing is about “how” you play the notes you play. And since most blues/classic rock guitar players don’t play guitar very fast…

… it’s extra important to milk every drop of emotion out of every note you do play.

This eGuide helps you refine your guitar phrasing (for any electric guitar style).

Lead Guitar Tip #3: Study (Gasp!) Music Theory

Music theory explains why your favorite classic rock guitar songs sound awesome.

This helps you learn songs a lot faster and create the same emotions your favorite guitarists do when you write your music.

(You can do this without copying your favorite guitarists’ licks note for note.)

Note: Many guitar players (especially those who play classic rock guitar) confuse understanding music theory with learning to read music.

The two concepts are not at all the same. You can understand music theory without reading music (and vice versa).

Reading music doesn't help your classic rock guitar playing. Understanding music theory does.

The amount of music theory needed for classic rock guitar playing well is usually less than the theory needs of other musical styles.

That said, you must understand the fundamentals of music theory no matter what style you play.

Now that you know how to make your blues guitar playing sound better, the next step is to improve all your other musical skills and make everything about your guitar playing sound awesome.

I can help you a lot with this in my Breakthrough Guitar Lessons.

Here is how it works:

First, you tell me all about your guitar playing, your musical skills and your goals in a detailed evaluation form.

Then, I go to work for you. I create your lesson strategy and lesson materials that develop the skills you need to play guitar the way you want.

As you practice your lessons, I'm there for you to answer your questions, give you feedback on your playing and support you in any way.

For example:

You can show me your playing every single day if you want – just post a recording of your playing on my student forum.
You can also send me recordings separately for in-depth feedback on your playing and practicing on a regular basis.
You can ask me questions and show me your playing every week in live video Office Hours. I hop on Zoom for an hour to help you with whatever you feel stuck on. You show me your playing (and ask about your guitar playing challenges) during this time and I help you.
Every week I do live video training classes where I can see you play guitar as well and give you more personal help with your playing.
Depending on what you write in your feedback form about each lesson (I ask you to leave me feedback about each part of what I teach you) I sometimes may ask you to send me a yet another recording of your playing. This way I get to see you play whatever you struggle with and can adjust your lesson strategy (if needed) to help you improve faster.

And if you do what I tell you for at least 30 minutes per day, you will very likely be highly pleased with the results.

Here is the progress my other guitar students are making:

“I was looking for help, I played a lot in the 80’s, and I didn’t touch guitar for 15 years maybe. And I decided to get back into it. And I was an OK player. But I decided I wanted to take it to a new level, I was looking for hobby I could spend time on.”

After playing around for a few months, I decided I needed a teacher. I had taken music theory classes in college. I understood a lot of the basics of music. I felt like I needed a jump start... something to get me going and keep me practicing every day. So, I’d been to the websites and YouTube, on my own, sort of seeking teachers and I came across Tom Hess, saw his videos, and so I gave that a shot.

The online guitar lessons are very high quality lessons, there’s plenty there to keep you going from lessons to lesson, it forces you to practice a lot to keep up with the lessons.

My guitar playing improved immensely! I knew some of the theory, I knew I was a fairly good player, but a lot of this just tied it all together. The typical teacher was just some guy in a band, who was sitting in a music store room, who kind of showed you whatever you asked or what he felt like… there were various techniques used. This is much more professional. You have more of a specific plan the second you walk in, what your goals are, what direction you want to go, you’re kind of mapped throughout your progress and pushed in the right direction.

Daniel Kunde, South Beach, Oregon, USA

“Before I took lessons with Tom Hess, I wanted to learn how to do some sweep picking and I also wanted to fill in a few gaps that I thought I might’ve had in my playing. And also I was feeling a little bit frustrated with not knowing where to take my playing. I didn’t really know how to get better. I felt like I reached a plateau, so that’s why I sought out Tom.”

I’ve had a few other guitar teachers before I took lessons with Tom, and most of them weren’t very good. And after reading a few articles online that Tom had written, I could tell that this guy was going to be the teacher for me.

The biggest thing that I really like is the actual guitar lessons themselves. I’m finding that I’m learning new things that I never even considered every single time I get a lesson. Something new to apply to my playing each time. But of course, I really enjoy the forum as well, because thanks to the lessons with Tom, I’ve been able to meet people from all over the world who have similar experiences and similar goals, so that’s been really motivating as well.

Before I took lessons with Tom I really didn’t like improvisation. I knew scales, and I knew kind of how they applied over chord progressions, but I just didn’t like it. Since taking lessons with Tom, some of the lessons are focused on that specific issue, and now I feel really comfortable about getting up in front of people and playing over any type of… in any key any backing track, I feel pretty comfortable doing that.

Tom actually knows what my goals are and gives me specific lessons that will help me achieve those goals. Other teachers that I’ve had before just do it their way… it’s either their way or the highway. And they don’t really care about what I wanted to do, and they didn’t really listen, and they didn’t really look into what I was doing or what my interests were and didn’t really play into that.

It’s really motivating to get to know people who are also students of Tom. It’s really good to have positive-minded musicians around even if I’m just talking to them online, or if I meet them in person, either way it’s still really motivating.
The forum has helped me because I am able to ask any music theory related questions or technique questions and I get those answered very very quickly. And I also like to participate in discussions and help share my knowledge as well with other people, which when I do that I feel that it’s reinforcing the things that I know as well, so it helps with my music theory knowledge when I share as well.

Greg Trotter, Melbourne, Australia

“When I met Tom Hess, I knew that this is the guy. Just going through the evaluation form, all the questions, different questions, and he was digging deeper and deeper into all my goals and all that stuff... and no one has ever done that with me before, so I felt right away that this is the guy.”

The level that I was at before I went to Tom for lessons was that I could play pretty fast, I could play sloppy, I didn’t know nothing about music theory, so I was kind of unbalanced, I was uneven. I was a good player technically, but I knew very little about music theory. So I wanted to even that out, and Tom has helped me, not only evening that out, but also exceeding my expectations. So now I’m playing at a level that I didn’t expect that I could play at. So that’s... I’m very happy with that.

I like lessons with Tom because of the format basically. He gives a variety of formats... not just one format, like video for example, but also pdf files and audio files that you can take with you if you’re doing something else... you have to do labor that day, laundry or whatever... then you can listen to the sessions and while... you can actually benefit when you’re not even practicing, so it’s a no brainer.

Gottfrid Norberg Waxin, Sweden

“I just love guitar lessons with Tom, he literally takes the time to make a specific lesson plan and sends you lessons as you need it.”

My last lesson I took with a local guitar teacher before joining Tom, I was struggling with a sweep picking pattern, which was the 5 string root major, I was really struggling to get the rolling technique down. I took it to my guitar teacher and I was like “Help me with this, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” This is his exact phrase: “At high speeds, it doesn’t really matter if you can play it clean or not, no one can hear it anyway.” At that point, I was just like, “Ah man.” But thankfully, in that same message, he mentioned Tom’s name. Then the doors opened. That very night, I went home and looked at every single lesson Tom had, had my guitar in hand, every YouTube lesson on you know “correct motions”, “play this over chords”... just applied it instantly, and it was instant results within an hour... just from his free stuff. I was like, oh man, I’ve got to do lessons with this guy.

I remember when I first started out with lessons, I instantly jumped on the forum to greet myself, and it’s amazing how there’s like 30 responses. Just like, “Hi welcome.” and stuff... “Hi Dan, great musical tastes”. That made me feel really at home and welcomed into Tom’s forum and community. Every time I’ve had an issue when I was first starting out be it like theory or technique, there’s always been someone there who’s helped. Otherwise it could’ve been this potentially awkward process where I’d have to wait a whole week to get an answer from my teacher, who even then may not have answered it correctly and may have never solved it. Whereas there are guys on there who have been with Tom and have been through exactly what I’ve been through. They know exactly how to help, in what order, what information you need... it’s just a friendly atmosphere really.

Dan Mayhew, Stowmarket, UK

“I had problems with physical playing. I couldn’t hold the pick, I was struggling a lot, there was frustration for like years. I started out looking for a YouTube solution, maybe someone knows how to angle the pick or build up speed and accidentally ran into Tom.”

The video wasn’t about playing, he only had a conversation. I listened up to him. I saw that Tom made a lot of sense in his speech, and I got interested. I went to his site, started looking at what he offered, got very interested, filled out the form, got my first lesson, started building up myself and started getting more results than I was getting before when I was self taught. It was an amazing experience that opened up so many doors, and still there are so many doors to open.

The material is specifically done for your individual needs, to reach your goals. You can always put up new goals. You can have feedback on your playing, see your weak areas and strong areas. Tom cares a lot about his students. He always reviews and watches how I am progressing so we can review material, step by step. Not skipping the steps. He is paying attention to it, and that’s what I like about it. I last felt this kind of motivation when I was 13 and starting out with a band, now I’m feeling the same fire and passion. There are students who are more advanced, more knowledgeable and have more experience. Instead of feeling jealous, I feel much more motivated to push myself further.

Freddy Kuiva, Estonia

Want to get the same results in your guitar playing too? Click the “start now” button on the banner below to learn more.