When They Say "Make Something Up" Do THIS

[00:00:05]Hello my friends. Welcome to a new lesson. Now today I'm going to revisit one of my classics which is the campfire trick but with a twist. All right. This is something that you can play at the campfire this summer. You know when you know you're at the campfire and you have a guitar and people want to sing. They want you to make something up. They want you to improvise. And by the end of this lesson, you're going to have the tools to do that and look really good when you're doing it. Now, first I want to tell you a little story about my own campfire experience. And this was hugely inspiring for me as a guitarist because I couldn't actually play yet. I was around 16, not the legal age to drink, Julie noted, but we were drinking and we were at a beautiful lock in Scotland. Me and my friends, we were going wild drinking a bottle of Buckfast. This is a a Scottish wine that get you really drunk. It's got lots of caffeine in it.

[00:00:57]Anyways, um we were really drunk and you know along this lock there's different you know campsite. Not they're not really campsites. They're just tents basically of other groups of people [snorts] and um we made friends with self-proclaimed gypsies. They called themselves gypsies. They said we're gypsies, you know, and they had um you know they were they were characters for sure and they were drowning their sorrows. Well, one of them were were because he was due to get married. It was an arranged wedding between dear family and another gypsy family and he really wasn't happy about it. Um, so him and his friend were getting really, really drunk and they had a guitar. Now, just remember that when the sun was coming up in the morning, it was around 4:00 a.m. and they were absolutely hammered and he starts playing [music] and then his friend starts singing and I'm like, "This is the most beautiful moment I've ever experienced." It might have been the wine, but I still remember it very clearly and it was just beautiful and it was really inspiring and it was at that moment I thought, I think I should learn to play guitar. So picking up the guitar at the campfire can be a hugely inspiring thing. Now the next day, um you know, the gypsies were gone and so was all of our stuff. They stole everything. Um luckily we didn't have too much, but uh you know, still a great night. Still lovely guys, thiefs, but hey ho, nobody's perfect. Anyway, guys, today's lesson is the campfire trick, and that is what to do when someone asks you to make something up by the campfire, not when they ask for their favorite songs, right? And this is where having a 12 bar blues comes in very handy. Now, this isn't just any 12 bar blues. I'm going to give you three different styles so that you can mix up and really look like you know what you're doing. All right, so basics of a 12 bar blues. Forget the shuffle.

[00:02:50]We're going to play like this.

[00:02:53][music] [music] That's the first style. Okay.

[00:03:03]Now, what I'm doing here, I want you to get your index finger on two in the A string, and we're going to go 2 2 4 2 5 2, right?

[00:03:14][music] 2 2 4 2 5 2 [music] and then 3 on the low E and then open.

[00:03:30][music] All right. And once you're comfortable with that, we're going to just drone that E string. [music] [music] All right. Now, we're going to palm mute it a little bit just to dial it down a little bit and make it a little bit, you know, bluesier [music] just by covering your palm slightly over the E string. Right.

[00:04:01]>> [music] [music] >> So notice that it's four bars. One a two a three a four a one a two a three four [music] a 1 2 a three four a 2 a three four. All right. Got to do the exact same thing in A. Okay. So we do four bars there, two bars in A, which is this.

[00:04:31]All right. And that is um yeah, again, you just move everything down a string and you draw on the A string this time.

[00:04:38]2 3 4 1 2 [music] 3 Two bars and then back up to the E. 1 2 3 4 [music] 2.

[00:04:49]All right. So, that's the first eight bars. Now, we'll go over the last four at the end because of cool lack and stuff. And that's going to stay the same regardless of what you do. Um, but the 12 bar blues, the shuffle itself changes. Okay. So, the next style is going to be rather than this, [music] it's going to be this.

[00:05:13][music] [music] All right. It's pretty cool. So, we start with an E7 here, right? middle finger on the A string, the second fret, first finger on the G and the first. All right.

[00:05:29]And then we're going to move our first finger up to the G string. Still keeping the same fret. Sorry, the uh the same string.

[00:05:37]We move up to the second fret on the G string. Put our third finger on the fourth fret of the A string.

[00:05:47]And then we use the E7 shape again, right? four and five on the G and the A string. Right?

[00:05:57]We want to keep that [music] same kind of B going. Right. So, [music] okay.

[00:06:23]And then we do the same thing in well a similar thing in A. [music] All right.

[00:06:27]So, rather than play, Right. We do the A7 here. middle finger on the uh the D string on the second fret, third finger on the B string.

[00:06:41]Then we move our middle finger up to the fourth fret and put our index finger here on the B in the third and we play this from the A string. Right?

[00:06:52][music] Then we use the A7 shape again on five and five.

[00:06:59][music] All >> [music] >> right, that's the second way of doing it. So, the cool thing is you've actually got a third option by doing this because you can combine both of them and you'll have something like this.

[00:07:30]>> [music] [music] >> All right. So, now we're on to the final four bars and we're going to do this.

[00:07:55]All right.

[00:07:59]>> [music] >> Okay, I'm going to walk you through that lick in just a second. Right, but we start off with the B7.

[00:08:09][music] We do this. Okay, so we get in the B7 shape. Middle finger on two in the A.

[00:08:14]First finger on one on the D. Third finger on two in the G. And we're going to put our pinky on two on the high E as well. Right. And we're just going to do a little P.

[00:08:26]All right. I'm not thinking too much about that picking pattern. I'm just going down.

[00:08:30]Or you could strum it down, up, down, [music] up, up, down, up. Right? So you can pick down, up, down, up, up, down, up. That's the way I pick. Right? You can pick all the strings. It doesn't really matter once you get as long as you get that kind of.

[00:08:50]And then we're going to move up. I'm going to take my pinky off and I'm going to move up one fret.

[00:08:57]And a little strum. Down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up. And then a little [music] star.

[00:09:11]All right. So, we start there.

[00:09:16]Do this little lick. Right. So, this is this is fast. It's difficult. Some of you will be swearing at me right now. I know that. That's fine. I'm cool with it. Uh, but you know, we want to learn something that if as impressive, it's going to it's going to be a little bit hard and it's going to be a bit of work.

[00:09:31]So, you just need to work on this muscle memory. Right? The fast blues licks sound great. All right? So, just just working it, right? Two up to four with my middle finger.

[00:09:42]Three, four. And I know the the tab warriors are going to be shouting at me as well, but I don't do tab. Two up to four. 3 4.

[00:09:53]Then three to five in the B.

[00:09:56]All right. Four, three, [singing and music] four, three. Hammer on five. Back to three.

[00:10:04]Then four to two. Slightly do.

[00:10:11]And then open.

[00:10:17][music] And then two on the D.

[00:10:28]>> [music] [music] >> All right. And then we're going to do this little B7 run.

[00:10:43]Open three, [music] open one, two on the A, then a little strum. Now, I use alternate picking here, which makes it easier to pick it fast.

[00:10:57]Now, because I come a down pick here, I actually find it easier to up pick here on my open.

[00:11:07]So, all right. And that's the final four bars. So, what I'm going to do now is go through all the different options with you. All right? So, you can have a little look at it and you can have some fun. So, if you've enjoyed this guys, let me know in the comments. Give it a like if you appreciate the lesson. And if you want to work with me on a personal private basis, you can just check the link in the description. All right, guys. Take it easy and I'll see you in the next one.

[00:11:40][music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat.

[00:12:05][music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat.

[00:12:35]>> [music] [music] [music]