Texas Blues Alley - Essential Techniques

Learn the nitty gritty details behind the technique of SRV, Jimi Hendrix and many other legendary blues/rock players. Not for the faint of heart, these are heavy-duty lessons for the player who's determined to improve.

The Grip Of Legends

If you want to master the sound of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, or countless other legends, youll need to re-learn how to hold the guitar. Traditional methods teach a thumb-behind approach. Theres nothing wrong with this approach….unless you want to do it the way most blues and rock legends did.

The Grip is a 2 hour lesson that breaks down the mechanics of playing chords and soloing using the thumb-over grip. Using an E-Form bar chord as a template, youll learn the physics of The Grip, what makes it work, and exercises that will stretch your endurance and physical strength to new levels.



String Noise No More

Errant string noise makes you sound sloppy. But when youre using The Grip, muting becomes an art form. The Grip was all about letting strings ring clearly. Muting is all about keeping them silent. Muting is a crucial skill that separates great and mediocre players. It must become second nature or youll be fighting ringing strings for the rest of your playing days.

Muting is a 1 hour lesson that teaches you the techniques that allowed players like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix to play so powerfully, yet so cleanly.




More Sound Without More Notes

If you learn the notes to a Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughan solo but your sound is still “weak,” its probably because you’re not playing enough strings. Notice I didnt say “enough notes.” Theres a big difference. That difference is caused by a technique called raking.

Raking is when you play multiple strings but only allow several to actually ring out. The rest are muted and the sound they produce is a fat “click.” The extra “clicks” from the muted strings add a thickness to your sound that cannot be achieved any other way.

Raking is a 70 minute lesson that teaches you how to incorporate the raking technique into your playing.




On Pitch Every Time

Bending is much more than pushing against a string. Bending is a communication tool and if you dont do it right, your guitar wont talk. It will whimper. And nobody wants to hear that.

Bending is a 90 minute lesson that breaks down the mechanics of bending and the ingredients of great bending technique. The exercises will force you to listen to your own playing more closely, helping you to become a better communicator every time you bend a note.




Surprise, It's A Big Deal

Picking isnt exciting. Itâs not very noticeable and you donât even have to study it to become a pretty good player. Someday, however, you will try to learn something that will remain out of reach unless you improve your picking technique.

How do I know? Because it happened to me. After a decade of playing, I finally ran into a wall that forced me to work on my picking technique. Picking is a 90 minute lesson that shows you what I had to learn to get past that wall. Donât worry, Im not trying to turn you into a shredder or finger-picking expert. This lesson is very down-to-earth, practical and easily applied.




Make Your Guitar Speak

Vibrato is an essential part of playing the blues soulfully. It has the power to make your guitar speak but it also has the power to distract. Underdeveloped vibrato can ruin what youre trying to communicate with a song.

But how do you do vibrato? Shouldnt it be natural? Nope. Good vibrato technique is absolutely not natural. Your muscles must learn to move in ways theyre not used to. Vibrato is a 100 minute lesson that teaches you how to slowly develop the muscle memory for doing several vibrato techniques.