The Jimmy Reed Guitar Style

      Jimmy Reed was the king of the electric blues shuffle!  His recordings for the Vee Jay Label in Gary, Indiana (later Chicago) featured 2-3 different guitar players working together to produce a sound and style that is one of the most commercially successful and influential blues styles of the post-war era.   This stuff is NOT hard to play, but it is more challenging to play it "correctly,"  that is, how it was played on the original recordings.  That's what this lesson series is all about! 

     In this first part of a two-part lesson series,  I will teach you how to play the Jimmy Reed guitar style in the Key of E.  I will breakdown and teach all of the important elements that made-up  Jimmy Reed's tunes - bass rhythms and variations, fill licks, turnarounds, song intros, chords and chord rhythm patterns, and even a couple of solos! 

       The guitar sounds heard on recordings like "Baby, What You Want Me To Do,"  "Big Boss Man," and "Take Out Some Insurance"  are deceptively complex and feature a number of subtleties that often go unnoticed by listeners and guitar players alike.  At the conclusion of the course, I will demonstrate how you can "build" a Jimmy Reed-style song in the Key of E.   

          As far as I know, this is the first lesson series to tackle the complete Jimmy Reed guitar sound.   When you have completed my course, you should be able to learn ANY of his songs in the key of E and/or apply what you learn to your own style of playing blues guitar. 

     There are TABS and charts for each of the different lectures.  My TABS are printed using Guitar Pro 7 and show the finger positions only!  They are not written in standard notation -I am not musically trained - nor should one be to play this kind of music!  Trust me.  The TABS have been carefully researched and, to me knowledge, are extremely accurate if not 100% on the money.  . 

*The second part of the course will teach the Jimmy Reed tunes in the Key of A!