Advanced Rhythm & Soloing Approaches for Soul Guitar

Listen to any Stax, Motown, James Brown or Wilson Pickett record and you’ll instantly recognize how critical a role the guitarist plays in the overall mix. Guitarists like Bobby Womack, Cornell Dupree, Little Milton, Wolfman Washington and Johnny Guitar Watson created a fresh and exciting style of rhythm and lead guitar that remains a staple to this day in so many genres from pop to rock to funk. 

In this second volume of Jimmy Reiter’s Soul Guitar Guidebook, you’ll learn more soul guitar licks and rhythmic moves that will spice up your playing across a wide variety of contemporary styles.

”In the first edition of the Soul Guitar Guidebook, we examined the players and their signature moves that helped define the soul music genre. In this second volume, we’ll take the exploration further by learning and playing through ten performance studies that feature a wide range of soul guitar licks and moves.”

Jimmy kicks off the course with an essential primer on octaves and soulful slash chords. You’ll then apply those skills and build on them as you play through 10 soulful performance studies.

Guess I'll Come Back - ”This performance study is a nice groove with a 4-bar chord progression in the key of G minor. There's a song called "If You Want Me to Stay" by Sly and the Family Stone that has very similar chords, and also the verses in "Sunny" by Bobby Hebb are pretty close. Not identical, but the same idea I would say. I'll show you the rhythm guitar first and then give you an idea for a solo, in which I'm going to use both chords and single note licks.”

Last Thing on My Mind - ”This is a soul groove in the key of C. You can hear very similar ideas in classic soul songs by The Temptations, Tyrone Davis and Clarence Carter to name but a few. This has an 8-bar verse part with a repeating 2-bar pattern and a bridge that uses a nice arpeggio idea.”

Snake in the Grass 1& 2 - ”Here's a 4-bar groove in the key of C minor much like a 70's funk/soul tune by groups like The O'Jays, The Isley Brothers or The Ohio Players. I’ll show you how to play the rhythm guitar part in the first part. In the second part, we're going to investigate some ideas for soloing over this groove. Because we're using some really nice chords in this song, it allows us to do some cool things with the solo!“

What Am I Going to Do - ”This one is a 16-bar ballad in the key of F in 6/8. Guys like Ray Charles, BB King, Bobby "Blue" Bland and Little Milton were masters at this. I want to show you two different ways of approaching the rhythm guitar here. Afterward, I'll give you some ideas for a 16-bar solo, using single note licks, double stops, chords, octaves and so on.”

Here, Take This - ”This is a funky groove in the key of D. It's actually two 8-bar segments. The first one is the verse, which is a 2-bar pattern with different D chord shapes that is repeated 4 times. This is followed by the bridge part, which takes us through an F–G–D chord progression. This is a III–IV–I progression, with some nice double stops, funky chord riffs using ninth chords and a short single note run before going back to the verse part.”

Gimme Some Room 1 & 2 - ”Here's a nice 4-bar soul groove in the key of D. This one could be found in songs by great soul and soul/blues artists like Little Milton, Tyrone Davis, O. V. Wright or James Carr. This is a good example for a song that has two rhythm guitar parts. I've split this lesson up into two parts, one for each rhythm guitar. The first one I'm going to show you sets the foundation for the song by repeating a really nice pattern. Then in Part 2, we'll look at a different guitar part to complement this one.”

Sweet But Snappy 1 & 2 - ”Let's have a look at a simple, but sweet 4-bar chord progression in the key of G. It's a medium tempo groove that could be found on records by soul and soul/blues artists like Little Milton, Z. Z. Hill, Johnny Adams or Bobby "Blue" Bland. We're going to check out the rhythm guitar first, which combines chords and a nice snappy lick on the low strings. After that, I'm going to show you an idea for a short solo in Part 2 of this lesson.”

Jimmy will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way.  You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the Performance Studies. Plus, Jimmy includes all of the rhythm tracks for you to work with on your own. In addition, you’ll be able to loop or slow down any of the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.

Grab your guitar and let’s get soulful with Jimmy Reiter!