Peter Green British Blues Style Guitar

Here’s some “behind the scenes” of how I practice. It’s a music appreciation lesson meant for anybody. You don’t have to be a musician to appreciate it. Hopefully it’s user friendly for everyone.

I call it Peter Green British Blues Style Guitar because it’s based on a song by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac called “Need Your Love So Bad” (1969) an old school RnB/Blues and rock kind of tune. I’m using a Fender amp with tubes and my Les Paul.

note: I’m joking in the video below where I say my amp goes to 12. There’s a line in the classic movie “Spinal Tap” where Nigel, the lead guitarist boasts how his amp goes to 11. Most amps have knobs that are numbered up to 10.

My knobs happen to be numbered up to 12. The number on the knob of course, is arbitrary. The amp is either on full blast or somewhere else in the loudness continuum — regardless of what the number on the knob says 🙂

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Some people call this style “British Blues.” People like Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, etc.

These guys developed their own style of music in the mid to late sixties. They were influenced by the great blues musicians from the US like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, BB King, Albert King etc.

But they were also influenced by Elvis and rock n roll music. Not only that, but the technology of guitar amplification was at a certain development — and they took full advantage of this.

Actually, Jimi Hendrix could almost be described as a British Blues player because he made it “big” when he relocated to London.

And with all the psychedelia influence, the Beatles and Woodstock in the air at the time — well, these factors combined to create this sound some call British Blues.

In the video I use a pedal — the silver glowing thing on the floor. Those guys didn’t use pedals too much. My amp is way loud — even at 1 or 2 on the volume knob. Of course, my amp goes to 12 😉

As a guitarist, I’m always looking for things to practice to stay in shape and to keep learning my craft.

I do various things. Scales and all that stuff. But that gets pretty boring after all these years! I do a lot of lifting. That’s finding music I like and learning it by ear. Playing along to it note for note.

Of course when I record my songs, I learn a lot by creating the guitar parts in my arrangements. And in the past, I’ve logged countless hours in various bands which is another kind of practice.

In this case, a great guitarist and guitar teacher based in NYC named Jeff McErlain published some guitar lessons based on British Blues.

sidenote: Jeff is also the guitar coach on the movie August Rush. Here’s a link to his site if you’re interested in checking out what he does.

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I bought his course to have another practice option. Turned out it’s a lot of fun!

As mentioned above, Jeff based this performance study on the song “Need Your Love So Bad”  by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac in 1969.

The chord progression is really cool. I love these kind of progressions. For any musicians out there, it goes A, A7, D7, D#dim, A, F#min, Bmin, E, A, D9, A, Eaug.

It’s in 6/8. Romantic and wistful.

I really love playing blues rock on my electric guitar! As a singer/songwriter I also love playing my acoustic steel string. Acoustic steel string guitar is another beast to master. I’ll have something about that coming soon — and perhaps also how I keep my voice in shape.

Trivia: One of my favourite singers? Billy Ocean. Yep. Great to practice to for me — my range matches up to his really well.

Awesome! You made it. I hope you enjoyed this little slice of my life as a musician. Please feel free to leave any comments below or share this article with friends. I really appreciate it 🙂