50 Blues Guitar Licks You Must Know by Jeff McErlain is a new offering from TrueFire.com designed for intermediate to advanced blues guitarists wanting to spice up their vocabulary with some of the tastiest and most traditional phrases in the idiom. The course is available in a variety of formats with prices starting at $19.00.from truefire.com.

Working through the 50 Blues Licks course is a bit like a attending wine-tasting with an expert sommelier. Instructor Jeff McErlain’s hand-picked repertoire of phrases challenges you to break out of that good old minor pentatonic box using techniques such as: tremolo picking, double-stops, sixths, octaves, chromaticism, and diminished lines, and more. It includes not only solo ideas, but grooves, turnarounds, and tasty comping ideas. Although there are some slick licks included, these licks are generally not the flashy technique-oriented phrases but richly expressive musical concepts that will lend a sense of depth and sophistication to your playing.

As Jeff demonstrates each lick he takes time calls attention to the specific nuances that really make the music happen. Details on specifically how to bend, slide, or vibrato are not left to chance. I appreciated this attention to detail, especially as it relates to quarter-step bends. I find that those little in-between bends are often difficult for students to dial in, but usually get glossed over by instructional materials. Here, Jeff does a great job of highlighting exactly when they occur and what they should sound like.

Jeff will often relate a bit of history on how a lick has been used over the years. For example, the very first lick is based on Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ Stone” blues. It’s a groovy riff to be sure, but Jeff reminds us that this riff has been recycled several times to become the basis for “Catfish Blues” and “Voodoo Chile” by Hendrix, “Still Alive and Well” by Johnny Winter, and even a section of “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. This really gives a sense of the blues as a living music that continues to evolve. I also think it also gives guitarists permission to start creating their own music using the motif as a springboard.

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