Blues Up The Neck! 2.0 – Workshop FAQs

Published: Thu, 03/10/22

I thought I'd take a moment to answer a few questions I've received about this Saturday's Blues Up The Neck! workshop:

1. I'm very interested in this, but can't make it Saturday. If I sign up can I get access later?

Yes, you can. You don't have to be there Saturday to watch the workshop. It's available for replay the same day, and everyone who signs up gets a year of streaming access to that replay.

2. Is there a cutoff time for when I can sign up for the workshop?

You can sign up until 9:30am Central on Saturday morning – that's an hour before the workshop starts.

3. Will there be any printable PDFs with steps, guidelines, etc. for the workshop?

Yes, a PDF with notes for the class will be available for download shortly before we go live Saturday morning.

4. How much will I miss out on if I only watch the replay?

You'll still get my entire presentation, including the Q&A segment, and the complete downloadable PDF. You just won't have the opportunity to ask a question live via the chat window. But when you sign up for the workshop, you'll have immediate access to a Comments section where you can leave a question for me ahead of time, and I'll do my best to address any such questions during the Q&As.

5. Whenever I learn new licks, I have trouble fitting them into my existing vocabulary. Will you talk about that?

Yes! In addition to showing you specific licks, I'll also show you my "practicing improvisation" strategy for dropping new licks into the progression alongside the things you already know how to play.

6. What scales do I need to know for this workshop?

Believe it or not, we're going to do nearly all of this with just the blues scale and the Mixolydian scale. Any familiarity with those scales that you bring to the workshop is great, but I'll be explaining them both as we go and providing diagrams and tab to show you how we're using them.

7. How would you compare this course to your Truefire Fingerstyle Blues Factory?

The Fingerstyle Factory course covers both steady bass and the alternating thumb style, in the keys of E and A. For Blues Up The Neck! we're going to stick to steady bass in the key of E. Fingerstyle Blues Factory covers chords and licks in open position, while this workshop is about how to get into the upper reaches of the fingerboard and connect that to what you already know down at the nut.

8. I took the original Blues Up The Neck! workshop last year. How different will version 2.0 be?

I'll be using the same material, but reorganized to be much easier to learn and use. Instead of going line by line, I'll be showing the material first as four complete choruses – one built out of thirds, one built out of sixths, one built out of 7^th chords, and one built out of call-and-response statements. Then I'll show some choruses built by mixing and matching four bars at at time from those initial solos, and then show how to switch mid-line from one lick to the next. This time, you'll also have a year's access to the video replay. If you felt comfortable taking the tab last time and rearranging it into solos yourself, there won't be any actual new licks per se. But the material will be organized in a way that has been working better in my membership lessons for the past half a year or more.

8. I'm already signed up for The Fingerstyle Five membership. What's the difference between the membership material and this workshop?

The modular approach I teach in this workshop will be familiar to anyone who's been through an improvisation live stream in the membership, but while the membership is primarily about building your repertoire, the workshops are all about building your vocabulary. Blues Up The Neck! will focus on the double-stops, chords and other moves you need to improvise and create your own choruses of steady bass blues in E, which you could use on their own or go back and apply to songs like "See See Rider," "Soulstice" or "You Got To Move."

10. What time does the workshop start?

The workshop takes place Saturday, March 12th at 10:30am Central. You can get more information and sign up here:

Blues Up The Neck! 2.0

If you've still got questions, just drop me a line at the email below.

More soon,

David