An introduction to standards for fingerstyle blues guitarists
Learn how to create solos on "Indiana," a 32-bar standard from the Great American Songbook, using a simple, stepwise approach! In this two-hour workshop, you'll learn:
- how to use the chord progression of a song to know what to play
- How to create phrases and licks to "play the changes"
- How to connect simple but effective ideas together to create coherent, musical solos of your own
...And how to do all this while fingerpicking in the key of C.
Not just what, but how.
A step-by-step method for transforming I, IV and V into smooth and elegant progressions.
The Tune Is Your Roadmap
Improvisors improvise on the tune – the chord progression, the phrasing of the melody. So we'll start by learning "Indiana" itself, both a basic and advanced version.
More Than Just Scales
Going chord by chord, we'll get into all the building blocks, from triads and chord tones to passing tones, neighbor tones and chromatic notes.
Vocabulary In Action
Instead of learning isolated licks, we'll look at three model solos so you can see exactly how to apply every phrase and lick to the tune itself.
A Linear, Repeatable Method
No two standards are exactly the same, but nearly any standard can be looked at this way: treating the form as a series of manageable phrases, learning how to play through the changes to those phrases, and building up a vocabulary of licks and variations. By looking in detail at one specific tune in this workshop, you'll take away a linear, repeatable method you can apply to any other standard you're interested in, along with a list of suggested tunes to try next.
HOW IT WORKS
Sign Up
Use the secure form below to sign up for and attend the live online workshop (or watch the replay later).
Take The Workshop
Build up a vocabulary of moves, learn why and when to use them, and become fluent in a whole new kind of tune and chord progression.
Transform Your Playing
Watch the replay for an entire year, refer to the tab for every example, and make "Indiana" a permanent new part of your repertoire.
Learning The Tune
When you sign up for the workshop, right away you'll get the tab to both a basic and a more advanced arrangement of "Indiana." It's a good idea to know how a tune is "supposed" to go before you start doing hip things with it, so the basic version shows you how to play the original melody of "Indiana" over the chords, in the alternating-thumb style. Then, the advanced version shows you the syncopated phrasing and chord voicings that reflect the way the people really play the tune.
Just understanding how to turn the basic facts of a song into something more musical and swinging is an essential step in learning to improvise, so we'll begin the workshop with an overview of these two arrangements. Then, we'll dive into the heart of the class: learning how to improvise on a fingerstyle arrangement of a standard.
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$79 07/19/25 FINGERSTYLE STANDARDS: INDIANA
Tools for improvisation and how to use them
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Get a year's access to Fingerstyle Standards: "Indiana" for $79.
