Learn to alternate between a blues shuffle and lead licks!
View the full lesson at justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/hooker-vibe-blues-main-lesson-sb-401
For the high-string double-stops, is it okay to use two fingers with my picking hand instead of one? Is it just personal preference, or is using one finger considered better for blues?
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I think the up-brush with one finger is a useful thing to have in your fingerstyle blues toolkit, so I would invest some time to learn it. It’s pretty common in this style of playing.
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Either / or is good.
Try to learn both.
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At the beginning of the lesson Justin mentions the Em scale. I’m assuming a necessary step to be able to create our own version is a good working knowledge of it plus the pentatonic form. While practicing the 2 introductory pieces I’ve been trying to note what notes are being played in the different chord positions.
Edit: Doh! of course, the pentatonic is the same as the Am (the only one I’ve worked with) except the 5th fret is replaced by the String Nut, so no need to fret them.
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I haven’t looked at this piece yet, but all of them in this solo blues course are in they key of E, so you should definitely be familiar with the Em pentatonic scale in the open position. Luckily, it’s the easiest scale of all! You can play it with one finger on the fretting hand.
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The E minor pentatonic is your source here rather than the full E minor scale. There are a few add in extra notes but start with the pattern of five.
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I’ve been practicing this one for a little while and thought I’d rip off the band-aid and post a video. It’s still a bit rough but I was starting to realize that if I was waiting for perfection I might never post! I’m really just doing this for personal accountability, though I’d be grateful for feedback of any kind – even including things like how to improve the video and recording, as this is my first time doing this.
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Inspired by @AndyEMaul’s post, here is a link to my take on the Hooker Vibe Blues lesson following some experimentation with the first few lessons of the Solo Blues course:
This has been a fun tune to learn and put in some turnarounds from my BLIM2 studies to extend it to four lots of 12 bars. Trying to add some more improvisation and variations to each round of 12 bars is the next challenge now that my fingers have got used to main the picking pattern.
@AndyEMaul, that acoustic sounds great to me and your rhythmic timing seems spot on. Did you use the MatchMySound app or a metronome to lock in the timing?
Your first time video looks good and clearly shows both hands which is great for seeking feedback. I assume you are just recording the room sound with a microphone as there does not look to be a pickup on that guitar?
My own recording approach at the moment is to just use my phone which is propped up in front of me on a desk, so not a particularly great camera angle coupled with a rather raw sound including my breathing, pickguard hits and unwanted noises in places!
I have only learnt this piece and the initial Steady Thumb Blues tune so far but feel ready to move to the next piece now to expand my solo blues repertoire further.
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Thanks so much for tagging me and for the feedback, @DavidSGuitar – and you’re sounding pretty darn good there to me! (Especially considering that that sounds like just the acoustic sound of your unplugged tele? 
) And yeah, that was just the mic on my iPhone for that recording, though my acoustic actually does have a piezo so I might try that out next time.
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t really been able to make much use out of the MatchMySound app – it keeps giving me near-perfect scores even when I know my timing sucks and I hit wrong notes. So mostly I’ve been trying to lock in the timing by alternating between playing along with the GuitarPro files and playing solo.
Also, you’ve inspired me to try dusting off those BLIM licks again and seeing if I can mix them into to solo arrangements like this one!
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Many thanks for your comments. With regard to my recorded sound, there is a small practice amp directly behind me and I have a touch of reverb and delay added from pedals on the floor but at the volume I am playing, and from the position of the phone, most of the recorded sound is the acoustic sound of the guitar. Not an ideal recording method but it does focus the mind on minimising unwanted noise!
I do have an audio interface but currently I have no easy way to record video and audio at the same time so for my uploads to the JustinGuitar forums I have to date only provided recordings made on a phone.
I tried the MatchMySound app and it provided some useful feedback and did seem to identify timing issues and missed notes but after a run of good scores I changed to just tapping my foot for further practice.
Transposing BLIM licks from the key of A to the key of E is a fun exercise so do give that a go 
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