Intermediate Electric Course

13 tunes | 104 step-by-step Guitar Lessons

When playing songs on the electric guitar, it’s essential to learn all our CAGED barre chords to build rhythm parts. We must also master our pentatonic scales to incorporate licks and play solos.

In the intermediate electric guitar course, we do just that – simultaneously learning thirteen legendary songs.

As you practice chord shapes and create licks along to live band loops, there’s little need for boring metronome exercises. Instead, we can learn all of this within the context of each song – a much more enjoyable and effective approach!

Upon completing the course, you will have mapped out the fretboard and gained an understanding of how to craft a guitar part.

As a final bonus, you’ll have the beginnings of a Motown/Soul repertoire, which is crucial for joining a working band.

Even though you, as a member, have unlimited access to all these lessons, I recommend you follow the order displayed below and practice all material in the 8 step-by-step lessons for each tune.

#1 – Rescue Me

In this first series of lessons for the intermediate electric course, we learn how to play Rescue Me by Fontella Bass, at the same time as we learn the CAGED system.

Practice along with the band as we step-by-step work our way to playing the complete song with a live band.

#2 – You Can’t Hurry Love

You Can't Hurry Love 8 step by step guitar lessons

Learn how to play You Can’t Hurry Love, step-by-step by practicing each section of the song with the band.

As well as this we also practice all our dom7 CAGED shapes. if you can play all shapes, you can play this tune in an improvised way.

#3 – Can I Get A Witness

Can I Get A Witness 8 step by step guitar lessons

The chord changes of Can I Get A Witness are very fast, to play these comfortably, we must practice each section on a loop in every area of the neck.

Only by being this methodical can we play the complete song in an improvised way with the band in the final step.

#4 – Be My Baby

Be My Baby 8 step by step guitar lessons

Each section of Be My Baby is relatively easy, as long as you practice with the live band loops, you’ll learn them quickly.

The challenge lies in playing the verse, bridge, chorus, and solo without getting stuck, making it all sound natural when you play with the band in step 8.

#5 – Soul Man

Soul Man is a rare example of how you should stick to just a one-bar riff for a long time, this is clearly what you should do when playing the verse.

Once we hit the chorus and the M8, things get much more intricate, can you put it all together in step 8?

#6 – Money (That’s What I Want)

Money (That's What I Want) 8 step by step guitar lessons

As well as learning the very interesting main riff of Money (That’s What I Want), there’s plenty more going on in these lessons.

As well as varying the turnaround, we also have a solo to get our teeth into. This is an important lesson as we can build any solo using this concept.

#7 – I Heard It Through The Grapevine

I Heard It Through The Grapevine 8 step by step guitar lessons

When playing I Heard It Through The Grapevine, we get a great chance to vary our guitar parts in subtle ways.

For the instrumental section, we improvise by finding different chord shapes and adding licks using the minor pentatonic.

#8 – Get Ready

To get the most from playing Get Ready, we move that verse riff around the fretboard and vary it in execution.

For the solo, we copy what the strings and the sax play on the original recording. This will require us to work on our pull-off and hammer-on techniques.

#9 – Son Of A Preacher Man

Son Of A Preacher Man 8 step by step guitar lessons

Since Son Of A Preacher Man doesn’t have any guitar to copy, we must invent our parts by listening to what the other instruments play.

I’ll give you several ideas so you can create your parts for when you play with the live band in step 8.

#10 – My Guy

There are more jazzy-sounding chords to discover when we play My Guy.

During the steps, you’ll get many variations on how you can play each section, ultimately making it possible for you to improvise your guitar part when you play it with the band in the final step.

#11 – Respect

The ultimate soul song to learn we find in Aretha’s version of Respect. To create our guitar part we find inspiration from the horns, BV’s, and the original guitar.

For the solo, we copy what the sax played, note for note. This is a serious challenge but by practicing methodically, we will get there,

#12 – Jimmy Mack

Jimmy Mack 8 step by step guitar lessons

Jimmy Mack is your introduction to chord substitutions, this is something we’ll do a lot more of in the future.

Seemingly simple to do, once you get it, you’ll see that we’ve opened a can of worms here. You can easily spend the rest of your life substituting chords.

#13 – Master Blaster (Jammin’)

Master Blaster 8 step by step guitar lessons

The final series of lessons are done around Stevie Wonder’s masterpiece Master Blaster (Jammin’). As the title suggests, this is all about improvisation.

As a bonus, you’ll know that when you can play the instrumental sections, you know your Minor Pentatonic well enough.

81 Intermediate Electric Tunes | Guitar Lessons + TAB

When you complete the 13 tunes above using the step-by-step lessons, you may find yourself wanting more of the same rather than moving on to more complicated songs.

To cater for this, I’ve transcribed 81 additional tunes. Here’s a list with links.