We show you 5 Peter Green guitar habits so you can add some Greeny style Blues guitar to your playing
In this Peter Green guitar lesson, you'll learn 5 key guitar habits and guitar techniques that you can add to your own blues style playing.
In this video and Peter Green inspired lesson, you'll learn some of his most iconic techniques, phrasing and tricks he used to get his signature sound. Once again, we've teamed up with Leigh Fuge over at MGR Music to help us out with these awesome Peter Green inspired blues techniques.
Peter Green’s influence has been felt by generation after generation of guitar player. Everyone from Gary Moore to Kirk Hammett have quoted Green as a big influence on their playing style.
In this blues-inspired lesson you’re going to learn some of the habits that Peter Green used in his playing and bring a little bit of his blues guitar vibe into your own repertoire.
Watch the Peter Green Guitar Lesson & Guitar Habits Video
Watch the video and play along with the tablature below. Chances are you'll learn some incredible Blues techniques from this Peter Green inspired guiar lesson. They're easy and fun to play along with!
Peter Green Style Guitar trick #1 - The BB Box
Video section 1:16
The BB Box is a Pentatonic pattern popularised by BB King. It is a combination of the 3rd shapes of both the Major and Minor Pentatonics. We discuss BB King guitar habits in detail over on our blog, and it's widely used by many guitarists!
Here's how you can play it.
A Major Pentatonic Shape 3
A Minor Pentatonic Shape 3
The BB Box used by Peter Green
It’s just a 5 note box that you can use for some instant Peter Green style licks. BB King was a huge influence on Green’s style so it’s no surprise to see this sort of pattern in his playing.
Here is a typical Peter Green style lick using this pattern and an essential part of any Peter Green guitar lesson.
Peter Green Style Guitar trick #2 - Fast Flurries
Video section: 2:50
The next step in our Peter Green guitar lesson is the signature fast flurry style that peter often used.
Peter Green was never known as a speedy player, but he did occasionally throw in these little flurries of notes similar to this.
These are just pentatonic runs. The first part is played as a 16th note triplet (This makes up half a beat – an 8th note) followed by a picked 8th note. The four note phrases rests over a single beat. You can apply this anywhere in your pentatonic scales.
It would often be seen as a run to wrap up a lick much like this.
Peter Green Style Guitar trick #3 - Pre Bends and Vibrato
Video section: 4:02
You will see a lot of pre-bends in the Peter Green style. A prebend is when you bend the string your desired distance, but you don’t pick until you’ve already bent the string.
Peter Green would often pre-bend and add a lot of fast vibrato when the string it at its peak. Here is an example that uses the first shape of the A Minor Pentatonic scale but in the upper octave position.
Peter Green Guitar habit #4 - Muted String Rakes
Video section 5:04
A muted rake is a great way to add impact to a note. In this case, you’re doing a rake across some muted strings before hitting specific notes in the lick.
The mutes should be done by resting a finger across the strings, dragging your pick down the muted strings and pulling the rake away just before you hit the string where your fretted note is sitting.
This muted guitar string rake technique was also widely used by and is an essential Stevie Ray Vaughan technique and is a commonly used John Mayer guitar habit today, in fact, it's not only an essential part of our Peter Green guitar lesson, but a technique all guitar players will really find benefit from.
Peter Green Guitar habit #5 - Adding Chords to Licks
Video section 6:35
The final part of our Peter Green guitar lesson and another essential Peter Green playing habit is to integrate chords to the lead guitar side of playing. In this lick, which is based on a similar lick from the track Black Magic Woman, you have a bluesy lick that ends with the root chord of the song being played as a triad.
The initial two notes at the end of the first bar both occur on the final 16th note of that bar. You should essentially rake, or sweep, these notes. They are just a set up phrase for the actual bending lick in bar 2.
You can also use different voicings of the Am chord. Try it in the open position, or at the 12th fret for different textures.
We hope you enjoyed our Peter green guitar lesson! let us know if you think we've missed any key Peter Green guitar habits in the comments.
About The Author:
This lesson was brouigh to you by MusicTeacher.com, created by experienced guitar tutor Leigh Fuge. Leigh works as part of a community of guitar teachers based across the UK and beyond, with new local guitar hubs being launched each week - including the latest one Guitar Lessons Portsmouth. You can find teachers within the community that offer in-person or online guitar lessons as suits your requirements, with lessons tailored to students of all learning abilities and genres.
If you enjoyed this article and video, don’t forget to check out PMTVUK on Youtube for more guitar lesson videos.
