Gary Clark Jr Style

Hi GMC!

Welcome to this new lesson based on the style of the great blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr. Let's see what wiki says about him:

"Gary Lee Clark, Jr.[1] (born February 15, 1984) is an American guitarist and actor based in Austin, Texas.[2][3][4] Clark has shared the stage with various legends of rock and roll,[5] and has stated that he is "influenced by blues, jazz, soul [and] country, as well as hip hop".[6] Clark's musical trademarks are his distorted guitar sound and smooth vocal style." from wiki.

Music Style:
Gary is one of the new aga blues guitarists and I think that he added some fresh air to this style because he is not only influenced by the biggest blues players, he is also influenced by more modern bands and hip hop artists. His style is blues mostly played with fuzz pedals, but with production that takes elements from alternative rock, neo soul and hip hop. That's why his riffing and grooves are totally fresh for blues genre. In this lesson I tried to recreate his most recent music which reflects exactly that mix of influenced but strong blues roots.

Tonality, Chord Progression & Scales:
If you want to know all the theory behind blues I recommend you to check out THIS thread. In this case, I've used a minor blues chord progression in Em7 to build this tune that starts with a cool riff played with E Pentatonic minor followed by some bluesy phrases played also with minor Pentatonic with some extra notes from aeolian and dorian mode, as well as the characteristic b5 note which is also called the blue note.

Techniques:
This lesson is great for beginners that want to get into riffing and blues phrasing. In this lesson we cover down picking, alternate picking, bending, vibrato, sliding, among some other elements.

Sound:
I used LePoin plugins to create the guitar tone. These are free amp emulators that are extremely recommended. The cabinet used for this guitar tone is HyBrit which is a Marshall amp emulation and before it a tube screamer emulation. Check out the settings: