Johnny Winter player study

Course: Texas Blues Bootcamp with Mike Bradley

In this video

Study the playing style of Texas blues guitarist Johnny Winter, known for his high-energy blues-rock. He recorded many influential performances and live albums in the 1960s and 1970s and produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for Muddy Waters.

Welcome to this video where we look at the playing style of Texas blues guitarist Johnny Winter.

Winter is best known for his high-energy blues-rock playing style and recorded many influential performances and live albums in the late 1960s and 1970s. He also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. In 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

In this lesson, we'll focus on the lead licks in the style of Johnny's live performances, particularly his cover of the Rolling Stones song Jumpin' Jack Flash. We're really turning up the heat here, so be sure to use the interactive tab below and to slow down any licks to be sure you really nail them before working up to 100% speed!

Johnny Winter study - interactive tab

N.B. Activate the fretboard graphic on the tab above to see scales, chords and neck shapes brought to life!

Scale used - B minor pentatonic shapes 1 & 2

The lead lines above use notes exclusively from the B minor pentatonic scale, with just 1 note from shape 2. The diagram below shows these notes and also the intervals that are used.

Blue = notes from shape 1. Orange - notes from shape 2

Next Up: Stevie Ray Vaughan rhythm study

Well done! Let's jump into the next lesson of the course.

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