Blues Learning Pathway
Explore the foundation of modern groove.
Late beginner bassists
Start with the basics and build up to sophisticated blues basslines. If you have a basic beginner foundation, you're ready to take this class.
3 months
Dylan will guide you through 6 grades of step-by-step instruction with daily practice plans and assessments.
Master the blues
By the end of this pathway, you'll be able to confidently build basslines and improvise over any blues song.
Take the next step
Once you've mastered blues bass, keep progressing with more challenges and guided pathways.
What you'll learn
Discover the genre that continues to influence modern music. From basic 12-bar grooves to advanced modern styles, this class will help you internalize the sound and feel of the blues.
- Master the art of the 12-bar blues
- Develop your rhythm and time feel
- Study the style of blues bass icons
- Develop practical skills for the stage and studio
Curriculum
Stay focused with this step-by-step learning program designed by our expert team of music educators.
Your guided learning pathway
In this 3-month Learning Pathway, Dylan Wilson will guide you through mastering the art of blues and preparing to play with other musicians. This class goes far beyond the basic 12-bar blues. You'll explore regional blues feels, learn modern walking concepts, and tackle practical theory to expand your fretboard awareness.
Play the Blues
In Grade 1, you’ll go back to where it all started. Rock, funk, jazz, pop, even metal: it all comes from the blues.
Across seven expertly paced lessons, you’ll learn to play with a shuffle feel and navigate the 12-bar blues in any key, major or minor.
Along the way, you’ll develop techniques to expand on the blues, including using alternate chord progressions and must-know intros and endings.
Building Your Basslines
In Grade 2, you'll expand on your blues foundation with scales and moves to start crafting your own basslines right away.
From walkups and triads to box variations and the walking blues cliché, you’ll leave this grade with a handful of go-to basslines to use for the rest of your bass journey.
Styles and Feels
In Grade 3, we’ll start incorporating new feels from around the world into our basslines, as well as bluesifying genres like country and jazz.
You’ll learn how to play Latin blues, jazz blues, and straight-8th Texas blues rock. By the end of this grade, you’ll have a deeper understanding of just how influential the blues is across genres and cultures.
Grade 4. Study the Greats
Now that you’ve internalized the blues form and feel in many styles, it’s time to dip into blues history and learn from the all-time great bassists. Whether it’s Tommy Shannon’s laid-back Texas shuffle or Jack Bruce’s in-your-face bass riffs, you’ll leave with a trove of bass techniques that will expand your vocabulary and help you find your own voice on the bass.
Grade 5. Chord Substitutions and Moves
In Grade 5, you’ll add pro-level sophistication to your bass playing with colorful chord substitutions, tension-filled pedal tones, and jazzy progressions. You’ll find ways to shape the blues to fit your style and voice, all while improving your pocket and ear.
Grade 6. Blues Gig Toolkit
This is the grade that separates beginners from advanced players. The blues is all about playing with others and feeding off each other’s energy, so we’re giving you a toolkit of essential techniques for your first (or next) gig. You’ll learn techniques and concepts like ghost notes, call and response, and the 3:2 system. You’ll leave this class with the tools to become every band’s favorite bassist to jam with.
Grade 1. Play the Blues
The blues is all about feeling. More than likely, you’ve heard a 12-bar blues before. But in Grade 1, you’ll dive deep into the form and signature rhythm to start internalizing the blues feel. Once you have the basic form down, you’ll explore techniques to spice up the blues and improve your pocket.
Day 1. 12-bar blues form
Learn the three chords that revolutionized music forever while working through basic rhythms like whole and quarter notes. This will be the foundation for every lesson in this class.
Day 2. Box blues
Learn to play the blues in any key using the simple blues box.
Day 3. Straight vs. shuffle
With the blues form down, you’ll now learn how to play the rhythm that gives the blues its signature feel: the shuffle.
Day 4. The quick change, turnaround, and ii-V
Dylan will show you how to expand the 12-bar blues and sound like a pro by changing up just a few chords.
Day 5. Minor blues
You’ll give the blues some melancholic vibes by switching all the chords to minor and throwing in the bVI chord.
Day 6. Must-know intros and endings
Learn how to start and end blues songs to craft the perfect musical conversation.
Day 7. Workout
Put everything together in a musical workout and reinforce what you’ve learned.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 1 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of professional L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro bassists.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to Grade 2.
Grade 2. Building Your Basslines
Now that you’ve learned the form and rhythm of the blues, it’s time for you to learn how to create your own basslines. Using scales, triads, and simple moves, you’ll be able to outline chords and add momentum to songs.
Day 1. Classic Box Variations
Prepare for your first blues jam session with essential basslines you can pull out whenever and wherever to navigate the 12-bar blues with confidence.
Day 2. Three must-know scales
Meet three essential scales for creating melodic blues basslines: the Mixolydian scale, the minor scale, and the pentatonic scale.
Day 3. Triads
You’ll learn how to outline chord changes like a pro using just three notes.
Day 4. Approaching the root
Learn how walkups and walkdowns let you add movement and tension while connecting chords more smoothly.
Day 5. Walkups and walkdowns
Keep building momentum with chromatic and scale-tone walkups.
Day 6. Walking blues cliché
Keep the momentum going with a tried-and-true walking bassline that’s been used by hundreds of artists in rock, blues, and pop.
Day 7. 5th to root
Hold down the groove with just two notes using half-step sidesteps and a tritone substitution.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 2 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of pro L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro bassists.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to Grade 3.
Grade 3. Styles and Feels
From country and jazz to Latin grooves and heartfelt waltzes, the blues is everywhere. In this grade, you’ll explore how blues basslines can work in various styles and feels.
Day 1. One-chord vamps
Learn how to use riffs and fills to keep one chord sounding like a million bucks.
Day 2. Country blues
Explore the shared roots between the blues and country using a rhythm called the two feel.
Day 3. 3/4 blues
You’ll learn how to play jazzy 7th-chord arpeggios in 3/4 time (aka a waltz).
Day 4. 12/8 blues
Now, we’ll keep experimenting with time signatures by applying a 12/8 feel to our Chicago bassline.
Day 5. Texas/straight 8ths
Let’s sprinkle some rock on our blues with a driving straight-8th groove inspired by the Texas bluesman Albert King.
Day 6. Intro to jazz blues
You’ve gotten a taste of jazz blues, but now you’ll learn the jazziest of all chord progressions: the ii-V-I.
Day 7. Latin blues styles
Join artists like Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King, and Carlos Santana by incorporating Latin American rhythms like the rhumba and boogaloo into the blues.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 3 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of pro L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro bassists.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to Grade 4.
Grades 4-6
Now, we’ll leave behind the beginner phase and get closer to blues mastery. Start by studying the signature techniques of the great blues bassists. Then, you’ll upgrade your 12-bar blues with chord stops, pedal tones, and advanced jazz-blues turnarounds. Finally, Dylan will get you ready for the stage with advanced techniques like improvisation, call and response, and the 3:2 system.
Grade 4. Study the Greats
In this grade, you’ll explore the styles of genre-defining bass legends. Each day, you'll dive into the signature techniques behind a low-end icon to expand your vocabulary and craft your own voice.
Day 1. Willie Dixon (Chicago blues)
Learn how Willie Dixon used simple yet punchy bass riffs to hold down the rhythm for blues legends like Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry.
Day 2. Tommy Shannon (power trio)
Tommy Shannon will show us how to control the dynamics of our basslines to match the energy of a guitarist like Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Day 3. Ray Brown (jazz blues)
We’ll study how Ray Brown used walking basslines, chromaticism, and approach notes to support artists like Oscar Peterson and the rock band Steely Dan.
Day 4. Donald “Duck” Dunn (soul/blues)
Donald “Duck” Dunn was inspired heavily by R&B and gospel, and he’ll show us how to translate the blues into radio-friendly soul hits using simple but catchy ostinato patterns.
Day 5. Jack Bruce (blues rock)
Following in Jack Bruce’s footsteps, we’ll crank the volume and share center stage with lead guitarist Eric Clapton.
Day 6. Noel Redding
Learn how Noel Redding approached bass playing with a guitarist’s mindset, often using riffs and even chords to support Jimi Hendrix.
Day 7. Jerry Jemmott
Learn how to make the blues groove even harder with Jerry Jemmott, who had a deep pocket and propelled the blues toward danceable genres like funk and fusion.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 4 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of pro L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro bassists.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to Grade 5.
Grade 5. Chord Substitutions and Moves
By now, you have the traditional 12-bar blues form in your veins. In this grade, you’ll expand on the form with colorful chord substitutions, tension-building pedal tones, and even jazzy ii-V progressions.
Day 1. Stops
Build tension and emphasize the groove with chord stops.
Day 2. #IV, I/V, and the VI chord
Zoom in on three types of chord substitutions to make the 12-bar blues feel fresh again.
Day 3. Pedal tones
Change the sound and feel of every chord simply by staying on one note through a progression.
Day 4. Minor-chord walkup
Learn how the Allman Brothers Band put a unique spin on a classic blues using a minor-chord progression to connect the I chord to the ii-V.
Day 5. ii-V opportunities
Focus in on the different places where you can inject ii-V progressions to build tension and add some jazzy sophistication to the blues.
Day 6. Jazz blues (advanced)
Take on a full jazz blues walking bassline using the advanced techniques we’ve explored throughout this class.
Day 7. Workout
Break a sweat with our musical spin on Simon Says: Dylan Says, Blues Edition.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 5 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of pro L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro bassists.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to Grade 6.
Grade 6. Blues Gig Toolkit
In this final grade, Dylan will prepare you for your first (or next) blues gig with a toolkit of pro-level techniques that will help you play with confidence and great feel in a band setting.
Day 1. Ghost notes
Tighten your pocket by thinking like a drummer and playing muted percussive notes.
Day 2. The 3:2 system
Learn the cheat code for professional-sounding solos and riffs.
Day 3. The minor 3:2 system
Flip the 3:2 system for expert basslines in minor keys.
Day 4. Improvising
Learn how to take a solo without losing the groove.
Day 5. Call and response
Improve your musical communication skills with the king of all jam session techniques.
Day 6. Dominant 7th chords
Add harmonic flavor with tasteful bass chords, including two- and three-note chords.
Day 7. Workout
For your final workout of the pathway, you’ll run through seven basslines that you learned throughout the class.
Performance pieces
Choose a song to learn that takes what you worked on in Grade 6 and puts it in a musical context. Here, you'll get to jam with a live-recorded band of pro L.A. musicians as your backing track.
Personalized feedback
Submit a video of yourself playing a performance piece from this grade for custom video feedback on your playing from our team of pro bassists.
Final quiz
Make sure you're ready to move on to new challenges.
FULL REFUND, NO QUESTIONS ASKED
Improve your playing or get your money back
We’re so confident that we can improve your playing that we’re underwriting your membership with a 60-day satisfaction guarantee.
Your Instructor
Master the art of blues with a world-touring bassist who brings real performance experience to every lesson.
Explore LessonsWhat’s in every Pickup Music membership?
Try it free for 14 days
1,000+ Lessons
All skill levels
Interactive TAB
Track your progress
Daily practice plans
Live lessons every week
Limitless learning.
All-inclusive access to every course.
Frequently asked questions
The most structured approach to learning music
