Welcome to 101 Blue

Hi, I'm Doug McLeod, and I want to welcome you to 101 Blue.

What You'll Learn

On this DVD, we're going to give you the building blocks that you need to:

• Play like yourself
• Sound like yourself
• Find the feeling that lives behind the notes
• Have the confidence to play the right notes

Understanding the Right Notes

You're going to say to me, "Well, how do I know the right notes?" Well, it's real easy.

The right notes are the ones you hear in your head.

That's what we're going to do.

Setting the Right Mindset

Before we get started, I want to take just a second and get your mindset right.

• Get my feet right, and you get your mind right.
• Get your mindset right on what we're going to do here.

I don't want you to think about this as "licks." I want you to think about this as building blocks.

The Difference Between Licks and Building Blocks

If you think about it as licks, sometimes people have a way of just kind of saying, "Well, I got this lick, and I'm going to connect it to this lick and this lick."

You think you're playing, but really what you're doing is just licking.

What I want you to do is think about building blocks, where you put a foundation down and build upon it. This gives you a chance to express yourself and sound like you.

Flexibility in Playing

The notes that you'll hear me play and the sequences that you hear me play them in don't necessarily have to be exactly how you plan.

Okay, we got that together?

Then let's go on and get ready to make some music together!