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Phil Keaggy - Follow Me Up - Guitar Lesson

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Phil Keaggy - Follow Me Up guitar lesson video
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Classic Rock

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Mid7
Treble6
Presence5
Master7
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Phil Keaggy Progressive Rock

About Follow Me Up

Few guitarists reward close listening the way Phil Keaggy does, and "Follow Me Up" is a fine example of why his fingerstyle and picking technique deserve serious study. The melodic lines here weave between rhythm and lead in a way that can catch you off guard: what sounds simple on first listen turns out to involve carefully placed hammer-ons, pull-offs, and subtle position shifts that keep the voice-leading smooth. Getting those transitions clean at full tempo takes patience, so use the Practice Toolbar to isolate the trickiest phrases and slow them down without losing the pitch center. Keaggy plays with a behind-the-beat looseness that is easy to rush, so locking in the feel before building speed is essential. The song sits in the broader world of Progressive Rock, which means the arrangement rewards attention to dynamics as much as to notes. Work through it section by section and let the phrasing settle before stringing everything together.

  • Keaggy's melodic phrasing blends fingerpicked passages with flatpicked lines, so be ready to shift technique within a single phrase.
  • The loosely expressive rhythmic feel is a key challenge: locking in the groove at a slower tempo first will help before playing at full speed.
  • Use the Practice Toolbar to loop any transitional passages slowed down, since the position shifts can trip up even experienced players.

How to Play Follow Me Up

Tuning: E Standard

Use the section loop to isolate a passage and drop the speed to build each section up to tempo.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Keaggy's primary electric choice, the Les Paul Standard delivers the warm, vocal midrange and thick sustain he needs for fingerstyle leads and orchestral layering. Its PAF-style humbuckers drive his tube amps into smooth overdrive while keeping looped layers clean.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

Keaggy uses this premium Les Paul variant for its enhanced tonal depth and craftsmanship, offering the same warm humbucker character as the Standard but with greater refinement for his most expressive, sustained passages.

Fender Twin Reverb
Amp

Fender Twin Reverb

This clean-headroom workhorse gives Keaggy the sparkly platform he needs to push into saturation via pedals rather than amp distortion, preserving the fingerstyle dynamics crucial to his layered, looping arrangements.

Vox AC30
Amp

Vox AC30

The AC30's chiming midrange and natural breakup complement Keaggy's edge-of-breakup approach, adding harmonic complexity to his loop-based soundscapes while maintaining the articulation required for intricate fingerpicking.

Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9
Pedal

Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9

This smooth overdrive pedal shapes Keaggy's lead tones without losing clarity, driving his tube amps into saturation while preserving note definition in his fast, fingerstyle lines and sustaining solos.

Boss CE-2 Chorus
Pedal

Boss CE-2 Chorus

Keaggy employs this classic analog-style chorus to add shimmer and width to his layered orchestral textures, thickening his fingerstyle passages without muddying the midrange definition that defines his signature sound.

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