How to play a Blues Guitar SOLO (Beginner to Advanced) //Another Guitar Show Episode 5
In this video
In this episode Andy and Thomas talk all about the blues!
We look at cool chords, lead lines and just the general mentality so that anyone can learn to play authentic sounding Blues rhythm and lead guitar.
>> Why not check out this great Blues Course with guest teacher Mike Bradley.
Jam Track 1 (Taught at 2:21 in the video)
Key of A major - B.B. King style
This jam track is a simple 12 bar blues in A. We can play this with either the simple A, E and D major chords, or swap these for the 7th and 9th versions, as shown in the video.
Playing Lead over this track
You can begin by using the A minor pentatonic as a warm up. After this, focus on just playing the minor 3rd and then the major 3rd and the combination of the two.
In the video, Andy simply takes the root note on the B string (in this case A on the 10th fret) and uses it as a pivot point to get to the minor 2nd note and the major 3rd. You can play this notes in two different places on the neck as well, as shown here. Once you get the notes together, have some fun playing along to the jam track!
Jam Track 2 (Taught at 10:54 in the video)
Key of G minor - Funky blues
For our second jam we move into the key of G minor to play through a 'minor blues' track. This essentially means that some of the usual dominant chords are exchanged for minor chords, and we therefore have a few different options in terms of scale choice.
The chords were G minor, C minor, Eb7 and D7.
Playing Lead over this track
I encourage you to stick to the minor pentatonic as a default over this track. Then, I would focus on trying to add the 4th fret of the B string (the Eb note) over the C minor chord (bars 5 and 6 of the 12 bar progression. This way, the lead notes we use match the chord that the rhythm instruments are playing.
Thomas took a more advanced approach. Over the root chord (Gm) he used a G Dorian scale, then switched to G minor scale of the Cm, as this helped to target the minor 3rd in C (which is the Eb, whilst the G Dorian scale highlighted the E note). Finally, for the Eb7 and D7 Thomas used an arpeggio of the two shapes, which works a treat! Here are those shapes, as well as the backing track to practice with! See neck diagrams of all this free on the YGA website here
Jam Track 3 (Taught at 20:05 in the video)
Key of C major - Peter Green style
For our final jam we are playing over a much more Peter Green style track, which is very common in soul and gospel music.
Main Loop
C ///// C7 ///// F ///// Gbdim7 ///// C // Am // Dm // G // C // F / Gbdim7 / C / G7 /////
Bridge
F ///// Gbdim7 ///// C // F // C // C7 // F ///// Gbdim7 ///// G /// Ab /// G /////
Playing Lead over this track
For this track Thomas uses a combination of C Major, C minor and arpeggio notes. For example, of the I chord he uses major, then over IV chord minor. He plays around with this a lot, and you can have some fun with it too! Here are those scale shapes alongside the backing track!
Neck diagrams and further writeup to accompany this episode!
Get a complete writeup to this lesson on the fantastic Your Guitar Academy website