There’s an old saying, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” and that’s very true with blues soloing…
By far, one of the most common approaches is simply to play the the minor pentatonic/blues scale using the “5 boxes” to arrange them on your fretboard.
But you could also use the “4 Note Solo” approach to arranging those notes, or even the “2+3” pattern (which, you may not have heard of unless you’ve been through my “Rut Busters” course which is a little more obscure.)
And then, of course, you could add in the Major blues sound over the I chord – that’s yet another approach.
Or you could abandon the pentatonic scales (sort of) and go for some BB King style “House Pattern” stuff.
Same thing for some chord tones and even some modes or synthetic scales – the sky, is truly, the limit.
All of those are different approaches – yet all will work and yield slightly different results.
You can use ANY one of them over ANY blues song, and they’ll work. So don’t necessarily try to learn them all at once, it’ll overwhelm you.
Instead, choose one, and work with it for a while. It takes time for you figure out how to get the music out of a new sound, so don’t be discouraged if it sounds awkward at first.
Think of it as a new language, and it takes time to learn a new language, so be patient with yourself.
5 replies to "Approaching Your Blues Solos…"
I got the new “Trading Fours – Volume 1” course the day before yesterday. Already been through all 5 jams a couple of times, and found all of your suggestions from this article embedded in one or more of those jams. Great course, thanks Griff.
Chris G in the great south land of Aus.
Thank you for the refresher it was very helpful
Very helpful stuff Griff. Thank you!
10/29/18
Griff,
You always give good advice that helps those of us who play guitar play even better. Thank you my friend.
Old School(73) and still Rockin’
Gary Hylton
Good advice thanks