This is one of those things that I see many of my less experienced blues soloists do… In fact, I see it in my son’s jazz band at school, it’s just a common thing when you’re not as sure about what you’re going to play next.

The tendency is to not want to leave empty space, so during periods of thinking, you might tend to “poke” the root note a few times. It’s a safe place to be, and it’s not empty space, so it seems to work.

In fact, in my experience, most of my students don’t even realize they do this. So realizing it’s a thing is probably the first step to correcting it 🙂

But the second step is doing something better. If you’re going to poke a note, might as well make it sound cool while you’re at it, right?


    23 replies to "Don’t Poke The Root Note…"

    • Lee

      I have the opposite problem – I tend to never want to play the same note twice in a row.

    • Andy

      I have to admit, too, that this grace note idea will help so much. I have learned much from you Griff, Thanks!!

    • Bob B

      Clapton would be happy with that solo ….

    • Robert Denney

      Griff,
      Your opening solo was so wonderfully melodic. Truly fantastic with influences from several names I could pick out. Would love to see that one charted out in the BGU group. Thanks for the quick heads up on poking the I.

      • Pete

        How about Peter Green and Buddy Whittington to name but two.

    • Bob K

      Love how your videos address some lingering questions I have! Working on Solo #2 in BGU 2.0 and I keep coming back to something I heard from an instructor — when doing solos, create tension by playing beyond, or around, the root note and resolve it by coming back to the root.

      Unfortunately, when I’m practicing scales and boxes and try some improv, I tend to do what this video describes. I was always aware of it because it just didn’t sound that good. Glad to have one trick up my sleeve now to do something a bit different

    • Martin Lindsay

      Hey, don’t forget the most famous “bear poke” blues lick of all – BB King’s octave B lick up the neck on “The Thrill Is Gone.” First finger on B note 16th fret G string, third finger on B note an octave above 19th fret E string muting open B string. Poke (rapid pick stroke) 4 times.

    • DEAN J WARING

      Where do I get the shirt?

    • Dan

      Who knew the grace that grace notes bring to soloing? Griff of course!

      Thanks Griff

    • chris clemans

      Griff , what neck profile does your Paul Reed have also the video was great as usual

    • BILL CARTER

      That was the most fluent blues I have ever heard you play.
      Can I have that backing track please Griff?

    • Robert

      How about shirt where can i get mine ?

    • Mark

      Now I would love the tab to the intro to this video and the backing track. That was nice. Any chance?

      • Drew

        Ditto on that request. There’s a bit of Hard Times by Ray Charles in there somewhere. I’d buy the lesson.

      • PAUL

        I HEAR THIS ALOT, ON SOLOS. MANY GUYS JUST REPEAT THERE LICKS, OVER AND OVER.
        I LIKE YOURT BGU LIVE T-SHIRT GRIFF. YOU SHOULD SELL THEM. I WOULD BUY ONE.
        THANKS GRIFF.

    • Mike

      Sweet! Love these daily doses! Dose of dos in this case.

      • ChrisGSP

        Ho ho Mike, were those Dosey Does? That go with Hokey Pokes in a square dance?
        Chris G.

    • Gary

      Great job Griff, very help full thanks

    • David

      My mother once told me if I kept poking the root I’d go blind. 😬

      • John

        I only did it ’til I needed glasses!😎

    • Rob

      Nice new PRS !

    • Bill R

      Great learning…was just in a Group guitar lesson last night when the instructor had us use our first “improvisation” try using basically Box 1 of the Penatonic scale…I sounded so good, (so I thought) but kept hitting that root note and hitting it in a “non poking” kind of way—this Grace note approach you show suddenly makes me feel a bit better about using it again, in a way that doesnt make it sound so repetitive and same like. Thanks for the “timely” quick lesson.

    • Terry

      Nice. Great thought. Thks

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