It’s super easy to get stuck in a steady steam of 1/8th notes when you solo…

So in today’s video I’ll give you a couple of ideas on ways to break out of that rut and add some more variety to your blues solos.

Hope you dig this and I hope it inspires you to try some new things today!


    38 replies to "How To Add Some Variety To Your Solos"

    • Tony Grenfell

      Thanku griff

    • Tony Grenfell

      Thanku griff great help especially in showing the next

    • Alex Mowatt

      Great to hear alternative reasonings for note changes etc. As always Griff, you make the experience of playing the guitar something most people can due or at least attempt with good groundwork done on their behalf before.
      I wish to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas. I assume the boys are home for Christmas, if not let them know they feature in people’s blessing at this time of the year.

    • Dave

      Hi Griff thanks for all the good advice. Was wondering if you could do a segment on how to take care of the callouses on the string fingers. My ring and middle fingers have super heavy callous build up to the point that when I do a bend, some of the ridges get caught on the neighbor string. I have tried an emery board with some success but would like to hear from you on this subject.

      Aloha from the Big Island

      • PAUL

        Cool. I use my volume pedal , not the volume knob.
        Works great for swells to stay off the eight notes. Thanks Griff.

    • Jason

      Great info, but so much more to playing/improvising than just pace/timing, bends, slides, pull offs, hammer on, and mixing up the minor and major scales, I know this because you(Griff) taught me all of it

    • Chuck W Kelly

      Good advice. Griff.

    • jack bouckeno

      Great stuff I always look forward to listen to you. Thanks for all your help.

      Jack B

    • Mike

      Great lesson Griff. Lowel George once said, “space is a place”. Turns out it’s a pretty deep sentiment.

      Love the videos Griff. You’re a great teacher.

      Thanks

    • Guitar Mark

      Had to send this one to a friend to show and demonstrate how simple it is to get from playing like a “practice mode” to putting more personality into playing…this is just simply one of your best Lessons Ever!!!

    • juan

      great tip griff,,,to slow us down in between notes,something so simple yet very effective,thank you,wish good health to you and your family.

    • Gordon Greaves

      The “roll off the volume” trick to eliminate buzz and feedback was excellent. I have seen that a lot, and never understood its use in that way!
      Thanks for these lessons in this difficult time! They are much appreciated!

    • Alan

      Hey Griff. I was wondering if BB King was big into the theory of what he was playing or was his style more about incredible FEEL and sense of timing?

      • Bill C.

        I’m not Griff (not even close,lol), but I’m pretty sure that BB was all about the “feel” early on. If you sit and watch some video’s of his interviews, he states that he was all about learning and improving his playing and that he did get into the theory of playing. Just my opinion, but his kind of constant learning attitude shows a lot if you listen to some of his early stuff and continue to see how he progressed. But, it is always about the feel. It’s what makes players you hear recognizable even when you don’t know who it is playing. Just my 2 cents.

        • Ken

          To Bill C.’s points, I watched an interview with B B King and he stated clearly that he did not learn the notes, the scales, chords, etc. Safe bet he didn’t have much Theory either. His comment was “I wish I had. I would encourage anyone who takes up this instrument…learn your notes…learn your scales…learn all you can to help yourself be a better player”. Also, he was asked it he ever changed up “The Thrill is Gone”. He mentioned he would just tell the boys to pick a key and he would come in. To hear a song and immediately know what key is being played is an extremely good tool and he was IMHO , if not the best certainly in the Best of the Best at what he did.. I would have loved to have met him.

    • tony

      Okay 5 notes so this is where I do not get it . If you are in A minor and the root is A . Would it be best to stay within the 5 note pattern . starting and ending with a A . If you count how many notes that are in A minor blues scale there are 14 . playing them all up and down is not making any progress . No goal in sight . I know I am there noodling around there is no music . Babbling like a baby does . No one can understand it. Too many notes is like too many cooks it gets spoiled. Sometimes I feel like I am trying to put on a shoe that does not fit . I have the bgu course and the texas shuffle is all of what i already knew . I figured that if I could understand the blues better than rock would be easily understood . Blues is how rock got started. Where do I focus my sites? Have a snake bite shot !

      • anon

        The pentatonic scale has five notes; if you add the flat 5 (the blue note) it makes six (I don’t know where you get 14). These same notes repeat in different positions all over the neck. You can start with the 1, 3, 5–it doesn’t matter. You can end on any of these as well. if you want to move positions of the scale one way is to play your ending note in the next position of the scale. or start in position 1 and then switch position 3 or 5 or whatever.

      • Jim

        Not sure where you come up with 14 notes in the A minor blues scale. There are only 12 notes total in an octave so there can’t be 14 notes in a scale. The typical major or minor scale consists of 8 notes (7 different ones as the root is the first and the 8th note in a scale). The pentatonic scale is 5 notes taken from the ‘normal’ 8 note scale (in math terms, a subset of the full 8-note scale). The blues scale adds one more note to the pentatonic. If playing the 5 note scale, once you have played all 5 notes the scale repeats itself – it’s not more notes, just the same notes played an octave higher/lower. A minor penatatonic: A-C-D-E-G, then the scale would repeat all the way up/down the neck. The ‘blues’ scale adds a D#. One of Griff’s videos suggested playing a lick in one part of the neck, then move up/down an octave and play the same lick (for variety). That tip helped me learn the neck better and added some needed variety to solos. When all else fails, the 4-note solo that Griff teaches is a great place to learn. You can stay in that ‘house’ pattern for as long as you want, bend the right notes, play with rhythmic variety and you’ll sound like a guitar whiz. Great place to start and you can improvise your own licks in the ‘house’ and then move them to another string/octave and try them in a new place on the neck. Don’t give up. You’re probably overthinking it. Start easy and branch out.

      • Ricardo

        There are 14 notes in BOX 1 of the minor blues scale.

        You therefore have 2 octaves of the scale in the BOX with roots on the 6th, 4th & 1st string.

        It’s a common misconception that playing up and down in a Box is playing a scale.

        It’s not!! The root of the scale will be in different places in each Box. The lowest note of each Box will be a different note of the scale. To play a scale from root to octave you need to know where the roots are in each BOX.

        Playing from the lowest note on the 6th string to the highest note on the first string is playing a Box. Playing from root to root within a Box is playing a scale.

        • Ricardo

          I would recommend Griff’s “Major Minor Blues Shapes” course.

    • Mike

      Great lesson Griff but… you left out “the grimace”.

    • Rick

      Love your stuff Griff. The real reason I am commenting though is your shirt. I was in an army unit in Germany with the AH-1 ( Cobra ) helicopter during the eighties and our unit moto or call sign was Snake Bite. It was also on our unit patch. Would love to get that shirt. Not yours of course.

      • Griff

        I got it at Kohl’s… but it’s been a long time. I’m not sure if they still carry it.

    • Marv Murray

      Ur always full of great info. Griff. Really helps us beginners 👍👍

    • Bob C

      Giving your suggestions a shot – it’s not (for me at least) as easy as it sounds. Getting into a rut doesn’t take much effort – getting out is something else. Thanks to my main blues man.

    • Peter (South Coast UK)

      Really helpful, Griff. Many thanks.

    • Chieko T

      Hello Griff,
      Advanced Beginner here…needed this today. Thanks!

    • Ian Robins

      Great lesson,Griff. So simple but so effective. Thanks.

    • Terry b

      Hey I just wanted to mention one more thing about the principle of this lesson. There is a video on YouTube with a live performance of the thrill is gone. It has b.b., Clapton, Robert cray and jimmy vaughn playing. Four guys playing basically the same notes in each of their own style and feel and each rendition is great. That is one of the great things about the blues.

      • Jackie

        Thank you for this tip, what a great video!!! I’ve saved it and will listen to it every day! I’m always inspired by Griff’s lessons…loving my guitar journey.

    • Daniel Kleindienst

      Hey Griff,
      I make a pretty good portion of my living playing music, I’ve been playing a long time,…. I just wanted to tell you that I enjoy your videos and I appreciate you being a super nice guy and obviously a patient and thorough teacher!

      Have an awesome day!

    • Terry b

      Thanks griff, you keep me motivated when your lessons are something I have been trying on my own show up in a lessson. Hadn’t played in front of my wife in a few months so I took a shot at the b flat solo from soloing w/ out scales. I used your backing track and most of your solo with my licks thrown in. She said me and ” my band” were getting pretty good. Always good to hear from my most honest critic. Thanks again you are helping me to accomplish one of my life long passions.

    • DaveyJoe

      Very cool!

    • Keith

      Thanks, Griff! Think you’ve just switched on a light for me!

    • Bill45

      Griff, you sent out a Freddie King turn around lick about a week ago. Using your “learning new licks” methodology, I memorized it and started using it against a couple of shuffle jam tracks and then a couple of slow blues jam tracks.

      While in a slow blues key of E, I found myself “improvising” during the bars leading up to the turn around and began to realize I was caught in “8th note-itis” so I experimented with imitating some of the rhythmic ideas from the Freddie King lick. An amazing thing happened! All of a sudden my improv ideas became a lot more interesting! So I am now trying to do the same thing with other “stock phrases” by stealing the rhythmic ideas from other licks and applying them to my own noodling.

      Thank you for all of your “extra” insights that you share so willingly. I think I am making progress!

    • Tom Hopsicker

      Nice lesson!

    • mike z.

      Griff , another great lesson . A long time ago , I was taking Trumpet lessons , and my teacher always would say ” play it with feeling ” when we were playing a song . I think along with what you said today , and the ” feeling ” makes a song much better . Thanks , Mike Z.

    • Chris Babcock

      Good stuff Griff!

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