Join PracticeTheGuitar.com and get immediate access

to all our great “Member’s Only” content.

A Blues Solo

Here are some simple minor pentatonic lick examples in the bluesy setting, that can be used in a variety of different ways. This blues exercise that uses bends, slides, position shifts, hammer-ons, pull-offs. These are common techniques in the style of players like Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa. This is a great exercise if your looking for some ideas to practice and improve your basic blues playing. The A Blues Solo is a twelve measure solo that is put together in a way to help you combine smaller blues phrases into longer musical ideas that uses “call and response” phrasing. Begin this solo on the seventh fret on the fourth string. Let the note ring until the fourth beat, play the triplet on beat four. The second measure is three quarter notes, then another eighth note triplet on beat four. Bar three is similar to measure one. Measure four is all about the whole step bend on beat one. Play the seventh fret on the third string. Support your third finger with your first and second finger behind it, hold the note for three beats. Finish the measure on the fifth and seventh frets on the third string. Bar five is all the A blues scale, on beat four notice the Eb, this is the “blue note” the flat five of the key. Bar six has another whole step bend on the eighth fret on the second string. Use all three fingers to get the strength for this. Its really important to make sure that you bend this note all the way to the correct pitch. Don’t over shoot it. A good way to practice this is to play the tenth fret on the second string and then do the bend on the eighth fret. The two notes should match. Bar seven and eight are both right out of the A pentatonic scale with a couple pull-offs in measure seven. Watch out for the varying rhythms from bar eight into bar nine. Measure ten has an interesting hammer-pull area where you are picking the first note out of four notes in a row. Try to make sure all the notes ring at equal volume. Measure eleven has a descending sequential vibe with the blue note in the lick. Bar twelve has a tricky first finger roll in the early part of the measure with a third finger roll in the last part of the measure.

Free Demo Video

The video below is an example of the videos that are available for this exercise. For Paid Members, this section includes a commentary video that explains each exercise in full. Additionally, each exercise is also presented as videos where the exercise is played in 10+ tempos. Sign up today to get full access to all the videos.

Backing Tracks

Most exercises include backing tracks for you to practice with. They are also provided in the same tempos as the videos. Backing tracks are available for paid members only and are downloadable MP3 files.

Transcriptions

Every exercise includes a transcription in standard notation as well as guitar tab. The transcriptions are presented online and are also available for download as a PDF for printing or saving to your computer. The transcriptions are available for Paid Members of PracticeTheGuitar.com

Save Save