Blues Improvisation and Soloing
Improvisation and soloing is a large part in playing Blues guitar.
Not only when playing guitar solos, but also for example when accompanying, playing fills and different chord-voicings and rhythms. In this lesson we will focus on the guitar solos.
Blues is very simple harmonically, so it is quite easy to acquire the basic knowledge that you need to be able to improvise and play a blues guitar solo.
What you need, is to learn a scale, and some basic phrases, which is called “licks” in the guitar-world.
Improvising is not always about inventing something totally new, it is also about using your vocabulary to create something. So, the best way to become a good blues solo guitarist, is to develop an interesting vocabulary of phrases and licks, that you can melt together when playing. Of course, this takes time and effort, but now let’s take a look at what you need to start with.
The minor and major pentatonic scale
Penta = 5. This is a scale of 5 tones, found all over the world in different types.
Since it only has 5 tones, it is easy to remember and visualize on the fretboard.