Getting that Blues Feel...

by Glenn Bird
Filed in Technique

Today we'll be looking at the style of Blues and learning how to play guitar solos around the blues pentatonic scale shapes. Blues is one of those styles that sounds so simple when you listen to it because of the natural flow, but can be challenging to say the least because you have to put so much of yourself into it to pull it off...

There are a few basic tricks that can really help you do it well, and bring out that creative juice, one of them being this particular phrase based solely on the pentatonic shape. Listen to Marty as he shows you how to not only play the technique, but also gives you tips on how to join your own ideas and musical thoughts together.

These phrases should be practiced with some form of backing track if possible, just to give you the right feel for your playing. If you don't have any way to do this then playing to a metronome or drum machine is fine.

You can also use this technique for other styles of playing as well. For example, if you were learning how to play guitar solos in Rock or Jazz, this would be a great addition to your playing and really add a bluesy feel while playing another style.

One thing to remember, this is not limited to this shape or phrase. How could you use this pattern for other scales and shapes?

Discussion

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