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Improving Blues Lead Guitar

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  • greejngreejn Frets: 127
    This may help: Key of A for example, use the major pentatonic. When the IV chord arrives, shift the scale up 3 frets to Am pentatonic. Fill in the gaps in the scale pattern with chromatic notes. Repeat notes in a rhythmic pattern, stops wandering up and down scales!

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  • RolandRoland Frets: 8590
    finest1 said:
    ... what should we be doing with the picking hand? 
    Try targeting specific notes and letting the other fall where they fall. For most players that means using downstrokes for the targeted notes and lighter picking, often hammers, pull-offs, and slides for the other notes. A lot of metal solos are played with the regularity of a Scarlatti continuo on a harpsichord. Blues is about emphasising specific notes, letting others fall lightly into place between them, and leaving breathing spaces between phrases.
    finest1 said:
    ... are guitarist thinking polyrhythms? shuffle?  
    Yes. A lot of blues phrasing uses triplets, although generally the song is still in 4:4 rather than 12:8.
    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    Transcribe, transcribe, transcribe.
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  • HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9550
    greejn said:
    This may help: Key of A for example, use the major pentatonic. When the IV chord arrives, shift the scale up 3 frets to Am pentatonic. Fill in the gaps in the scale pattern with chromatic notes.

    ^ This. Using the major pentatonic on the I chord and the minor pentatonic over the IV and V chords definitely gives things a very bluesy feel.

    greejn said:
    Repeat notes in a rhythmic pattern, stops wandering up and down scales!

    ^ and this. It's very easy to fall into the rut of just playing notes from the pentatonics sequentially.  
    I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
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  • vizviz Frets: 10643
    edited November 2019
    HAL9000 said:
    greejn said:
    This may help: Key of A for example, use the major pentatonic. When the IV chord arrives, shift the scale up 3 frets to Am pentatonic. Fill in the gaps in the scale pattern with chromatic notes.

    ^ This. Using the major pentatonic on the I chord and the minor pentatonic over the IV and V chords definitely gives things a very bluesy feel.

    greejn said:
    Repeat notes in a rhythmic pattern, stops wandering up and down scales!

    ^ and this. It's very easy to fall into the rut of just playing notes from the pentatonics sequentially.  
    Or for some out-there jazz blues, try:

    over the A (I chord), G#m penta
    over the D (IV chord), F#m penta
    over the E (V chord), Gm penta

    This works particularly well if you play IV-V-I (D-E-A) because the minor pentatonics slide up a semitone each time: F#m - Gm - G#m. 


    Also works for a 251 (Bm-E-A), using the same sequence of minor pentatonics: F#m-Gm-G#m. 


    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • I, too, am looking at becoming a better Blues guitarist. I have the next 6 weeks off uni, so thought I'd try and dedicate an hour or so every day (or as close as possible) to pursuing that.

    I found this online which I enjoyed reading. A lad coming back to guitar after some absence, gave himself 31 days to learn how to do an improvised 5 minute Blues solo at the drop of a hat. He goes through a lot of basic theories, ideas, techniques. Well worth a read as either a refresher of things you may already now or things you might not yet know.

    https://medium.com/@maxdeutsch/how-to-become-a-master-of-improvisational-blues-guitar-in-one-month-d05a1afcb465
    Just so people are aware. I have no idea what any of these words mean.
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  • NikcNikc Frets: 627
    get a looper lay down some blues chord progressions and play your arse off - start with a lick or a phrase and repeat and repeat until you love it and then let your fingers walk on from there ;)
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  • +1 for what @Nikc says.
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  • There have been some great tips on here - thanks everyone - i think as someone said earlier in the thread, the learning via listening to "songs" is a good way so will stick a few into my drum machine (along with the bass parts)
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  • steven70steven70 Frets: 1262
    edited December 2019
    Probably 3 issues:-
    A. I tend to always start a solo on the Root note ie E for blues in E 
    B. Bends don't come naturally
    C. Play too many notes when i need to play less (and make them count more)
     
    A. Don't worry about that, as long as you don't start on the 1st beat as well. Take a breath before starting.
    Try staying on the root through the whole progression. 

    B. This is practice, I struggle, especially when there is not enough tension in the string. Use at least 10s maybe more on a Gibson scale length. Have a listen to Clapton Bluesbreakers and Buddy Guy. Also pay attention to which direction you're bending the string, no right or wrong but they feel different.

    C. This goes back to phrasing. BB and Freddie King. Could always raise your action, make things a bit harder.
    Again, can try playing a 'one note' solo (or two notes), just for fun- mess with the phrasing but stick to one or two notes.

    Edit: Just re read and I reckon you probably know all that after 40 years! Sorry. I'll leave it anyway.
    Reckon the best advice is to listen to Texas Cannonball and try and fathom how he does it.
    I still haven't worked it out but it's fun trying...
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  • steven70steven70 Frets: 1262
    bbill335 said:
    weird, un-bluesey music that's still pentatonic focused. like weirdo prog psych jams



    edit: i’d written “listen to”, but it got lost somewhere!
    This is fantastic, what a lineup...Simon House!
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  • AndyJPAndyJP Frets: 219
    edited December 2019
    Here's my 2p....

    I've been playing a while but spent some time with a good teacher at the start of the year.  What I learned was focusing on timing and feel really helps, especially with blues. You could pick some tunes from your favourite players and try to transcribe it, with a focus on the rhythm that are using for their lead lines.

    I've defo improved by transcribing and learning how to use proper notation.  Because it's given me a much better understanding of rhythm and how my fav players subdivide the beat.

    I put a Matt Schofield transcribe up on my FB and it got liked and shared by Matt Schofield himself. Was well chuffed!

    https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2602660019764415&id=128907697139672&sfnsn=scwspmo&extid=YCvOrAD26PYhxVNW
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10356
    When I'm teaching it surprises me how few players know what chords (more importantly what notes are contained within those chords) they are jamming over. Now you can develop a great ear over the years and play great stuff without knowing any theory but a little bit of theory will get you  along way

    One of the most effective ways to improve your playing is to target your choice of notes over the chords in the backing music. One of the most effective and easiest way to do that is target the third and the fifth note of the accompanying chord as it changes into it. 

    So basically imagine you have a typical minor blues in Am  ...... think about what notes your gonna land on and use over the Dm rather than thinking about box shapes. Box shape players will generally just keep going in the shapes they know will work in Am but if we apply a bit of thought to it we can see targeting an F (third note in Dm ) for example will generally sound better and more melodic.  When we reach the 5 chord turnaround then think about the third note in that chord and target it. 

    I generally make sure the student knows what chords they are playing over and what triads (root, third and fifth) make up those chords. Just that alone will get you sounding more professional. 
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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