Hi! I'm Nate Savage and welcome to lesson #8 of the Blues Guitar Quick-Start Series.
In this lesson, we're going to start learning how to actually choose the notes in the blues
scale that you play instead of just kind of randomly playing through blues scale
shapes. Up until this point, you've really been just
focusing on getting the blues scale shape down and hopefully memorizing where the root
notes are, right? Well, in this lesson I'm going to teach you how to start choosing your
notes to fit over the I, IV, and the V chords that occur within the 12-bar blues progression.
We'll start off by learning where the root notes are for the I, IV, and the V chords,
where they contained in the blues scale. And then I'll teach you some specific licks that
are meant to be played on for the I chord, some specific licks that are meant to be played
over the IV and the V chord too. This may be a little bit more difficult than what you're
used to playing but the extra brain power that we're going to apply here is really going
to pay off when you're playing in a big way. Let's start off by talking about how to emphasize
the root of the I chord in the 12-bar blues. You've already been kind of doing this because
you know where the root notes are hopefully by now for your E blues scale. And the I chord
in E blues is E, right? So, if you emphasize those E notes in your blues licks in your
solos, you're really going to lock the listener into the sound of that I chord. And you’re
going to sound like you know what's going on with the chords you're playing over. In
order to help you understand what I mean by emphasizing root notes, I have 2 licks that
are custom made to be played over the I chord, in this case, an E chord.
This first lick starts off with your third finger on the 3rd fret of the B string and
that's the flattened seventh note of the blues scale. What we're going to do is bend that
note up a whole-step to the root of the blues scale which is an E. So going for the bend
like this from the flat 7 up to the root is a really good way to kind of emphasize the
root note on that scale, right? So that's your first note. After that you're going to
play the open E string, then the 3rd fret of the high E string. Then you're going to
have the open E string again, that's going to be short and there's a rest in between there
and then one more open E that you going to let ring it. So, slowly this thing in time
will be like this. Now, do you see how I was kind of emphasizing or putting more importance
on the root note by hitting it a lot and bending that note up to the root note of the scale?
Okay, the next lick that's customized to be played over our I chord and this could be
like more of a rhythm riff or it could be part of the solo too. Basically, we're starting
on the E root note right here and playing the open D string and then a 2nd fret of the
A string. Then you're going to roll your finger over to the 2nd fret that root again on the
2nd fret of the D string. And then you have a rest and then you going to hit the open
E string twice. So, that's another root note, right? And again the rhythm for this one is
this right here, 1, 2, 3, 4. So do you see how it kind of either started,
ended, or emphasized the root notes of that I chord to help this licks fit over the I
chord a little bit better. You can do the exact same thing when the IV chord comes around
in the 12-bar blues progression. Remember measures five and six are the IV chords. So,
basically all you have to do is emphasize the root notes of the IV chord. The IV chord
is an A, so the root note of the IV chord would be an A note. So, your root note locations
for the IV chord in this blues scale are the open A string and the 2nd fret of the G string.
Work on memorizing where those locations are. Here are couple of licks that are custom made
to go over the IV chord. Start off on the root note there on the 2nd fret of the G on
the A note. Play that, then play it open, then play a 2nd fret of the D string, back to the
open G, then back to that A note, and you're going to end with an open A string. So we're
kind of really emphasizing that A note. Alright, on to lick #2 that fits over the
IV chord again you're going to start here on the root note on the A and you're going to
play that twice with 2 swung eighth notes. Hop over to the open E string and back to
that root note on the 2nd fret of the G. Then you're going to go to the 3rd fret of the
high E string. Play that note and play that same string open. And then you're going to play
the open G string and finally end on the root note, that A again on the 2nd fret of the G string.
And I know that's a lot of kind of information
to think about. If all you can do first is remember where the root notes are for the
IV chord, an A there and an A there. That's totally fine. That's the next step that you
need to do. Now, we need to learn where the root notes
for the V chord are so we can learn a couple of licks that are custom made for the V chords.
So, the V chord in the key of E blues is a B. So we have a B here on the 2nd fret of
the A string and we have the open B string as well. So, memorize where those 2 notes
are and the idea is to emphasize them when you're playing over the V chord a little bit.
So let's go over a couple of licks that I've written out for you that help you emphasize the
root note of the V chord. The first note on this one, you're going to come to the 2nd fret
of the G string with your middle finger. You're going to bend that note up a whole-step. Basically,
it's an A we're bending it up to a B. B is the root note of the V chord, so.
Next two notes are the open B string, the root note, then the 3rd fret of the B string, then back
to the root, the B, and then the 2nd fret of the G string. And then you're going to end
on the root note again, the open B string. And the rhythm for this one is this right here.
1, 2, 3, 4. This next lick is meant to be played over
the V chord or emphasizes the root note of the V chord. It's basically descending down
just a regular minor pentatonic scale, the E minor pentatonic. So you have the highest
note here on the 3rd fret of the open E string, then the open E, 3rd fret of the B string,
open B string, our root note, right? To the 2nd fret of the G string, open G string and
you're going to come end on that B root note. And the rhythm for this is a little bit different.
The first 2 beats are triplets, so they're pretty quick dadada dadada da and that's the basic
rhythm, so 1, 2, 3, 4. Now that you have the basic idea of what I
mean by emphasizing the root notes of the chords over what you're playing for your leads,
what you want to do is pull up the jam track and just try to put this in the practice.
If all you can do is hit the root notes of the chord as they are whizzing by that's totally
fine. That's where the next step into learning how to choose your notes in your solos instead
of just flying through the scales, right? And you know, don't get too bogged down in
the theory of this. The blues is a lot about feeling, emotion and guts and just letting
come out of you what comes out right. But if you have a better idea of what's going on
in this, your brain can really help your heart have a better idea of what to play.
So, here is what it might sound like if you're just trying to hit the root notes of the chords
in the standard 12-bar blues progression.
So once you can do that and you know where these root notes are, try making up some solos emphasizing those root notes and using the
licks that you learned in this lesson. It might sound something like this.
I know this is a lot of information to digest, but the good news is if you can apply this
to your playing you're going to be leaps and bounds above a lot of guitar players, right?
Choosing your notes instead of just playing through the blues scale at random. Of course, you
always want to let your kind of your heart and guts for your guide when it comes to the
blues but knowing what's going on behind the chords in this scale is great.
In the next lesson, we're going to talk about how to kick your self-expression up a notch
in your blues guitar playing by talking about phrasing, sliding, bending, and vibrato.
If you have any questions for this lesson, leave them in the comments I'll get back to you
or you can e-mail me nate@guitarsystem.com. See you.