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Hey, how are you doing? Justin here. Today we are checking out a beginner's
Blues solo, complete with a turnaround and an intro.
It's mostly using the minor pentatonic scale but there's a couple of other little
sneaky notes. As you progress along your guitar journey you'll find that you
kinda base things around scales but you can add plenty of other stuff if
it sounds good.
I'm gonna break it down into little sections for you. The first bit
we're gonna look at, strangely, is the intro, which is a great little intro for
this particular arrangement. You could use it for any Blues in the key of A.
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OK, so we are starting with what essentially is a D7 grip but with
the first 1st finger, is gonna be in the 8th fret. So the 8th fret of the
2nd string, 1st finger. 2nd finger is going down on the 9th fret
on the 3rd string and third finger is going on the ninth fret on the
thinest string. So it's actually an A7 chord. Another way of playing an A7.
So we're gonna play that twice. Probably two down strokes,
just playing those thinest three strings.
Then we're gonna move it down one fret and do another two down strokes.
Move it down another fret and another two down strokes.
Then we're gonna play, the first finger's gonna bar the thinnest two strings at the
fifth fret.
and then we're gonna play eithth fret on the second string.
Followed by fifth fret on the second string. You could use your little finger
there or your third finger. It doesn't really matter.
Now, first step would be just getting the chords right, getting the shape OK.
Should be fairly confident with that, if you've already checked out your D7.
It's not a particularly hard shape.
Once you've got kinda the actual notes under your fingers you need to start
thinking about the rythmn. Now this is actually starting on beat 2, so you're
gonna count 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and 1, 2 and 3, 4 and then the rest of the Blues
song will start. OK?
So again we're gonna start on beat 2. 3, 4, 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and 1, 2 and 3, 4.
Now, I want you to just stick with that but if you're a bit more confident, you've
done something like this before, you can muck around with these notes.
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or
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or
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you could do, any order of those
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as long as you stick with those notes. You could have a bit of a play around
and see if you can come up with something else.
The next phrase we're gonna look at is played over the A chord.
It's two bars long. It goes like this.
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It's straight down the minor pentatonic, which I'm hoping you're familiar with a
a bit by now. First finger fifth fret of of the thinnest string. Third finger or
the little finger on the eithth fret of the second string. First finger in the
fifth fret still on the second string. Continuing down the scale, third finger
7th fret of the 3rd string. 1st finger on the 5th fret of the 3rd string.
We're gonna play that twice. Before finishing on the note A.
3rd finger 7th fret of the fourth string.
This is starting on beat 1. We have 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, and 3, 4.
1, 2 and. There, with the first finger. That's on beat 1. 2 and.
1, 2, 3, 4,1, 2, and 3, 4. OK?
Try and keep that count. Keeping in time is really important.
1, 2, 3, 4,1, 2 and 3, 4.
The next phrase that we look at is kind of an answer to the first one.
Pretty simple
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So starting with the first finger fifth fret thinnest string.
Third finger or little finger on the 8th fret same string. Back to the first note.
8th fret on the second string. And back again to the root note.
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. OK? So let's put those 2 together now, so
2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2 and 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4
At this point the chord changes to a D. So make sure that you're at that spot,
if you happen to be jamming with somebody else. You wanna hear
that chord change. And then you know you're in the right spot.
Next phrase goes like this.
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OK? 7th fret on the 3rd string with the 3rd finger. Play it again. 1st finger 5th
fret and then back. 1, 2 and 3, 4. The second half of the phrase starts
exactly the same but then we go 1st finger 5th fret 2nd string. 1st finger
5th fret 3rd string. So you've got to skip over there. And then we're finishing
on our root note again, the 7th fret of the 4th string. That whole phrase
together. 1, 2 and 3, 4 1, 2 and 3 and 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 and
and then we're just adding this little bit here. 1st finger on the 5th fret of the
thinnest string. Either 3rd finger or little finger, it doesn't matter on the
8th fret of the 2nd string. It's just like a little thing, a little answer in the gap
there so that 4 bars, which is where it moves to the D and then back to the A
chord, is gonna be this. 3, 4,
1, 2 and 3, 4,1, 2 and 3 and 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1, 2, 3, 4.
We're at the last 4 bars now so the chords are gonna be going
E, D, A and E for 1 bar each and the lead guitar is gonna play this;
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OK? So we're starting 1st finger 5th fret 2nd string
And then 3rd finger or little finger on the 8th fret of the 2nd string again.
1, 2 and 3, 4. Now same as we had before
1, 2 and 3, 4. OK, 7, 3rd string this is. 7, 7, 5, 7, 5. 1, 2 and 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 4, 1 and 2 and. OK? So we've got here, we're going from the 7th fret
with the 3rd finger, 1st finger playing the 5th fret. This is all on the 4th
string. Down 1 fret, down 1 fret, then we've got 4 picks there when the 1st
finger reaches the 2nd fret. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 and 2 and 3, 4.
I would recomend that you practice each of the chunks individually before
you start trying to piece it together. Once you're confident with all of
the bits have a go at playing it through and trying to keep the tempo as even as
you can. Remember, ideally you wanna play it with a backing track or another
human being. So the first step to that is trying to keep the tempo as consistent
as you can. Before you try playing it with a backing track you wanna be able to do
it on your own and try and recognize if there's any bits were you may be
slowing down a bit, because a backing wont stop. And, you know, you wanna
try and practice it with a consistent tempo, your own consistent tempo,
registering where you might be a bit wobbly. Practice those bits and then
practice again playing the whole thing. So don't always feel like you have to
practice from the beginning to the end. You wanna just try that and if there's a
bit that's really difficult, go back and work on that one little bit and then go
back to playing it all of the way through. So once you're confident with the bits,
just have a go real slow, maybe 2, 3, 4, 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and 1
2 and 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2 and 3, 4 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4,
1, 2, & 3, 4, 1, 2 and 3 and 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1, 2, 3, 4,
1, 2 and 3, 4, 1, 2 and 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 and 2 and 3, 4
At this stage you shouldn't worry too much about the picking. You can use all
down picks. If you wanna incorporate some up strokes as well that's totally
fine. It doesn't really matter. Important things are trying to get the notes right,
to pick the right strings and not let the open strings be ringing out all of the
time and hitting the wrong ones and making sure you stay in time.
Now, that said, this is supposed to be an example of a blues solo. It's not really a
set thing that you have to learn. If you wanna play around with it a little bit,
experiment by changing up the rythmn, adding in some extra notes. All of that
sort of stuff is cool. In fact it's to be encouraged but I would recommend
having a go at playing it as written first of all.
OK, let's have a go at playing it through at 60 beats per minute. The original is
94, so, let's have a go at doing that now.
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So, really important is that first stage of actually being able to play along at
whatever tempo. Now, 60 is kind of a good amount that you should be able to
handle fairly confidently fairly soon. But then you gradually want to work
your way up to playing it at full speed. Now one thing that I wanna mention
that I noticed myself doing that even though I'm trying not to, is adding things
like vibrato and little curls on the notes, little inflections. I don't
recommend that you start off exploring that sort of stuff. Its, it could get a
bit confusing, it's not something that we've really covered yet. We will be
covering it very soon. But I think that a lot of people get hung up on that
a little early and it can cause a few problems, so I'd recommend just not
worrying about it. Don't try and shake the guitar round and,
you know, perhaps practice a technique the wrong way.
Just try and get the notes right. Think about your touch,
think about your tone, try and make it sound and feel as good as you can.
Don't be afraid to experiment once you've got the original one down
and we're going to be talking about actually making up your own version,
like properly improvising, very, very soon. The second guitar part is a
12 bar blues shuffle riff. Which is something that we're covering in this
lesson as well, so if you happen to have a jam buddy, a fantastic thing to do is to
practice playing this, so one person is gonna be doing the rythmn guitar,
the 12 bar blues shuffle riff. The other person would maybe play this set solo,
then improvise for a couple of rounds and then you would swap over.
For most beginners that will involve stopping. As you get better you might
be able to find that you can, whoever's playing the lead guitar, that can kinda
join in on the rythmn so it becomes seamless but that's not something that
I would expect most beginners to be very comfortable doing, so it's ok to play
for a little bit and then stop and take turns. Whatever you do, if you get into
doing this playing with someone else, make sure you share out the soloing,
ok. Nothing worse then when you have a jam with someone and they take a
solo for ages and they don't wanna play the rythmn part. That's not cool,
so make sure you play even Stevens there. So if you take 4 X around
doing the solo, then you make sure you play rythmn 4 times around for whoever
it is that you're playing with as well. I'm sure your gonna enjoy this. Loads
of fun and I'll see you for plenty more very soon
You all take care of yourselves. Bye bye.