Nine Levels of Blues Soloing

If you've been playing the blues for years, or even decades, and you still don't sound how you feel like you should sound, today's lesson is for you. Or if you've tried implementing triads and a few other things but you still end up back in that same old pentatonic box shape, this one is for you.

We're going to go through nine different levels of instilling real confidence when you go and solo over the blues. And here's the hint: level one does not start with that pentatonic box you're all stuck in. We all get stuck noodling in that box, and it keeps you feeling trapped forever. So let's fix that.

Level one: the blues is about the chords

A lot of folks stay stuck forever because they never learned how to do the chords.

So if you're in an E blues, level one is just understanding the chords. There are really three shapes. This shape, the C shape, and this shape. That's E. Then for A it's the same three shapes. And for B it's the same three shapes again.

You're probably thinking that doesn't sound like the blues yet. Wait until level two.

Level two: flirt with the third of each chord

All this means is that when you're in that shape, you hammer on with your first finger and get a nice little flirt with the third. Your first finger is indicative of where the third of the chord is. You don't need to know any music theory to understand that this sounds good.

Then you move it up and down, and you do the same idea in the C shape and in the other shape.

The big picture is that you're taking a chord and mixing the flat third with the major third, and it just sounds so dang good. You're using the chords to advance your solo rather than just playing a scale.

Here's the real problem with the pentatonic. Every note in it has the same value. They're all treated equally. In actuality certain notes are worth far more than others, especially at certain points in your solo, and the pentatonic box doesn't tell you which ones. When you flirt with the third, you're signalling that you know exactly which notes are the high value ones. And the highest value note is the third.

You can literally play a whole blues solo just flirting with the third.

Level three: mix major and minor

When you're playing a shuffle, a lot of folks play it wrong. They play the minor pentatonic, and that's only half the story.

Blues is both major and minor, especially this dominant seventh kind of blues, the shuffle, the come on baby don't you want to go Chicago blues. If you only play the minor pentatonic, you're signifying to the audience that you only know half the story.

The simplest way to play both is to go up the major pentatonic, come down the minor pentatonic, and land major. Sounds like a mouthful, but all it means is up major, down minor, land on the chord.

The big thing a lot of folks get wrong is that you can then change. When the A chord comes, the four chord, you do the exact same thing, only now you go up A major, down A minor, and land on A.

That's taking a page out of the blues and jazz greats and the country players. You're importing that information into the blues world, and it's a great way to add sophistication.

Level four: grace notes

It sounds like a formal musical term, but all it means is quick little pull offs and hammer ons.

Instead of just playing the scale, you're adding tiny pull offs. It's almost imperceptible, but now that you're aware of it you'll start hearing it everywhere.

So if you were just playing in that tiny minor pentatonic box, instead of playing the plain box you'd add the flat five and do a quick little pull off. Those little details are what start making your blues sophisticated. They give it depth and color, and most players don't have it because they play the scales without adding any decoration at all.

Level five: the rake

You've almost certainly heard this sound, and there's probably never been anyone who told you what it was called. It's called a rake.

All you're doing is pulling your pick up across the strings. Say you're in the E shape. You hammer on with your left hand, from the twelfth fret to the fourteenth on the B string, and come back down. Then you do an upward sweep and come back down.

Done slowly it sounds like nothing. You really have to do it up to speed to get it. It's kind of like juggling. Juggling doesn't work in slow motion, it only works at a fast tempo, and you're going to drop all the balls until it clicks.

Level six: add the diminished chord

The diminished chord happens on bar six of twelve.

Map it out. Bar one is the one chord. Bar two is the four chord. Bar three is the one. Bar four is the one. Bar five is the four. And bar six is where you add the diminished chord. It's reminiscent of a Ray Charles song. Really sophisticated sound.

Make sure the backing track or the band is on the same page as you. You don't want them playing a normal four chord while you play the diminished. Music is a team sport, so everyone needs to be running the same play.

And you don't need to run an Yngwie Malmsteen diminished arpeggio up and down the neck. Amazing player, but contextually all you want is a few notes from the arpeggio to add that spice. You don't need much to signify to everyone that you know what you're doing. Play the arpeggio nice and slow, land back on the E chord, do a little flirt with the third, add a little rake. All of it adds up to a powerful solo.

Level seven: play with dynamics

This is something you'll see a lot at live blues shows. I live here in Chicago, and I went down to Buddy Guy's Legends last year and watched Buddy Guy do this very thing.

Blues players will literally step away from the mic, and instead of amplifying their voice they'll yell out into the crowd. It makes everyone pay attention.

What that means for you is dynamics. Instead of playing at level 10 aggression the entire time, take the intensity down. You'll notice that in a longer blues set the legends always have a moment where the volume and the intensity come down.

A quick way to start: over a 12 bar blues, make your first two choruses loud and the next two quiet or more relaxed. On a smaller scale, you don't have to pick everything at the same volume either. Start your phrase loud and end it quiet.

You can implement all of that without learning a single new trick or lick.

Level eight: use the pickup switcher

This is something Stevie Ray Vaughan did constantly. You can hear it all over Testify. He's playing a Strat with three single coil pickups and he's going back and forth between two of them, not really living in the middle position.

What it does is let you play something similar harmonically, but because you're changing the tonal character, you add intrigue. You can say the same thing and it sounds new and exciting.

Rather than playing the same solo for eight minutes in the same pickup position, mess with it. Here's how to implement it: take a 12 bar blues solo, play the first time through in one pickup position and the next time through in another, and keep going.

Level nine: chicken picking

The final level is incorporating your fingers into your picking. That's chicken picking.

Instead of playing a phrase all with the pick, use your fingers and you get a tighter sound. Play a flirt with the third and assign the D string to your pick, the G string to your middle finger, and the B string to your ring finger. You get a really nice tight sound with a little pop to it.

You don't need to use it all the time, and if you have trouble playing with your fingers that's okay. Start implementing it as a way to spice up your playing.

I also find it's a really nice way to skip strings. If I'm flirting with the third and I'm on the A string, there's a D string and a G string in the middle that I'm not playing. To execute that with a pick you'd have to move a lot. Chicken picking gets it done efficiently and ergonomically.

Those are nine levels you can start using right away. If you want to go deeper on level three, read how to actually mix major and minor pentatonics. For the four step version of this system, read the exact way pros play blues solos.

Watch the original video: The EXACT Way Pros Play Blues Solos (Copy This)

Want to go deeper?

Grab the free Blues Bootcamp. It walks through these concepts with tabs, downloadable PDFs, backing tracks, and a jam with me section.

And if you've been feeling stuck for years and can't find the way out of the pentatonic scale, check out The Blues Guitar System, my full course.