Practice Blues Like This Every Day: Up Major, Down Minor

If you wish you were more confident when you went to take a blues solo, today's lesson is for you. Or if you've heard of playing triads, and you've heard of mixing major and minor, and you may have even done it by accident once or twice, but you don't have a system for doing it every time, this one is for you.

This is the thing you've probably never been told, and not knowing it is holding you back from becoming a great blues musician.

What most people do instead

If you're like most guitar players and you hear an A blues, you put your first finger on the fifth fret, you start running that pentatonic scale, you close your eyes and you hope for the best.

That's really no way to go about soloing.

Here's what you need to understand. Blues is both major and minor. So when you play only the minor pentatonic, you're playing half the story. And when you run the scale all the way up and all the way back down, you're not simulating what music actually sounds like. You're just holding yourself back.

The move: up major, down minor, land on the chord

You go up the major pentatonic. You come down the minor pentatonic. You hit a little blues note on the way. Then you land on the chord.

Notice two things about that.

One, I'm not going all the way up two octaves of pentatonic. That is certainly no way to practice.

Two, you're blending. Up major, down minor, land on the chord. That's the whole move, and it works over every chord in the blues.

The three shapes

You're going to learn this in three different places on the neck, because one shape is not a system.

The first one is the shape you already know, right there at the fifth fret. Go up major, go down minor, land on the chord.

The second of the three is the C shape. Put your pinky on the root and you've got your A chord sitting right there. Same move. Up A major pentatonic, down A minor pentatonic, land on the chord.

The third one is the A chord down low. If you're familiar with the CAGED system, it's like the G position. It's also the front side of that A chord. However you want to visualize it, think of an open A with your ring finger on the fourth fret of the A string. And you do the same thing. Up major, down minor, land on the chord.

Now move it through the whole blues

You're going to run all three of those shapes over the one, the four, and the five. Over the A, the D, and the E.

For D, you move everything. Put your pinky on the D root, go up major, come down minor, land on the chord. Then the second shape. Then the third.

For E, same thing. Pinky on the root of the E chord at the seventh fret and go. It is the same exact shape every time.

That's probably very different from what you've been taught. Normally folks get told to play that one pentatonic across the entire chord progression. This way you get unstuck, because you're following the chord changes, and it works every time.

Two ways to put it together

The first way is to take one shape and just move it up and down the neck as the chords go by. Play an A blues with no backing track at all and you will hear the changes happening. You won't even need a track. All you need is yourself, and it is a really liberating feeling.

The second way is where the real magic happens, and that's staying in position. Play your idea over the A, then go to the nearest shape for the D instead of running up the neck to find it. Now you're not jumping around. You're standing still and the harmony is moving underneath you.

That's the daily practice. Three shapes, three chords, both ways of connecting them.

For the deeper breakdown of why this blend is the actual sound of the blues, read up major, down minor, land major. For the same move taken slowly in the key of A, read how to actually mix major and minor pentatonics.

Watch the original video: Just Practice Blues Like THIS Every Day

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 want to join the 500 plus guitar players who have taken it and revolutionized their playing, check out The Blues Guitar System, my full course.