Your Blues Solos Are Bad Until You Learn This (5 Levels of Blues Mastery)

If you're sick and tired of how you sound because you feel stuck in this pentatonic box, this blues masterclass is for you. Or if you've heard of a triad, you've heard of pentatonics, but you're not really sure how to use them in the most musical way (and if you do, it's kind of by accident, and you don't know how to replicate it), this lesson is for you.

My name is Alec Lehrman. I've played on Grammy-nominated recordings and I've taught thousands of students this exact framework. Today we're going through the five levels of blues mastery in the key of C. Hint: level one does not start off with that pentatonic box. Most guitar players start off the wrong way and it hinders their progress and keeps them stuck forever.

Let's get you out of that rut.

Level 1: Start With Chords, Not Pentatonics

We're in the key of C, so we're playing C blues. Three chords. C, F, and G. That is the blues.

Most people get stuck right away because they say, "Okay, C blues. I'm going to play this pentatonic box shape." That is just not correct. Where you need to start at the bottom of the mountain is knowing the chords, because everything is derived from the chords.

For each chord, you need to know three shapes up and down the neck:

• C: open cowboy chord, then two C bar chord shapes
• F: same three shapes, just shifted to F
• G: same three shapes, shifted to G

The reason it's so important to start with chords rather than the pentatonic scale is that the chords let you see all the right notes up and down the neck. Pentatonics are like tracing the outlines of the chords. Playing the notes inside the chords is like coloring inside the lines.

So level one: play C, then F, then G, in each of the three positions up the neck.

Level 2: Play Less and Flirt With the Third

Now instead of playing big chords, you're going to play less. Three-note voicings, also known as triads. Don't let the word intimidate you. A triad is just three notes from the chord.

Here's where the magic happens: you're going to flirt with the third.

The third is the note where your middle finger sits in a bar chord. For C, it's the E note. "Flirting" means you approach that note from a half step below or a half step above, and resolve back to it.

That's the sound. Notice we still haven't touched a pentatonic scale.

The Major/Minor Blend (This Is the Big One)

Most guitar players think a song is either major or minor. In blues, that's just not true. Here's the move that'll change your playing immediately:

Up major, down minor, land major.

You go up the C major scale, come back down the C minor scale, and resolve back to the major chord. Do the same thing for F. Same thing for G.

This little trick gets your ear adept at hearing both major and minor sounds at the same time, which is what real blues actually sounds like.

Level 3: Rhythmic Nuances (Hammer-Ons, Pull-Offs, and Rakes)

Blues is nuances. It's not the fastest playing. It's not the loudest amp. It's taking two or three notes and squeezing all the juice out of them.

Left Hand

Add quick grace-note hammer-ons. If you sit on the note, it sounds bad. But if you hammer on and quickly come back, it's almost imperceptible, but those details are what separate amateur from professional.

Same with quick pull-offs. Use them all over the neck.

Right Hand: The Upward Rake

This is the move you hear John Mayer do all the time. Tilt your pick almost flat to the strings and rake upward across the lower strings into your target note. That little rake is the language you need to take your playing from amateur to professional.

Level 4: Adding the Diminished Chord

Now we're going to add some harmony. Up till now we've had C, F, and G. What we can do is add a little F# diminished chord that lives between the four chord (F) and going back to the one chord (C).

You'll hear this in Ray Charles tunes, John Mayer plays it, there's a Fleetwood Mac/BB King collab that uses it. To solo over it, just play the notes in the F# diminished chord — the arpeggio.

A word of caution: don't overdo it. Blues, especially the John Mayer style I'm teaching here, is simple. A little flavor goes a long way.

Level 5: The Pro-Sounding Details Most Players Forget

This is the level I believe everyone can reach, but most players don't even know it exists.

Picking Volume Dynamics

If every note is the same volume, you sound like a robot. Vary your picking volume. Loud, quiet, loud, quiet — like breathing, like a conversation. This is one of the biggest tells that someone knows what they're doing.

Switch Your Pickups

If you're playing a 5- or 10-minute blues in the same pickup position the whole time, it goes stale. Play a phrase, change the pickup, play another phrase. Same notes can sound completely different and wake up the listener.

Use Your Fingers (Chicken Picking)

Start incorporating your middle finger. Take a triad, ignore the middle note, and pluck the high note with your finger while the pick hits the low note. You can't get that snap and pop from a pick alone. It separates you from amateur players immediately.

Putting It All Together

You're starting with chords. You're flirting with the third. You're blending major and minor. You're adding hammer-ons, pull-offs, and rakes. You're throwing in a diminished chord here and there. And you're controlling your dynamics, pickup positions, and fingers.

That's how you actually play the blues. Not by camping out in a pentatonic box for 30 years.

Watch the original video: Everyone's Blues Solos Are BAD Until They Learn 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 so you can actually put this into your hands.

And if you're ready to become the blues guitarist you hear in your head, check out the Blues Guitar System — my full course. Use this link for $50 off.