Help with blues soloing?

[Dr. T]

I know my minor pentatonics quite well, and if you gave me a backing track I could probably write a decent riff or small solo over it.

 

So, like, I guess I have the theory part down, somewhat. My problem is I can't seem to come up with new licks and phrases - I always end up playing the same stuff, just translated to whatever key it needs to be in. And on top of that, I can't for the life of me play with speed, especially on the upper frets.

 

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[gennation]

http://lessons.mikedodge.com

 

Follow the the links for the Advanced Pentatonic tutorial for some cool licks and concepts.

 

Follow the links to the Intervals and Chord Construction Series for some good basic theory/understand of some essential things.

[red|dragon]

Buy the video Scott Henderson - Melodic Phrasing.

 

Learn your Min7b5 arpeggios.

 

arpeggios arpeggios arpeggios

[Knottyhed]

 

Originally posted by Dr. T I know my minor pentatonics quite well, and if you gave me a backing track I could probably write a decent riff or small solo over it. So, like, I guess I have the theory part down, somewhat. My problem is I can't seem to come up with new licks and phrases - I always end up playing the same stuff, just translated to whatever key it needs to be in. And on top of that, I can't for the life of me play with speed, especially on the upper frets. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Try using 3 note per string pentatonic patterns, string skipping and flat 5ths - should spice things up a bit.

 

For speed - work with a metronome, and work on your techique until it becomes effortless.

[Terje]

Listen to great blues guitarists but perhaps even more to great blues singers. Steal their phrases. Elmore James, Tampa Red, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, Fred McDowell, Blind Willie Johnson, Bessis Smith, Ma Rainey, Billie Holiday...

 

Base your solo around a blues melody. Take the melody to Robert Johnson's From Four Until late (for instance), learn the melody well and then play a solo that is a variation on that melody.

 

Play the vocal melody with a slide and then play fretted fills around it. Pretend that you are two people, one singer that sings with the slide and one guitarist that playes fretted phrases.

 

You can play pretty much any note as long as your phrase ends on a good target note, i.e. a strong resolution note, a chord tone in other words. Try this over the V chord, and go totally nuts. Play a bunch of notes that are out of key but end the whole thing on a really pretty note (like the 3rd of a chord for instance). There's theory behind all this but you can also do what i just said, play all the "wrong" notes you can think of and end them right.

[Little Dreamer]

 

My problem is I can't seem to come up with new licks and phrases - I always end up playing the same stuff, just translated to whatever key it needs to be in.

 

 

I guess everybody starts out that way. After a while you just get so incredibly sick of listening to yourself play the same stuff that you start avoiding those licks like the plague and coming up with new stuff.

 

You need to practice improvising. Pay attention to the song, make everything up as you go. Focus on feeling and originality. Play over a wide variety of different styles so that those memorized licks simply don't work over everything. Get into Delta blues, major key blues, blues rock, slow blues, etc.

[Nuppu]

There's a nice book that might help you:

Blues You Can Use by John Ganepes.

[Slave_New_Wurld]

 

Originally posted by Nuppu There's a nice book that might help you: Blues You Can Use by John Ganepes.

 

 

LOL, he rhymed "blues" with "use".

 

What? I'm at work!