Learn Blues Guitar - Make Your Blues Guitar Solos More Interesting

For more details on learning blues guitar, take a look at this website: Learn Blues Guitar.

In this article, I assume that you have some familiarity with the blues scale and are starting to use it to improvise phrases over a 12-bar blues pattern. That's great, but you're not sure how you can go beyond randomly playing notes to create a solo that will really blow people away? Killer guitar solos are about more than playing notes from your chosen scale aimlessly all over the fretboard! So, to help you out I've prepared a few pointers to how you should think about what you're playing when improvising a solo:

Chord tones are really important to focus on when you're soloing, particularly the root notes (the chord tones are the notes that make up the chord that you're playing over). Playing phrases that start or end with chord tones often sound better as the chord tones are strong resolution points for the melody. Start with the root notes, and for each chord in the 12-bar blues pattern you are using practice playing phrases that start or end (or both) with the root note. If you're comfortable with root notes, move on to phrases starting or ending using other notes in whatever the current chord is.

If chord tones are strong resolution, then why not use phrases that are all chord tones? These are arpeggios - the notes of a chord played separately - and they can sound really good used judiciously in your solo. Put on a 12-bar blues backing track and try making up phrases using just arpeggios with different rhythms, then try mixing these phrases up with other phrases in your solos.

Repetition is very important in music as it gives the mind something to lock onto. Good use of repetition can enable you to make a solo that sounds composed rather than just freely thrown together. I've got a few tips for using repetiton in blues guitar solos that will make you sound more like a pro:

• Simply playing the same lick a few times can give a listener a sense of familiarity that is appealing. Even better if the chord changes underneath, as the changing harmony can sound really effective.
• Try repeating the rhythm of a lick, but changing the notes that you play.
• Alternatively, play phrases that use the same notes but with a different rhythm. You may find this more difficult to achieve, but stick with it as done well it can add some nice elements to your solos.
• Even just playing the same note or double-stop repeatedly can sound great in the right place in a solo. Something for you to try is playing repeated triplet notes, maybe using slides or bends to add style. This technique was often used by players such as Chuck Berry.
• “Question and answer” phrases are very common in blues. To play these, you play a "question" phrase followed by an answer phrase. The question is usually repeated, perhaps with some variation, with the answer improvised more freely. Often the question and answer are played by different instruments, but can also be done effectively on one guitar by playing the questions low down followed by answers an octave or two higher. Create a "question" lick somewhere at the lower end of the guitar. Play the question and then answer it with another phrase played in a higher ocatave. Repeat this over a 12-bar blues pattern using the same question phrase with different answers each time. As you get the hang of it, introduce small variations into the questions.

OK, those were a few pointers that you can incorporate into your blues guitar solos. I hope that you can make good use of them as you learn blues guitar!