Blues Guitar Improvisation

Posted by admin on September 13, 2009

Emotional Content
There is nothing like a blues guitar improvisation to express our innermost feelings of what it’s like to be disadvantaged in some way. Whether it’s your partner (the wife or girlfriend giving you a hard time), your finances (down on your luck) or just the day to day grind that makes life a struggle.

A blues guitar solo can mean many things to many people and can reflect the many emotions of “bluesy-ness” rather like folk music reflects many aspects of ordinary life. However, is blues improvisation only about the struggle of man against the bad deal handed out to him by life’s bad luck or is it a mood that we like to indulge in sometimes – a kind of low key contemplation as we sip on our drink.

How Many Notes?
If there is one note that most represents the blues it is the flattened fifth of the blues scale which sounds both perfectly appropriate and sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s the note that most players seem to head for when constructing their solo, and without it, it just wouldn’t be the blues.

This could prompt the question, how many notes does it take to create a blues solo? Well, I guess we should include the tonic (the first note of the scale). This could be followed by the flattened third and fourth degrees which gives us four notes in total.

In the key of A the notes would be A, C, D and Eb. The full blues scale is A, C, D, Eb, E and G with the A again at the top of course.

Why Use So Few Notes?
For those who are learning to improvise on the blues scale the more notes there are, the more difficult it can be to create a phrase out of thin air. Also, rhythm plays a role in a blues phrase and gaps between notes are important too.

Notes and strong rhythmic phrases with plenty of room between for each phrase to say something is a great way to approach blues guitar improvisation.

I was once told by a very experienced and successful musician that, you can create a good solo on just one note! I think if a player had the ability and courage to do such a thing, the temptation to include an extra note would become overwhelming!

Comments

One Response to “Blues Guitar Improvisation”

1. Aman from free guitar lessons says:

   February 7, 2010 at 4:01 pm

   You have given nice tips about blues guitar improvisation. Even I feel that without the flattened fifth, the solo won’t sound like blues as flattened fifth is the most important note in blues.
   Aman@free guitar lessons ´s last blog ..The Best Way to use guitar tabs.