Blues Guitar Technique
Blues Guitar Technique
grua-Br Bq1& loses his woman, his da,wg s,g Eir vheels, gra,bs a, ca;n of la,ger and refreshes the riffs others ca,n't rea,ch...
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.- :-= ii,ink about lvluddy Waters :--, .:.: .llde on irn old acoustic, >:: .: Fi.rr \ rruqlian playing a
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ninol' pentatonic
scale and concludes rvith sorne pull-offs
: , ' ',::. I .. iranscribed eight phrases ' -- ., :: ':..(l or er trirck 41 on the CD. '.'-:. : ',:=. iir:ks rell'on good phrasing - -- -:: .:-- -:\ .., '.--rhoice trr olnotes. uutes, attu -.. lrluluc and llu rtc Ir l: is - -- - --.::.n1. olthis. The ffrst bar uses a
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::.-.: -nr.ril-s plaring four uotes, :- ,:.. ilt-r.r plaring four agnin, and -:.:. -tli t.rkes its notes frorn the E
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and a slide in the second bar. A sinrilal idera is used bv Extreme's guiiarist Nuno Bettencourt in the track Get Tlrc Funk Orrf just before the solr. FIG 2 uses arr iclcil called'repetition o1' phrasing'; Joe Pass once saicl thtrt "if a phra-.. is goorl, iou c:ul plat,it hvo or three times rvithout it beconting boring", ancl this is trrre here. Itls the strure phrase pliryed three times, rising iut octiwe every btrr Note lios it changes slightly each time. Repetition ofphrases is a great \\'av to gri the most out of a smnll anount ol notes. irnd
tlEh *G l F .bailine is in relatinbhFc. lf*. evn&ough the bdrilg*tsH afoqnd E minor, yql can rrse E tsb, r mtlaffons, during ary sefu d L'rL
All emmples ale dalql rlb ol tlre backing tad( b CE
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a rest staggers the beat aDd stops the phrase sounding repetitive.
iwo,variations, (Fg 2f SXTH 3 0pen blus pct'lin puil;ofls and slida c BI{- 4 More repetitirn of o&tio$s, and
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gives the listener a chance to lock on to the music. This lick uses both the flattened 5th from E minor blues, and also Eb as a chromatic passing note in the third bar. rrc a is a blues scale phrase in the open position and is reminiscent of the playing at the start of Eric Clapton's recording ol
ID this exmple, I've incorlrorated the 'repetition of phr6e' idea 'nd stag!red it affi
the beat
Cocaine. FIc 4 again uses the'repetition of phrasing' concept. It moves neck positions but remains in the E blues scale throughout. The move from the 14th to sth lret in bar one is particularly tricky - practise until yoLr
can incorporate
Not every guitar solo stilta oD the barliDe. .tust reat for that ffrst quaYer ed se wbat baPIreE.
it fluidly.
an interesting
FIc 5 demonstrates
question - where should the phrase start? There's no right or wrong place to start playing in a bar, although there can be a tendency to start on the ffrst beat each time you play. The lick in FIc 5 starts on the second quaver of the bar
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concept. We have a lick which consists ol three notes, but instead of being played in triplets, it is played in quavers across the beat. This means that the first note of each group will not necessarily fall on 1, 2, 3 or -l every time. This 'crossing the beat' idea is a favourite of Chuck Berry and Robert Cral'. Note-bending is a very important part of blues playing, and is an excellent method of adding tension and dlnamics to a soio. rIc 7 demonstrates three bends; a whole-step bend (one tone); ahalf-step bend (sernitone and a quarter-tone bend (bend note sllghtlr'
Each
of strlng-bend.
The ffrst bend is from A to B, the second from A to Bb (which is the fattened ffftli note ofthe scale), and the last is a G note bent a quarter tone (not notated) and
ffnishing on E (root). Frc 8 is a blues scale lick which stafts with a minor 3rd bend (B to D). Take it easr'
Bro
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a long
way, but you'd be surprised how many players still go sharp with it. In this example too, the phrase resolves to the root (E). Okay, that's it for this month; next issue
we'll be loohng at some ways to expand the chord vocabulary (by teaching chords to sa1' 'mellifluous', perhaps?). rn
Minor 3rd beuds, played in two different octaves. Make sure you don't overdo it ud go shat?
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