3 Keys To Killer Blues Rock Phrasing - Guitar Lesson - Tips and Tricks To Awesome Blues Solos

Do you love good blues rock phrasing like I do? Whether it's Hendrix or 80's metal, I can't ever get enough! But, learning how to do it well can feel like a daunting task. I've been playing since I was about 12 (which was a long time ago) and it wasn't until about 8 years ago that I started to crack the code on how to do it.

One thing I hear a lot as a guitar teacher is "I've been playing for years and I still don't understand how to solo the way I want" or, "I know the scales but don't understand how my favorite players make the same scale sound so much cooler." I know what they're talking about because that's exactly how I felt.

I don't want it to take you over 20 years to get this like it did me, and that's where the 3 keys to killer blues rock phrasing comes in.

So, what are the three keys?

1. The first and obvious key is knowing the scale or scales to use and the key that you're playing in.

2. Of equal to or greater importance than the scales is the ability to see the chords of your song within those scale positions. In other words, if you're using pentatonic position 1, you have to be able to find the notes of your chords in that scale position. This is critical to playing melodically because those are the cool sounding notes or the target notes! This concept will be much easier to understand when you watch the video I made about this.

3. Feel. This is huge! Blues is all about the feel. This is what connects with the listener, it is the emotional content of the music. In blues it's often the bends, vibrato, and timing of the notes being played that makes the solo "feel" so good. While this can take years to master, the tips in this video will quickly get you on your way to playing your own killer blues rock solos.