by Dirk Hagemann
www.blueslessons.net
A good guitar solo can be compared to a speech. If the speaker puts just
one sentence ofter the other, the audience will be bored. With pauses
and emphasizes youŽll always get the attention of your listeners.
That might sound complicated, but itŽs very simple! Just listen to a
guitar solo played by B.B. King and youŽll know what I mean!
It would be very handy for this exercises if you have a metronome.
For PC Users are some freeware metronoms available.
INFO: You can find midis for these exercises on www.blueslessons.net !
Exercise I: Pentatonic-Phrasing
For this lesson weŽre using the notes of the first two patterns of the
A-Minor pentatonic scale. Start slow and adjust your metronome to a
slow bpm.
Take a 12-Bar-Blues in A as suggestion and create your own licks.
Start with 2 notes, take a pause and start to develop a feeling for
the playing.
Suggestion: Play this exercise with single notes! See how much feeling
you can express with just a single note. YouŽll be surprised!
Here are the notes of the first two patterns of the A-minor pentatonic
scale. Take these notes to play your licks!
Fret 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
e |--o--|-----|-----|--o--|-----|--o--|
B |--o--|-----|-----|--o--|-----|--o--|
G |--o--|-----|--o--|-----|--o--|-----|
D |--o--|-----|--o--|-----|-----|--o--|
A |--o--|-----|--o--|-----|-----|--o--|
E |--o--|-----|-----|--o--|-----|--o--|
Pentatonic-Phrasing: Listen to the midi or take a look at the GuitarPro
file first.
2-notes example
E||----------------------|------8--5----------|--8b-5----------------|
B||----------------8-----|--------------------|------------5---------|
G||-----5-------------5--|--------------------|----------------------|
D||--7-------------------|--------------------|---------------7------|
A||----------------------|--------------------|----------------------|
E||----------------------|--------------------|----------------------|
3-notes example
----------------------|--8b-5--8b--------------|-------------------8b-|
----------------------|---------------8b-5-----|----------------------|
------7--5---------5--|---------------------7--|------7--5------------|
----------------7-----|------------------------|------------7---------|
----------------------|------------------------|----------------------|
----------------------|------------------------|----------------------|
--8b-8--8b--------------|-------------------------|--8b-5------------------|
------------------------|------10--8-------10--8--|--------8---------------|
------------------5--7--|-------------9-----------|---------------7b-7b-5--|
---------------7--------|-------------------------|------------------------|
------------------------|-------------------------|------------------------|
------------------------|-------------------------|------------------------|
2-notes example
----------------------|---------------------|---------------------||
-----------------5----|---------------------|---------------------||
------------7---------|----------------7b---|--7b---5-------------||
--7--5----------------|--7----5-------------|---------------------||
----------------------|---------------------|------------7--------||
----------------------|---------------------|---------------------||
Exercise II: Arpeggio-Phrasing
Standard Arpeggios:
A-Minor-Arpeggio D-Major-Arpeggio E-Major-Arpeggio
E||-----------0--------|-----------2--------|-----------------------0--|
B||--------1-----1-----|--------3-----3-----|-----------------0--------|
G||-----2-----------2--|-----2-----------2--|-----------1--------0-----|
D||--------------------|--0-----------------|-----2--------2-----------|
A||--0-----------------|--------------------|--------2-----------------|
E||--------------------|--------------------|--0-----------------------|
Arpeggio Phrasing Exercise:
Let single out when you play the arpeggio and give the other notes
room to ring. Take these exercise just as an example and create your
own phrasings! You can take the midi as backing track or use a
metronom for your exercise.
Note: thereŽs no rest/pause tab symbol. So I used the % symbol where
I skipped a note, just take a one or two seconds rest between the
notes where the % symbol is.
Am D Am Am
----------0--------|-----------2------|-----------%-------|----------%--------|
--------%----1-----|--------3---------|--------1----1-----|--------1----1-----|
-----2----------2--|----2---------2---|-----2----------2--|-----2----------2--|
-------------------|-%----------------|-------------------|-------------------|
--0----------------|------------------|--0----------------|--0----------------|
-------------------|------------------|-------------------|-------------------|
D D Am Am
-----------&------|-----------%------|----------0--------|-----------0-------|
--------&----3----|--------%----3----|-------1-----%-----|--------%----1-----|
-----2----------2-|-----2----------2-|----2-----------%--|-----2----------2--|
--0---------------|--0---------------|-------------------|-------------------|
------------------|------------------|--0----------------|--0----------------|
------------------|------------------|-------------------|-------------------|
E D Am
---------------------0-|-----------%-------|-----------0-------|------||
---------------0-------|--------3-----3----|--------%-----1----|------||
---------%--------0----|-----2-----------2-|-----2-----------2-|------||
----2-------%----------|--0----------------|-------------------|------||
-------2---------------|-------------------|--0----------------|------||
-0---------------------|-------------------|-------------------|------||
Exercise III:
Play a riff in one bar and let the bass or rhythm guitar play the
next bar. Then play a lick again, pause one bar etc.
Bass/ Your Lick Bass/ Your Lick Bass/
Rhythm Guitar Rhythm Guitar Rhythm Guitar
e||------|--------------------------|------|--------------------------|------||
B||------|--8b-5-----8--5-----------|------|--------------------------|------||
G||------|--------7b-------7--5-----|------|-----5--7r-7b-5-----------|------||
D||------|-----------------------7--|------|--7--------------7--5--7--|------||
A||------|--------------------------|------|--------------------------|------||
E||------|--------------------------|------|--------------------------|------||
For more exercises and GuitarPro files for this lesson visit:
www.blueslessons.net
From the 12-Bar-Blues, the Shuffle Rythm and the Blues Turnarounds to
the Blues and Pentatonic Scale, to Lead Guitar techniques, Slide guitar
lessons and more. For each Lesson there are images or GuitarPro files
and midis to listen to. Each lesson can be downloaded as textfile.
PLUS: mp3 Blues Backing Tracks/Jam Tracks and Ebooks! 
