The Guitar

Blues Soloing on Guitar

Many people take a very long time to understand blues soloing on guitar. If you start with your basic I IV V blues chord progression using the blues scale, you are often caught trying to decide which note to play at what part of the song. As blues soloing is an activity which is governed more by instinct that the mind, indecision can be a career killer.

This kind of inability to get started on blues solos is often a symptom of not having a teacher. Having someone who knows about blues soloing could probably get you started in no time. But if you can’t or do not want to pay a teacher, you will need to find ways of getting out of the box you are confined in. One obvious barrier is the wish to be original. There are plenty of blues solos out there to copy but the new guitar player often feels that he wants to play his own music without relying on somebody else’s material. The truth is everybody starts out copying somebody else. It is the way we learn. You don’t have to sit down and copy complete solos wholesale but if you know the blues scale, you can easily add your own licks to some that you have copied from a CD by on of the blues masters, or even from listening to a friend play.

Blues soloing is a matter of collecting licks and riffs from other guitar players and using them to build guitar solos. As you accumulate more and more experience by putting in more hours practicing, you will find that your own personal style begins to be built up. Remember, you are working with the blues, now. There are no wrong notes.

Don’t be too ambitious technically either. If your comfort zone is the first position, then work within your limits. If you put in the practice, you will stretch your ability naturally without someone having to say, “hey, it’s time you stopped doing that and moved on.”

One way of starting yourself off is to use the method of playing random notes. Get your left hand in pentatonic scale position in whatever key you want to play in, and just play any note. Play them one after the other without thinking. Do some bends and slides, have fun. But once again, if you find yourself imitating other guitar players, just go with it. Trying not to copy others is a mistake when you are learning blues soloing.

About the Author

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

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