Who did Stevie Ray Vaughan pattern his playing after? Well there were many, but one in particular stands out,  Albert King. Albert King played a ferocious style that relied on three things.

1. Bending
2. Vibrato
3. Phrasing

He used these 3 techniques to play an entire solo in just one position. Here’s the “Albert King” position that every guitarist BETTER know when learning blues guitar.

The 10th fret on the B string is the Key you’re in. In this case it is A. This postition will allow you to play the most used blues licks in history. SRV used this type of blues lick in “The Sky is Crying”. These are must know licks when learning blues guitar. Play them with conviction and authority. Here’s a lick that can be heard being used by all of your favorite guitarists.

You’ll hear this in many blues tunes.  Study the phrasing, vibrato, and bending techniques of different guitarists who use this lick.  Keep learning new blues guitar licks, and pretty soon you’ll be the top dog in town.

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Do you want to play the blues? If you said yes, then the man to listen to is BB king. He has toured for decades, and still remains one of the leaders in the blues industry. He has signature licks that can be used in any kind of blues. These licks are the blues. If you’re serious about playing blues, then these licks are a must. Here are three things to keep in mind when learning these blues guitar licks.

1. Phrasing - the timing and placement of the lick
2. vibrato - where you shake a note up and down to produce a vocal like quality
3. space - give your licks room to breathe. A flurry of notes is cool, but stop and breathe sometime. Your audience will thank you.

The lick below shows one position that BB uses all the time. It’s basically the major pentatonic scale with the b5 included, the “blues” note. This is in the key of A.

All this should be played with your 1st, 2nd , and 3rd fingers. Take note of the vibrato as well. The “blues note” is the note located on the 11th fret. To hear audio examples of these kind of licks check out my podcast. Learning Guitar Now Podcast

When learning blues guitar, it is essential to learn from the masters. BB King is one of them. Without learning his licks you will be missing out on some of the great blues guitar licks ever.

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This is the most used scale in rock music period. The minor pentatonic scale has been used for decades by countless guitarists. Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Angus Young, Steve Vai, Albert Lee, John Frusciante, Billy Joe Armstrong and many others have one thing in common. They all use the minor pentatonic scale.

If it hasn’t occurred to you by now, you MUST learn this scale to play lead guitar. Here it is in the Key of A in it’s most popular form.

There are many popular licks you can play that come directly from this scale.  Practice this scale everyday, making sure you go downstroke, then upstroke with the pick.  Memorizing this scale and practicing it regularly, will launch your playing into new levels.  No lead guitar lesson would be complete without a thorough examination of the minor pentatonic scale.

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I wrote Matilda about 10 years ago and just recently finished recording it. In this song, a kinda Santana tribute, I utilize the Natural minor and Harmonic minor scales over the chord progression: Dm, Em7b5, A#7, A7.

Here’s the song example Matilda.  Matilda (Matilda October 30.mp3)

I think it creates a great melody and vibe under the chords. I know this is way more advanced than my previous lessons, but I will be generating much more content for the lead guitar players soon.

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To learn the guitar as fast as possible, you only need to do 2 things.

1. Decide what you want to learn.  This is a big one, and you really do need to decide.  It doesn’t have to life altering.  It can just be “I want to learn how to play whatever song.”  Now you need to find out what chords are in the song.  Does the song have a solo?  Do you want to learn that too?  When these questions are answered, you can pinpoint exactly what you want to learn, because to play the song contains all the elements that need to be practiced. Now find out what chords are in the song, and practice these everyday till you have them perfect.  If you want to learn the solo, then find out what scale is in the song and practice that scale everyday until you have it down.
2. Repetition  Now that you know what it is that will allow you to play the song you want to learn, GO practice it EVERYDAY until you got it.  I said this above, but I’ll say it again.  You must practice till you have these techniques perfect.  I know it is no fun practicing, but look people, anything worth having is gonna take some work.  If the guitar didn’t take any practice, everybody would be playing.  Dedicate some time everyday to learning the instrument.  Skip TV and practice guitar.  It’s all about priorities.  If you really want to learn the guitar, you will, but it is going to take some practice.

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