I find blues quite dull in general I can see there is a lot to be learnt from it and it's the foundation or rock guitar

Most of what I play (especially what I play at church) is major key stuff, minor blues riffs just don't fit.

Most blues lessons tend to be focused on minor blues sounding stuff

I tend to have a lot of very samey progressions to play over like

I V vi IV

I vi V IV

IV V vi I

Any lessons to give me new ideas so I don't play the same stuff, others may not notice but I'm noticing to much repetition on my part

Maybe some upbeat songs I can be mostly major pentatonic but with a quick slip into the minor, I've never really done that sucessfully, any lessons or advice on the best chord in a progression that can be done on?

Hey poster boy check out this church song. Great Song!

This has a good Hendrix/blues feel.
This would be a great song to learn for developing your ear as well.(Talking to my self I better learn this version)

The good news is that the Major Pentatonic still features a lot in blues, so there's tons of Hendrix, SRV type major licks/chordal licks that you can steal

I'm not too clued up about it.. I'm sure The Wind Cries Mary and and Little Wing use some Major Penta stuff ???

I think a lot of instruction shows all of this stuff in such a heavily stylised blue setting, it's hard to hear licks being used in other genres and fitting in. I guess I'll have to learn some and try them out maybe the odd note change hear and there will make all the difference.

Me being lazy yet again. A concurring theme in my musical development!!!!

On the plus side I can collect my Bare Knuckle pickups from the post office in an hour or so!!!!

The blues used to confuse me, back in the day. I had a similar feeling..... "Why does the 'blues scale' sound so dull and boring over these progressions?" Basically, when I played the blues scale, it sounded empty and NOTHING like a killer Albert King/SRV/Clapton solo!!

Though the progressions are simplistic, I personally think that you can push the blues to several levels, and keep it "fun" for you, based on your skill level and creativity/exploration!! That said....I have fun PLAYING blues, but hardly listen to blues anymore.


One of my first suggestions, based on your first statement, would be to not focus on the "major OR minor" as much.... most TASTY blues licks and songs will successfully combine both!! Just because a chord is major, doesn't mean that a fatty minor "spank" riff won't sound GREAT!! Or vice versa. In the past, I had someone break it down and explain where to put the major over minor (vice versa), for many different classic blues progressions. I can't remember the exact "way to do it", but I just "hear it" when I play and tend to jump between major and minor, for nearly ANY blues progression. That's when I started having fun playing blues, and started sounding more like my blues heroes!!

If this makes sense, or if I'm on the right track, let me know.... I'll be happy to make a quick vid today when I'm at work demoing what I've explained, and a few cool blues "shortcuts"!! If this is something you already feel comfortable with, then nevermind....

I hear some players throw in the odd minor 3rd etc in a major progression and as you say it sounds really sweet.

I guess I'm not looking for blues licks I guess, more pentatonic licks that fit nicely in songs where anything bluesy just seems like a round peg in a square hole.

My lack of blues based lick knowledge just seem to show it self up when I tried to work out a solo for the Slash style collab and came up lacking

I've never been much of a lick player and more of a person that creates melodies with my solos, but licks and sequenced patterns definitely have their place

Actually, a major 3rd over a minor chord can work very well, depending.


Also, you do know that the "pentatonic" scale just subracts that one note? So, I would stop the mindset of "pentatonic OR blues", because it's very limiting. Use the scale as a general "shape" or "pattern" to follow, but don't be afraid of notes "outside" of the scale....that's usually the most beautiful note you'll find, to spice up your melody or riff.

I guess I'm also a little confused on your original post, vs your last response......what are you REALLY looking to achieve with your blues playing? I'm sensing a general "reluctance", based on your responses (ex: "I've never been much of a lick player...." or "I guess I'm not looking for blues licks I guess, more pentatonic licks...."). I would encourage you not to shy away from an idea, without trying. I don't think anyone here is trying to turn you into a "lick player"....in fact, I was attempting to do the opposite by offering to post a video with several suggestions, tips and ideas. But with all the suggestions so far, it doesn't seem like you're really trying to get that guitar in your hands and TRY out some of what people have suggested so far. Perhaps I'm just reading into your responses too much, but I can't seem to find the "Thanks guys!! I'll give that a try!!" attitude, that really helps push many GMC users to the next level.

I'm sorry if I'm judging your attitude wrongly, but I re-read every post and still feel that you have more "reluctance", than "acceptance" to try these new ideas. If I'm right, I would suggest trying a more open minded approach to everything guitar-related. Again, I'm not trying to "bash" you or be mean....really just trying to support another player, and help move you along to achieve whatever you're trying to achieve with this post.

Let me add here that the 3 chords from the common blues progression are dominant chords so the best sounding notes over each chord are the notes that belong to the 7th arpeggios. If you start playing the arpeggio of each chords you will notice that your playing make more sense with the backing... this notes should be the most important notes on your melody... if you do this and combine it with the minor & major pentatonic, and also with the Mixolydian mode of each chords your possibilities will increase a lot.

Some useful lessons:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...arpeggio-boxes/

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/improv...ios_exercise_5/

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/mixoly...ed-with-triads/

Hey Derper

I think I'm just wording things badly and not getting my muddled thoughts coherently out there.

I think Gabs post highlighted something to me, that the music I play and want to make more interesting in terms of my fills and solos, really doesn't utilise dom7 chords. So when I say my blues guitar playing it was very misleading.

When I play I don't really think in the pentatonic shapes that much, or at least consciously, so I guess I'm looking for pentatonic lessons and licks that will fit the quite bland (harmonically speaking) chord sequences that are used so much in P&W music, they just seem to use the same ones all the time, which is why all I do starts to sound the same.

Here's a sample song, and we have lots of songs with the same sort of chord sequence so I'm looking for other ideas and interesting licks to use
so at least my playing doesn't sound the same.
http://soundcloud.com/mattkid/01-1">: http://soundcloud.com/mattkid/01-1


I will take all the other suggestions on board as well as I need to get a foundation of the blues too.