3 Note Blues Guitar Solo Practice
A mistake made by many players in their blues guitar solos is to try and cram in too many notes. A listener on the receiving end of a barrage of notes will most likely turn off and not hear what you’re trying to say.
Blues guitar soloing is a bit like speaking. If you spout out a non-stop battery of words when you talk to someone and leave them no space to reflect and integrate what you say then the chances are they will switch off and start wondering how they can extract themselves from the conversation as fast as possible. Similarly a solo crammed full of notes will overwhelm the listener and have a weaker impact.
Here’s Why You Get Into This Trap
The first step to blues guitar soloing for most players is to learn the pentatonic or blues scale and then spend hours of practice to learn how to run up it and down it as fast as possible.
Once you learn how to run up and down the scale at a reasonable speed the next step is usually to try some improvisation. And guess what you do when you start to improvise? You do what you know, run up and down the blues scale as fast as you can.
If you practice with scales a lot you’ll develop the habit of playing all the notes. So, you need to spend some of your practice time on something different. One way is to practice using fewer notes.
Change Your Practice Habits
If the above common learning route leads to bad blues guitar solos, then it is clear that you must practice differently if you want to learn to create interesting solos. One good way to do this is to use what I call the 3 note blues solo.
3 Note Blues Solos
3 note blues solos are a practice tool to get you thinking differently about the scales. There are 3 simple rules:
1. You can play only 3 notes
2. You can play those 3 notes in different scale box positions
3. You can play the notes in different ways, e.g. straight, bend or slide into them, vibrato…
Putting 3 Note Blues Soloing To Work
Make up some licks in advance, write them down if you’re more comfortable with that. When you have a few 3 note licks worked out, put on a jam track, and practice them over the chords.
When you feel ready try to make some more licks up on the fly, after all, the goal is to improvise. You can create new licks by playing an “answer” to your pre-defined licks, or play a pre-defined lick differently – change the timing, adds bends, slides or other effects.
You Are What You Practice
Remember that you are what you practice. If you practice whizzing up and down blues scale boxes as fast as you can then that’s what your solos will sound like.
To create solos with real feeling you must practice differently. The three note solo exercise helps you to get a new perspective on the scales. It will make you think about note choices and learn to create interesting sounds with each note.
Use three note solos as you practice blues improvisation to build better feel and phrasing. Remember, you don’t have to play all the notes of the scale in every solo just to show you know them.
