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.

Here’s a blues guitar solo tip that will help you spice up your blues guitar solos with licks that use notes from the chromatic scale.

Beginner and intermediate blues guitar learners often fall into the trap of simply playing up and down the pentatonic scales. Pentatonic scales are a great place to start, but your solos can soon feel stale if you are constantly walking up and down those same five notes.

Chromatic notes offer an easy way to start extending your five note vocabulary, breath some new life into your solos and get you moving around the fretboard in new ways.

Chromatic Notes to the Rescue
The chromatic scale is the scale you get when you walk one fret at a time along a guitar string for a distance of twelve frets. This scale contains all the notes available in western music, A through G plus all the flats and sharps in between. The distance of twelve frets, and twelve notes, corresponds to one octave.

You can use the notes of the chromatic scale to fill in your pentatonic scale boxes and give yourself a whole load of extra note options.

Put the Chromatic Scale Into Action
To put this scale into action start with the first pentatonic scale box. The one that starts with the root note on the sixth string. Normally you use the pentatonic notes separated by one or two frets on each string.

To use the chromatic notes simply view the pentatonic box as a set of notes four frets wide across all the strings. You can use any of the notes in that box, but note that the chromatic notes should be used only as stepping stones from one pentatonic note to another. Don’t rest on the in in between notes as they will mostly sound off key.

You can mix the chromatic notes into your licks by using them to walk fret by fret from one pentatonic note to another.

Don’t do this for every note change, moderation is the key, but mix in these one fret walking patterns into your phrases every now and then. Remember, don’t end your licks on the chromatic notes, simply pass through them to finish on a scale tone and things will sound fine.

Once you’re comfortable walking one fret at a time within the scale box you can extend this idea outside of the box. For example, start a phrase by walking up to the root note on the first string from three or four frets below.

Once you get the hang of it you’ll find this technique gives you nice dramatic effects you can use to emphasize parts of your solo. A great way to lead into a solo or a new chorus is with a long walk up the fretboard a half step at a time. Try it, it sounds great.

Good phrasing is key to developing blues guitar solos that sound good and are a hit with listeners. This post shares 5 tips I’ve found helpful to create good phrases. I hope you’ll find them useful too…

1. Keep it simple

It’s easy to spend hours… months… even years in a constant quest for fancy new tricks, scales, and licks full of notes, but what really makes the best blues phrases is simplicity.

Not that you can’t use anything special, or learn new things, but don’t ignore the basics. Learn how to choose the right note in the right context and your phrases will be effective without fancy tricks.

2. Use repetition and sequencing

If a thing’s worth saying, it’s worth saying twice. If you come up with a neat lick, repeat it. Repetition increases tension (up to a point) and helps sign post your solo for the audience.

You can sequence your lick for added effect. This simply means repeating it from a different starting note, e.g. an octave or two higher or lower.

3. Use dynamics and space

One easy way to add interest to your licks is to work the dynamics – how loud or soft you play. If you play everything at the same level then your solo will sound monotone. Just like when speaking, inject enthusiasm, fear, anger or other emotions into your licks by varying the intensity of your playing.

Remember too that nobody likes to listen to someone who talks non-stop. Leave some silent spaces in your solos.

4. Target chord tones

The best blues guitar solos capture the movementof the chords. Devise your licks to finish on the characteristic notes of each chord of the blues progression, the root, third and seventh notes are good candidates. Accentuate the chord changes by using these notes to lead into each change.

5. Use the melody

If you base your licks and solo on the melody you will often address most of the other points above. This doesn’t mean you have to simply copy the melody note for note, but weave phrases of your own with those of the melody and take melody phrases and alter them by playing with the other ideas suggested in this list.

Work on these five tips as part of your blues guitar solo practice and improve your solos. I suggest choosing one tip at a time and working on it until it becomes an integrated part of your playing. Then move on to the next and repeat the process.

Here’s a video that shows how to play a blues guitar solo with only 4 easy to play notes. Yes, less really is more sometimes. This lesson from Blues Guitar Unleashed demonstrates an entire solo played with only four notes. You might think that it must sound pretty uninspiring, but you couldn’t be further from the truth, it sounds fantastic.

The lesson is in two parts. The first video shows the solo played at normal speed so you can hear how it sounds. The second video explains how to play the solo step by step.

If you are struggling to learn to play blues guitar solos then this is a lesson for you. I spent ages learning scales and positions to create blues guitar solos. But somehow, despite learning more positions, more notes, my solos didn’t sound right, hey didn’t sound blues enough to me.

This lesson opened my eyes to the fact that it’s not about how many notes or scale boxes you can play. A great blues guitar solo can be created with only a few notes.

If this lesson helped you then you will find plenty more excellent instruction in Griff Hamlin’s Blues Guitar Unleashed course. It’s a complete blues guitar course for players with a little experience who want to learn to play blues guitar. Griff’s excellent instruction will take you from fumbling blues wannabe to rockin’ and confident blues master. You can learn more about the course, and get some more free blues instruction videos from Griff by visiting Blues Guitar Unleashed.