In the first article of this 3 part series all about a unique way to solo on your acoustic guitar, I showed you a very different way to approach using the pentatonic scale for creating awesome (sounding) fingerpicking solo riffs on your guitar.
Speaking of which, in part 2, we are going to extend on this solo approach by applying it in a blues context, to a very common pattern on the guitar sometimes referred to as the horizontal pentatonic scale shape, simply because it moves in this direction across the fretboard.
I am going to show you how you can apply the open string solo technique from article 1 to this pattern to create awesome and unique sounding fingerpicking blues guitar solo’s.
Must Learn Blues Riffs! Guitar Lesson
I’ll also run you through some actual blues riffs derived from this pattern and our unique fingerpicking solo approach using open strings, so you can start building your acoustic blues guitar soloing repertoire.
As I explained in the first article, keys that have a lot of open string notes in them are best suited for this way of playing, as we are specifically targeting open strings throughout this soloing approach.
I’m sure you know this pattern if you have been soloing on your guitar for even just a short amount of time:
Blues Solos For Acoustic Guitar
Having said that, it is also a scale pattern within itself, and you can treat it like that if you don’t have much experience with pentatonic scales at this time.
We will be using this scale pattern in the key of Am, therefore we need to start it from the 3rd fret:
What we will do with this pattern now, is apply the open string acoustic guitar solo technique that was outlined in the first article in this series.
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Starting from the 5th fret on the bottom string, we get the following sequence of notes from which to apply the forward banjo roll from article 1:
Next you need to shift position so your 3rd finger is aligned with the 7th fret of the 5th string to then play the next sequence:
To finish ascending the scale, you need to make one more shift of position so your 2nd finger is now over the 9th fret of the 3rd string. From here, play one more forward banjo roll sequence like so:
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As was the case with the scale pattern from article 1, you need to play this little sequence on the top 2 strings to allow for a smooth change over from ascending to descending the pattern:
What a great and unique sound the open strings bring to this otherwise typical pattern for soloing on your guitar. Now it’s time to create some blues riffs utilising the open strings from this pattern.
I demonstrate not so much these exact riffs, but soloing with the scale pattern in general, over a blues in A backing track in the video that accompanies this article, so be sure to watch that too.
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This first riff targets the upper part of the scale pattern, and finishes within pattern 1 (the middle part of the scale).
Notice the subtle hint of connecting this way of soloing on your guitar, with regular soloing with the 1/4 bend at the 5th fret, 3rd string.
You will notice in my demonstrations in the video, I mix in quite a bit of “regular” guitar soloing with the open string technique
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This second riff also targets the upper and middle parts of our scale pattern. Notice the use of the blues note at the 8th fret on the 3rd string.
This final riff targets the lower part of the scale with a sequence, that in part repeats as it moves into the middle area of the shape (pattern 1 territory).Today I would like to show you some blues licks you can play on your acoustic guitar. However I also want to take it one step further, and show you how to connect these licks together to create a really cool acoustic blues solo. It will sound like you have a bass guitar playing along with you. This kind of stuff really impresses!
Learning to play blues on the acoustic guitar can sound great, especially in the key of E. The reason why is that it allows you to use a lot of open strings in your blues licks. The open strings will have your licks resonate more than if you were in a key that had mostly fretted notes.
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For this lesson, it is assumed that you are already somewhat familiar with the 12 bar blues progression. Here it is, in the key of E, if you need a refresher:
Knowing and having this progression in your ear is a very important part of learning how to play blues on your acoustic guitar.
Lets get started by running through the following blues licks. Each lick will relate to a certain part of our 12 bar blues.
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The lick above will be used for the E7 chord in our blues. It will be slightly varied each time it is used.
This is a classic blues turnaround lick. It will be used in bars 11 and 12 which is commonly referred to as the turnaround. The purpose of the turnaround is to turn the tune back around to the start again.
Each blues lick above sounds great on its own, and can certainly be used in this way. However, we can also connect these licks together to have a more complete sounding blues on our guitar.
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You may have noticed that each acoustic blues lick above started with an open string. The great thing about a blues in E is that you can use the low E and A open strings of your guitar to sound the root notes of the E7 and A7 chords.
Learning to play your blues licks in this way sounds awesome! It gives the impression that there is a bass playing along with you, and has a much more complete sound about it. For best effect, you want to make sure that the open string rings out or drones as you play the lick.
Here is the resulting blues you get when connecting your acoustic licks together, while taking advantage of the low E and A open strings where possible:
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In the example above, I have used the same basic blues lick idea for the E7 chord in bars 1 - 4 and again in bars 7 - 8. There are some slight variations each time, and in bars 7 - 8 the lick is played in the upper octave from the 12th fret.
Every other lick remains the same or very similar to when it was first introduced. In addition to the low E and A open strings ringing through, I have also added some notes to create a better sounding bass line to go with our blues licks.
The above is just one example of how to play a blues on your acoustic guitar. You can modify and simplify it however you like. It’s the use of the low open strings, to give a more complete sound, that I want you take away from this lesson.
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Be sure to take your time with these ideas. Get them down as they were first introduced in this lesson, and then work on connecting them together. You should also have a go at creating your own blues licks and solo’s using this approach.
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