Hey Blues Fans,
I was watching TV last night and felt compelled to write a short blog entry. Have you ever seen a car commercial in which all the lease terms are spoken in about two seconds at the very end? The people who read these disclaimers and fine print are very skilled at speaking fast. Imagine, however, if they were the narrator of your books-on-tape. You sure would finish the book fast, but you never get to enjoy it. Wouldn’t you rather listen to the voice of Morgan Freeman?

This analogy applies to the blues. Certainly, there a thousands of players who are technically better than BB King, and can play 50 notes for every single note that BB plays. Why, then, is BB King such a revered guitar player? It’s because the listener can sit back and enjoy that single note, the emotion with which it’s played, it’s vibrato, it’s tone. BB King is Morgan Freeman, Yngwie Malmsteen is the guy who talks fast at the end of car commercials.

If you listen to guys like Robben Ford and Larry Carlton, the same applies. You get to enjoy tasty lick after tasty lick. They let you savor the notes before serving you the next course. Even when they play “fast” you can hear each note and enjoy it.

Don’t get me wrong – I love Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, et al. But I bet if you were to do a survey about which Satriani song people like best, the winner would be “Alway with me, Always with you”. It has a beautifully appegiated chords, a memorable melody, and masterfully crafted solos.

So, the next time your listen to the blues, pour the drink of your choice, sit back, close your eyes, and really listen.

Care to comment?

P.S. I’ll be in Japan on business, so I won’t be able to post another lesson until next week.

Hey blues fans! This is an extended version of the BB King-style lick that I posted. You can see it http://www.learnblueslicks.com/blues-lesson-bb-king-style-lick/
The lick isn’t too difficult, but getting that slide from the 12th to the 17th fret takes some practice. The second part of the lick is basically an A major pentatonic scale. I encourage you to play around with the lick and change it up a bit and make up your own variations…heck, that’s what I did.

As a blues guitar player, you don’t need to play a lot of notes, just the right notes. And nobody does it better than BB King. Here’s a nice little BB-style lick that is simple to play, but sounds great. In an A-blues, I like to play it over the IV chord (D9) when coming down from the V (E9).