Blues guitar solos are awesome! There’s nothing better than cranking up your amp and playing some cool Clapton or Hendrix inspired licks with a band or over a quality backing track. Many players often struggle though. It can be all too easy to sound disjointed or fall back into the same old patterns and not really progress with your lead playing. So, I thought I’d create this article to help you freshen up your solos and get you making some awesome sounds. Check out these tips to get you moving forward TODAY!
Tip #1: Make sure you learn around 5-10 new blues licks every single week. The key is to not bite off more than you can chew, so if you struggle to find the time to learn that many, try learning just 2 or 3. It’s essential to have some new material to experiment with every week though, so any less than that and you’re not really trying.
Tip #2: Practice each lick over a few blues backing tracks. Your goal here is not to create a solo yet but to truly absorb each lick and learn how it fits over different parts of the backing track. Ideally, you’d play every lick over and over, repeated for a couple of minutes before moving on. It might seem a little long winded but trust me, this process is where you’ll develop that blues ‘feel’ that is the goal of so many players.
Tip #3: Spend some time trying to blend the licks together into longer phrases over a backing track. Take baby steps here, don’t go straight for a full solo. Instead, really focus on your musical ‘sentences’ one by one. If you still find this tricky, go back to Tip #2 and spend some more time there before attempting Tip #3 again. Or failing that, simply try a different backing track. This is the perfect way to craft a great blues guitar solo.
