10 Advanced Blues Licks

In my last column, I showed you 10 blues licks for beginners to help kick-start your blues playing. Like the previous lesson, we will be using the Minor Pentatonic scale in the key of A minor and E minor for the licks in this lesson.

Since these blues licks are more advanced, I'll assume you’re playing through your Pentatonic shapes proficiently and your technical flourishes (legato, string bending, vibrato) are all taking shape.

In this lesson we will be looking at:

• Intermediate to advanced blues phrasing
• Fast alternate picking
• String skipping with slides
• Fast legato slurs
• Adding notes from outside the Minor Pentatonic Scale
• Bending multiple notes in quick succession

If you want to explore similar concepts in a more predictable topical order, checkout Bobby's article on learning beginner guitar concepts.

Lick 1

This first lick is based in the A Minor pentatonic scale with some additional notes from outside the scale. The 6^th fret on the G string is a b4 interval and the 8^th fret on the G is the b5 (known as “the blues note”). These notes are used to create a tension in the lick but you don’t want to hang on to them for too long, as they're most effective when used as passing notes.

This lick is made up of 16^th notes for the first bar and contains some legato and string bends. The last bar splits out into some longer sustained notes.

Lick 2

This lick borrows some notes from the A Major Scale, the initial run of notes are all a sixth apart in intervallic terms.

This ascending,sliding run is reminiscent of some Hendrix/Motown inspired licks and rounds off with two notes from the second shape of the A Minor Pentatonic. It can add a melodic flavour to any blues runs, and is an especially great to end a solo.

Lick 3

Time to get the fingers flying.

We turn our attention to a Joe Bonamassa-inspired, alternate picked lick. This starts in the second shape of the A Minor Pentatonic before landing in the first shape and re-ascending in the second bar. This lick works best with full alternate picking for the first bar. You should alternate pick through descending 16ths, so try slowing down and cleaning it up with a metronome.

The second bar contains some legato and is slightly more broken up to add a melodic finish.

Lick 4

This lick draws on the styles of Texas blues legends like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King.

We're using the E Minor Pentatonic in the open position with the addition of the b4 interval used in the first lick. This lick couples open strings with some position shifts, notably at the end of bar one when you slide from the 3^rd to the 5^th fret of the B string while keeping the E string ringing open.

The double stop bend in bar two requires only the slightest bend on the 8^th fret B string note to create some noticeable dissonance.

This can be heard in SRV’s "Pride and Joy."

Lick 5

Let's revisit the idea of playing notes a sixth apart but in a descending run.

We'll start the lick with three notes from the A minor Pentatonic before sliding up to the first group of sixth notes. The descending run takes in the 9^th, 8^th, 7^th and 6^th frets of the G string, combined with the sixth harmony on the string.

This lick has a slight country flavour when played faster, familiar to the lead line in the chorus of Creedence Clearwater Revivals hit "Proud Mary."

Lick 6

In delta blues, it was not uncommon for licks to be chordal based. This is a technique that is also used by many of the popular Texas guitar heroes.  

The chords are, in order of appearance 

• A/C#, Dmin6(no5) 
• D#min6(no5) 
• Emin6(no5) 

Play each chord as an 8^th note triplet except the final chord which is played as a dotted 8^th. You could even reverse the chords and use them as a blues turnaround.

Lick 7

No blues lick collection would be complete without mentioning Eric Clapton. Clapton used a lot of legato triplets during his work with Cream, perhaps most notably in "Crossroads."

After the repeated lick in the first bar, there is a fast descending run through the second shape of the A Minor Pentatonic, ending with a quick jump from the 9^th to the 5^th fret of the G string.

Lick 8

In this lick we're moving off the beaten track a little and adding a slightly syncopated, funky feel to the first part of the lick. You’ll notice the first two beats are made up of 8th note triplets (three notes per beat). The first bar starts in the second minor pentatonic shape with a slide and a string skip followed by the addition of a note outside of the scale, the b4 (The 9th fret on the E string). This then moves into the second which starts with a muted string hit followed by a pull off from the 7th to 5th fret of the E. The 7th fret is also a note outside the scale,the two note in the Major scale.

These notes can both add tension and create a sense of complexity. As these notes fall outside the expected notes for this style, it's worth mentioning that you shouldn't hang on them too long. Use them as passing notes.

Play this lick with plenty of groove and keep it loose. I recommend playing this one with a metronome and trying to "feel" where the groove is. You are hitting two beats of 8th note triplets followed by two beats of fast 16th notes. The 16th notes combine some quick bends with some added legato.

Lick 9

This bending workout comes straight from the school of Jimmy Page, using the E Minor Pentatonic scale. It starts with a three-string ascending run and full tone bend on the 14^th fret of the G string. For the notes on the 12^th fret that follow, you can barre across the strings with your first finger.

The second bar contains a series of alternating bends. The first two beats consist of an 8^th note bend and an 8^th fretted note. The final bend is a half note in length.

Lick 10

Our final lick breaks away from the usual pentatonic shapes that most guitar players gravitate towards. This draws inspiration from a more contemporary approach to the blues as heard in more modern visionaries of the genre, such as John Mayer. The initial phrase is very Stevie Ray Vaughan inspired with the full tone bends coupled with a b4 note bent up to a perfect fourth. This adds a little contrast in the tonality of the initial run.

The second half of the lick is made up of descending 16^th notes across a slightly unusual pattern. You will notice the last note of the first four note groups is the first note of a three-note legato run which stems part of the second group of 16^th notes.

Summary and Conclusion

The licks in this lesson are designed to push your existing blues playing into more advanced territories. 

If you've been using pentatonic scales for a while but feel that you want to take it deeper, applying the concepts of this lesson will help you get creative and find new ways to spice up old licks.

However, all the licks here are based off the pentatonic scales and are fully transposable to whatever key you might need to use then in. Try playing some of these licks in the relevant key over a major key backing track for in instantly different flavor.

Questions

If you have questions about the content, feel free to leave those in the comments section below and I'll do my best to answer.

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