This 14-part series of lessons is the third instalment of our Blues Guitar series. We’ve learned how to solo over both a shuffle groove and a slow blues progression, but now it’s time to turn our attention to minor blues playing.

The focus here is how to solo over minor or minor 7th chords, as opposed to the dominant 7th progressions we’ve grown accustomed to. There are several differences in both mood and note choice, especially since we no longer have the luxury of mixing both the major and minor pentatonic scales; and as for our old friend, the major third, avoid that fella like the plague when soloing over a minor blues progression!

We will learn a mean 36-bar solo, containing countless blues licks that you can incorporate into your own playing, as well as a cool, ZZ Top inspired minor blues rhythm guitar part. Bobby also shows us scale, arpeggio and chord-tone ideas for soloing over a minor blues progression.

Don't forget to download our backing track in the Resources section.

Here, Bobby show us the differences between a minor blues chord progression and a more common dominant blues. However, we’re still working within the framework of a three-chord, 12 bar sequence.

In this lesson, Bobby shows us how to play the rhythm guitar track from our ZZ Top inspired backing track in the key of A minor.

Here, Bobby gives us an insight into our scale choices when soloing over a minor blues. There are several options, but not all of them may sound authentically bluesy. We also discuss some chord-tone and arpeggio ideas, which we’ll learn in greater detail when we tackle the solo that Bobby played in the intro video.

Before we learn that 36-bar solo, Bobby gives us a brief rundown of the gear he used to make this series of lessons.

Now it’s time to learn our solo! In the intro video, Bobby played over three choruses of a 12 bar blues progression in the key of A minor. That’s 36 bars of fantastic and tasteful minor blues licks that we can incorporate into our own playing.

Before attempting to learn any solo, it’s important to give it repeated listens, so feel free to play the into video as many times as you need to.

We continue to learn the first chorus of Bobby’s solo.

Here, we learn the final 4 bars of the first chorus of Bobby’s solo.

We continue to learn Bobby’s solo, as we move on to the second chorus.

We continue to learn the second chorus of Bobby’s solo.

Here, we learn the final 4 bars of the second chorus of Bobby’s solo.

We continue to learn Bobby’s solo, as we move on to our third and final chorus.

We continue to learn the third and final chorus of Bobby’s solo.

Here, we learn the final 4 bars of the third chorus of Bobby’s solo, before wrapping things up with a summary. Once again, we hope you enjoyed playing along with this lesson as much as we enjoyed making it!