Blues Rock Soloing with Kris Barras, Part I

Kris will show you how to fluently move through the shapes of the minor pentatonic scale that were covered last week. There’s a cool exercise on learning to play on just one string using the same harmonic ideas and some new lick ideas that combine pentatonic shapes, and also introduce syncopation for the pick up of a lick.

High-quality guitar TABs accompany this lesson.

This week it’s onto the blues. Kris will guide you through knowing which chord you are playing over in a typical 12 bar blues. You will learn about what chord numbers mean, and how they relate to a 12 bar sequence.

Then there’s a 12 bar study solo, making use of chord tones from the chords used in the backing track, in addition to the minor pentatonic and blues scales studied in parts 1 & 2.

High-quality guitar TABs and an MP3 backing track accompany this lesson.

So far the scale we’ve been using is a minor pentatonic scale, this week it’s onto more chordal awareness using dominant 7th chords and the Mixolydian blues scale.

Kris helps to introduce the new concepts using the minor pentatonic framework taught in the first 3 sessions.

The Mixolydian blues scale introduces a sweet major tonality to the new licks that are studied this week whilst keeping things well-grounded in the blues.

High-quality guitar TABs accompany this lesson.

This week it’s straight into licks.

Kris will guide you through licks that incorporate the Mixolydian blues scale studied last week, but this time we’re in different positions on the fretboard. The focus this week is targeting particular chord tones from the chords of a dominant blues progression.

High-quality guitar TABs accompany this lesson.