Blues Lick Lesson #06 (Major Pentatonic)
In blues lick lesson 06, you’ll learn how to play this tasty blues lick in E. This lick uses some interesting concepts, like the use of economy picking and right hand muting Recommended playing level: intermediate and up.
E major pentatonic
This is mostly an E major pentatonic blues lick that is used on the I-chord (first four bars of a 12-bar blues). In bar 2, I introduce the b3 (blue note) in a classic blues double stop. Bend the blue note a little bit for maximum effect. This double stop is heard a lot e.g. in the intro of older blues songs (even acoustic songs).
Concepts in this blues lick lesson
In blues lick lesson 06, you get the guitar tabs on screen, a detailed explanation of the picking technique and a variations for hybrid picking. Concepts that are present in this video
- Right hand muting
- Economy picking (mini downstroke sweeps)
- Picking technique (alternate picking, hybrid picking), see PDF
- E major pentatonic, E major blues and Using the flat 3d (blue note)
- Grace notes, slides
Backing Track
E Blues shuffle backing track (115bpm) here.
Practice Tips
Practice this lick slowly first, then with the backing track on my channel. The feel of the blues lick is very important. You can transpose this lick to other keys as well.
Gear
The guitar used is my a Gibson Les Paul Standard. The guitar has a full-bodied and very present sound in the bridge pickup. I like this sound a lot for medium overdriven lead tones in blues and blues rock. Everything is recorded through my pedalboard and the Fuchs Blackjack MkII.
👉 Check out my gear page on Thomann: gear-thomann.guitar-inspiration.com
