There a
lot of different ways to approach soloing over the blues. In this lesson we will
look at:
1. The Minor Pentatonic
2.
The Blues Scale
3. Dominant 7th arpeggios
A
minor / C major Penatonic Scale
Let's start
by using our 5th position Aminor/Cmajor pentatonic scale.
Try
playing it up and back down along with the jam track. First try playing quarter
notes and then swing eighth notes and then eighth note triplets. You can also
try playing some patterns. Up 3 back 1 or up 4 back 2.
A
Blues Scale
After you feel comfortable
with that try adding the b5th to make it a blues scale and try the same exercises
from above.
Dominant 7th Arpeggios
Then
for a bit more of a challenge try using nothing but chord tones. Take the A7th
arpeggio and play it over the first 4 measures. At measure 5 move it to 2nd position
for a D7th arpeggio. When you get to measure 9 you will want to move the same
form to 4th position for an E7th arpeggio.
As
with the above exercises try playing up and down the arpeggios as quarter notes,
swing eighth notes, triplets.
Healthy Practice Habits
The
more you discipline yourself and focus on one area at a time, the more you will
grow as a player and musician. It is important to have fun and just jam out but
spend a little time working on the above exercises. Playing the scales and arpeggios
up and back down with different note values. The more you do that the more fun
you will have when you just let go and jam.
Sign
Up - for all kinds of jam along tracks like soloing over 1 chord vamps and
2 chord vamps both in a key and changing keys.
