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Learn to play blues guitar.

Don’t overthink this stuff! Minor Pentatonic Blues lead – Guitar Lesson – EP619

Description

In this week’s lesson, you’ll be playing a minor key Blues in the key of F# minor and will play the entire solo using only the Minor Pentatonic scale.

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Comments

  4. Ralph P. says

    “STEP BACK AND TRY TO FEEL IT A LITTLE BIT”…GREAT WORDS OF WISDOM. I LOVE YOUR STYLE OF PLAYING ON THIS. ALL GUITARISTS ARE IMPRESSED BY SPEED AND COMPLEXITY, BUT I WOULD RATHER LISTEN TO YOU PLAYING WITH FEEL AND DYNAMICS AND A GREAT TOUCH. JUST LIKE I WOULD RATHER LISTEN TO SOMEONE SPEAK SIMPLY AND CLEARLY RATHER THAN SOMEONE WHO BABBLES ON AND I’M NOT QUITE SURE WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO SAY.
    (LOVE THE LICK @:20)
    EXCELLENT LESSON IN NOT “OVERTHINKING “.
    RALPH P.

  5. Eric W says

    Brian. You so could be a jazzer if you went in that direction. If you’ve taught me anything, it’s that with practice and instruction you can learn anything. once upon a time I found your jimmy rogers tutorial. I so wanted to learn , but at the time it was way too hard for me. I couldn’t ever learn something like that. But I thought oh what the hell, I’ll try it. And I worked on it with your instructions. Guess what. It is now part of my regular rounds. I don’t play it exactly like you, but I’ve got it. Whatever. My point is, you’re so good at guitar, you could be a jazzer if you wanted. You just choose not to.

    Keep pickin, y’all.

  10. Eckbert M says

    Wieder eine Deiner lehrreichen „Lessons“ so großartig! Du nimmst einem die Angst vor der Improvisation! Ich bin voll begeistert! Das Griffbrett führst Du einem wirklich einfach vor! Bin total begeistert! Danke, danke danke!

  13. Daniel H says

    My lightbulb moment… I think:
    I love playing the changes but frequently the scale pattern associated with the chord shape clashes with the song, even though the chord is in the key family of the song. Realization:
    If I simply lead in the key of the song, I can still play the chord changes by picking notes out of the chord shape rather than the scale notes associated with the chord being played. When it time to “sing”, revert back to the key of the song.

    Brian, how did Jerry Garcia do it? It is sonically obvious he plays the changes but his playing is(was) so seamless and so challenging to replicate.

  23. Steve says

    Great lesson, nice chord variations over minor pentatonic.

    Although not in the same spirit of not over thinking, I just discovered tritone substitution of the dominant is as easy as just drawing a straight line across the circle of fifths, so instead of going from G7 to C, can use Db7 to C. This adds a surprising different flavour and probably not to be overused outside jazz, but wondered if you could put this into context?

  27. MANUEL M says

    Je m’aperçois que les notes que vous jouez dans le lead correspondent aux accords. Vous suivez l’harmonie des accords quand vous construisez un lead. Pouvez vous faire l’analyse des accords de la chanson, quelle relation à le A et le E avec la tonalité de fa#m?

    • Terry S says

      This is a good catch. I think has to do with Brian changing the subdominant chord (IV) which is a Bm to a Major Subdominant (IV) – B.
      D#, the 3rd, in the B major is not part of the notes of F# natural minor scale. I wonder if he is trying to change the tone of the song just for a bit. Adding a D# effectively takes you from F# natural minor scale (also Aeolian mode) into F# Dorian mode which is still a minor sound as the b3 and b7 aren’t changing. You are essentially only changing the b6 to a 6 by adding the D#.

      • michael f says

        Thanks for responding Terry. Not sure where you are getting that D#.
        I think I make sense of that B major chord which sounds so cool in this arrangement by thinking of it in terms of A major, the relative major of F#minor (ie the 6 chord). The 5 chord in A major is E or E7, a vary stable and often-gone-to chord. From there, B major or B7 is the 5 chord of E. So the B chord is kind of a subdominant even though here Brian just plays B major.
        Playing in a minor key always seems to lead me back its relative major . Funny but i don’t really have that problem when playing in a major key.

        what do you think?

        • Terry S says

          So the notes of B major are B, D#, & F#.
          The chords of F#m key are F#m, G#dim, A, Bm, C#m, D, E.
          So to your point, B major which is what is on the composition is not in the key of F#m.
          The IV chord is Bm and V chord is C#m.
          I don’t believe you can say the E chord is the V because we aren’t in major key.

          Generally yes thinking of relative major and minors is fine, but there is a distinct difference when playing in minor vs its relative major, because your home base chord/tonic is F#m which will sound sad not A major which will sound happy.

  31. Todd B says

    Brian am I right to assume that you are not thinking about landing on chord tones, or playing to changes? Are you just using the the F# minor pentatonic, and moving it around the fretboard? Thus the keep it simple

  36. Stewart K says

    I know I could benefit from a slowed down versison of the jam track – maybe like 75 or 80 instead of 110.. When I go to the 50 % version on my I-phone it gets really garbled. Has anyone tried out the Pulse metronome like tool? Regular metronomes are not my friends I have difficulty concentrating when using one but I don”t want to spend the money for the pulse if it doesn’t work well.

  40. charjo says

    So, yes, I’m that guy that has to get under the hood.
    I think the chords of the verse are actually E major with F#m as the tonal center and, therefore, an F# dorian progression for which F# minor pentatonic sounds great.
    The chords of the chorus don’t seem to be in the same family. I think these are actually F# minor now, with that secondary dominant sustitution for the C#m and later returning to the diatonic C#m.
    Nice lesson but I can’t help but overthink it!

  41. Sean H says

    Speaking of Don’t Overthink this stuff! These past couple of years worth of Lessons have been excellent to even Groundbreaking for me as a Continuing Education Student here at ActiveMelody.com, Brian!!! Through the beginning inspirations of the EP500-599 series of Lessons…..and even more importantly the EP600 series of Lessons since….just keeps getting better and better Brian!!! Keep up the great Groundbreaking Innovations, the big Jazzy Blues fan I am more than ever!! Per some Studio Session guitar band friends of mine. Strumming On!!! Seano

  42. Drew C says

    I really like this lesson – reminds me of JJ Cale – One suggestion, if I may……I wish Brian would allow all his backing tracks to resolve rather than just slamming the door shut mid-stream. Otherwise, I think AM is one of the best resources online today. Brian’s YouTube channel and this website have definitely rekindled my passion for playing music after a very long hiatus ………

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