Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn an Albert King inspired lead that is full of those classic, “Albert Kingisms” that are so common in electric blues. This is a lead that you can play by yourself (no jam track required).
Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson
Part 2 - For Premium Members
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Slow Walkthrough
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Video Tablature Breakdown
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One of the Masters. Good lesson.
I love Albert King and I’m looking forward to loving this lesson. Thanks Brian!
The very first live rock show I ever went to was in the Fillmore auditorium in San Francisco and Albert King was the headliner along with The Chambers Brothers and Richie Havens. I think you did a very good job of imitating his style and I’m already having a lot of fun playing this. I really enjoy when you do these types of lessons as well as all the others. Duplicating a specific style is a lot of fun to me. You have not done an Albert Collins piece in awhile . He really put on a great show also.
Cool MIke! Somone as old as me! The Chambers Brothers Time Has Come was the first record I ever bought!
Fun one!
Regarding the opening lick. Why playing the B minor pentatonic over the E chord works. Will take a shot at that.
The notes of the B minor pentatonic are 4 out of the 5 notes of the E minor pentatonic (root, 4th, 5th flat 7th). The minor third is replaced by the major 2nd which is still part of the full E minor (aeolian) scale so it all fits over the E chord.
Plus, if A minor pentatonic works over the IV chord (which it does), then why wouldn’t B minor pentatonic work over the V chord? The relationships between chord and scale in each case are identical after all.
he is also playing the 5th form of the E minor pentatonic scale.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking as well as the best fit as to why the notes work.
That is also my thinking.
E minor pentatonic, 5th shape. Easier to think that way.
Yep, all of the above. I’d add the maybe because B is the secondary dominant of the V chord (E) could also be workin’ on my ears.
Now your talking .Great expression of the blues👍👍👍
So smart to leave off the backing track. I can hear your “Albert” all the way which makes it more assessable to what you are teaching. Well done.
Thank you for this Albert King style lesson Brian! He was such a huge influence on so many great players that followed. Also, It’s nice to break out the Dot for a change.
Great lesson.
May I suggest a future lessons in the same format for Peter Green and Freddie King.
Thoughts on why B minor pentatonic works over the E: Is it because E is the 4 chord of B. So if you played a B blues in key the B pentatonic always works over the B E and F# chords.
Fantastic lesson! I’ve watched every one of your lessons for the past 5 years now… This is one of my favorites
Re: B min pentatonic working over E – one way to think of it might be E Dorian mode. B minor pentatonic fits ‘inside’ E Dorian perfectly i.e. all the notes in B minor pentatonic are in the E Dorian scale. E Dorian would normally work around an E minor chord, but hey…it’s the blues.
I like that Brian isn’t overly fussy about theory, if it works…it works.
I agree with you. It works because it give the Dorian mode feel.
Your Artist series of lessons is a treasure trove. Maybe someday a lesson ala another Chicago blues icon; Mike Bloomfield!
What a good lesson. Afterwards, perhaps a lesson about bb king? Some people often have doubts about that.
100%
As a huge Clapton die hard, it’s really great to have lessons on where Clapton got a lot of his influence!
I see the opening lick as pattern 5 of E minor pentatonic
that is what I see, also.
Yes, came on to say the same thing. Isn’t it obvious that it’ll work over E7
I actually took the EP106 lesson recently. Love learning the licks and styles of these old, great Blues Men! Thanks Brian!
Great Blues piece – thank you
the reason that the B min pentatonic works over the E7 chord is that the E7 is part of the A Major Harmonised scale – its constituent parts are
A Maj
B min
C# min
D Maj
E Maj
F# min
G# dim
so B min pent works well
Best Wishes
Jim
Always love the Albert King bends. You did a great job explaining how he approaches the blues. Thanks!
Brian
Very cool lesson. and wonderful licks. Thank You.
Correct me if I’m wrong but pattern 2 of the B minor scale is the relative minor for D major. It’s the same scale as D major
Sorry, I got ahead of myself. The question was why it worked over the E7 chord.
Albert Kings playing is a never-ending inspiration!!!
For some who may not know this. Albert, a lefty player, learned on right handed guitars that he flipped around. But he never changed the string order. Making the high E on top. The string bends that we are pushing up on the E and B he is pulling down. Got to be a factor in his bending being such a signature of his. As a lefty, I am really glad I restrung the first guitar (a righty of course) I played. This instrument is hard enough without trying to refigure what to do to flip all finger positions too.
I did not know that. Elizabeth Cotton did the same thing, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Cotten
Sorry, s/be spelled Cotten.
Yup. A few others I know of – Doyle Bramhall, Otis Rush, Dick Dale, Eric Gale.
Probably a little challenging, but love to have blues lessons like this one
Great Blues piece – thank you
oops – correction needed – should have put E7 instead of E maj
the reason that the B min pentatonic works over the E7 chord is that the E7 is part of the A Major Harmonised scale – its constituent parts are
A Maj
B min
C# min
D Maj
E 7
F# min
G# dim
so B min pent works well
Best Wishes
Jim
It works because it’s crying.
Great Blues lesson Brian-
Excellent.
A great lesson Brian! I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. I like the music theory you always include in your lessons and I found it helpful when you showed the tabs above the fret board as you were playing and explaining.
Excellent as always. I learn so much it’s crazy!! Manipulating my fingers to do what I know is the most challenging.
What a great lesson…thanks Brian! I know you do this (in the style of) once in a while. If we play want to play blues (or any style)…we need to learn from the best players ever, and you provide a great shortcut for this.
superb Brian great phrasing love it
Great solo–I love the phrasing—this piece really forces you to focus on how you phrase your lines.. I like to experiment with phrasing each line in different ways. Also, I’d say SRV gets a shout-out here. Because he was so heavily influenced by AK, I hear SRV all over this one.
Definitely my preferred style. Rewarding to play and entertaining to hear. Nice. Thank You.
Moving up 2 frets gives you a Dorian modal tone; doesn’t it? That’s why it works and sounds good.
any suggestions out there about trying to play this on acoustic with so many full bends, etc.? I have medium lights. This question also applies to any bends on acoustic.
It is amazing all the genres that you cover in your lessons. This one is right on the money and you sound just like my favorite of The Three Kings, Albert. I can’t wait to try this one. Your ability to play in any style makes you a great teacher.
The 10-12 area could also be Box 5 of E as well as box 2 of B
I think it’s E Dorian off the 5 chord?
Thanks. Great to have some authentic Albert King riffs under my fingers. Kinda proves that it ain’t what you play, but the way that you play it. This melded with EP101 is a gateway to AK-style blues. Much obliged.
good lesson……. love Albert King. Always wondered what it was he was doing.
Would be really cool if you did have a jam track to play along with it.
Great lesson, easy to understand but very challenging to play with the same kind of feel
Brian,
WOW! Thanks for this one!
Eric clapton
Fantastic lesson as ever Brian. The explanations of where these licks ‘come from’ is incredibly helpful. Will have great fun with this.
Wonderful lesson – not much of a blues player but I really enjoyed learning this tune – cheers!!
Great Lesson. Thank you Brian.
I like all the Blues lessons. I like the other stuff too, but the Blues are probably my preference. It’s nice to learn to play it without a jam track too. If I have any suggestions to make, I’d really like to hear you mention any muting you’re doing. You don’t seem to mention it much, but it seems like a super important aspect of bending. Great lesson.
Thanks
Dennis
Reno
Okay, so this was a bit of a challenge for me trying to get the nuisances / techniques of Albert King down. But he and Muddy Waters are my two absolute favorite Blues artist, even over BB King. I would also if I could request something on Hubert Sumlin. I’m new to Active Melody but I am thoroughly enjoying the challenge as I’m an early intermediate to the Blues and guitar for that matter. Thank you
Wow, the tone and your playing on this one is really exceptional.