In the BBF Jm Session area there is a thread entitled "defective guitar" ... the posts there have brought up the use of the "Blues Box System" of playing lead blues guitar ... so I've decided to post box #1 here ... and give you a 12 bar blues in the key of G ... to practice the 'box' with.

Practice playing the notes back and forth across the strings ... pay attention to your fingerings ... this is in G (at the third fret) ...

Play slowly and hit the notes in a postive manner ...
... you should sit and play the scale over and over and and over and over until it flows smoothly from low to high strings and from high strings to low strings (ascending and descending the scale.)

... pick up speed as you gain facility ... once you can do it smoothly .... start playing it at every fret ... start at fret number 1 and play in the key of F ... move up one fret and play the scale in F# ... etc. all the way up the neck.

Take your time and enjoy the blues scale in box #1.

HAwkeye



Attached Image

... okay ... to illustrate how the box #1 blues scale can be used to make music ... try to play the following 12 bar blues guitar lead.

Play it slow ... pay attention to those tied notes ... called triplets (one beat is counted 1/2/3, trip-a-lit) ... and take your time.

this entire solo can be played very slowly and soulfully and sounds good ... it can be sped up to a medium shuffle, and is still effective ... and at a fast shuffle is just as useful.

Learn the scale well enough to transpose this 12 bar lead to any key ... move it up to the key of A (fifth fret) ... and work it ... move it to all the frets and all the keys, and work it ... you are not only learning the blues scale ... you are learning some licks/riffs that you can use as part of your 'blues vocabulary' ... a series of notes that you enjoy the sound of and can go to at will ... when creating your own solo ... and you're learning to play blues lead guitar in every key.

Get down on box #1 ...and the 12 br solo tht uses it ... 'cause I'm not going to post box #2 for a long time ... I want you to practice box #1 and the lead exercise until doing it anywhere on the neck is second nature to you.

Have fun along the way.

Hawkeye

Attached Image

page two (2) of Blues In G exercise for 'blues box #1:

Attached Image

thanks hawkeye its printed off and added to the collection.

jaycee,
You're most welcome.
Have fun with the blues box scale #1 ... you should learn the scale ... then the solo presented here to see how the scale is used to created riff/slicks/phrases ... keep the ideas that appeal to you in your head ... and use them in other songs.
Enjoy the freedom (and the discipline) of the blues.
Hawkeye

Ok looking at the tabs what's the dif between a note with a pole and a note with a pole and flag ?
Is there a dif betwwen poles and flags pointing up or down ?
Blues in G #2 the first note 5 on the G string what is the arrow pointing at 3 on the B string ? Hope it's a bend cause in sounds good !

Just need a little help cause I am new and Tabs can be done in different ways.
Thanks,
BlusinBrotherGlenn

Thanks Hawkeye,

I just printed both so I can practice.

BBG,

The direction of the 'poles' doesn't matter ... a 'pole' with a 'flag' is an 1/8 note.

The arrow after the note of the 5th string is a just a bend.

Have fun.

Hawkeye
-----
Randy101,

This solo using blues box #1 at the third fret should serve you well in all keys ... try it in E (at the nut), too ... since you're original question was about the key of E.

Enjoy!

Hawkeye
-----------

Thanks Hawkeye but I'm sure you've heard this one...

"Know how to make a guitar player be quiet?....

.... Just give him the music charts!" - badumbump-crash!

(I'm really envious of the readers - I know it would help me but I've never been able to motivate myself to learn.)

Me too, I would love to be able to read a lead sheet. I've tried with private lessons, but I am totally math phobic and have trouble understanding basic stuff. I've got a patient teacher be even this person is perplexed at my lack of understanding cause "I'm doing it" the stuff I am being taught but, that just comes natural to me. I just can't be taught in a traditional sense. I would love to learn more period.

I think learning is a lifetime path. I started my musical education when I was around 8..my grandmother taught me how to read for the piano. It really helped me with learning other instruments. I am pretty much self taught on the guitar but do know enough theory and read tabs enough to do what I need to do but it's always about learning more - I prefer to watch cats play and ask questions, ask them to show me things, it's my comfort zone..I learn better than way as I think a lot of people do.

It can look intimidating (tabs) but I think it's like anything else...break it down into little steps and before you know it it's making sense. Hawkeye is probably one of the best at pulling it apart and explaining it, so I really hope everyone has book marked this thread.

Thanks for all your comments.
"It's a long and winding road that has no end."
To be sure. I'm always learning more ...every day.

Tablature is just sort of a 'written' way of saying 'put your fingers here and do this' ... which is a bit easier than reading actual music notation.

All of the "In The Style Of ..." lessons I have mposted here at The Trading Post are my efforts to simplify things as musch as possible in various styles.

I didn't learn to read music and charts until I had already been playing the guitar for 25 years ... a gal who I played in a band with had a Sunday jazz brunch gig in the San Fancisco Bay Area ... she played bass and sang ... and she wanted me to play guitar and sing some tunes. A duo. Jazz? Whoa!!! "I can't do that!! ... I love jazz/swing, but I'm not a jazz/swing player" ... she responded, "I know you already are familiar with most all of the songs in the jazz fake book; Ellington, Basie, Waller, Berlin, Porter, Monk, Mingus, Rodgers & Hart, etc., and you know how to improvise blues, rock, and country ... so I think you'll be ble to cut it."

Well, the jazz fake book weighs about 10 lbs ... that was initimdating enough ... but I took a deep breath and figured if she thought I could do it, then maybe I should give it a try ... I started the gig with her worried about everything ... after four weeks I was loving it and was now playing tunes that I knew in my head but would have never been able to play or figure out on my own ... I learned to play in all keys, to improvise in all keys ... to read a chart ... and I even started to understand how the jazz greats like Ellington and others used a 32-bar form and the circle of fifths to create wonderful jazz tunes.

Not only that ... but about one third of the tunes we played were requests ... and so we had to play many tunes right off the top of our heads ... tunes that I may (definitley) not have chosen to learn or play ... it was great fun. I looked forward to doing every gig ... Sunday jazz brunch from 2pm 5pm ... first, a great free meal ... and and l got paid to learn while doing ... I loved it. What else (better) was I going to do on Sunday afternoon? Watch football?

I did that gig for almost 8 years!!! Yep, every Sunday for 8 years, is over 400 gigs just in that one club/restaurant ... and I was also playing blues, in bands and solo, almost every other night of the week onm other locations. I only gave up that jazz brunch gig when I started touring nationally, in 1985 ... and I was then unable to be in town on a regular basis to fulfill the commitment. Thanks to the gal bass player/vocalist for having more faith in me than I had in myself ... every jazz brunch gig with her was a visit to "the college of musical knowledge."

"It's a long and winding road that has no end."

Cheers,

Hawkeye