Hi, my name is Mark and this website is a dedicated to blues guitar improvisation. You will find links to various blues songs I have play along to and I have tried to explain my thought on playing blues. I hope you find this website interesting.
Below is a video of me playing a blues guitar solo.
When you start playing solos and thinking of the arrangement of a solo, how to build up and release tension, you need a basic set of Blues licks to start with. A lick contains a few notes which belong together like words in a sentence and have special meaning or express a certain feeling. In a solo you can use all these licks as a base, combining them and using additional notes. "Steal" what you like, from different musicians or different styles, and put it together playing it in your own way - this is standard in Blues music. It's good to have a big repertoire of licks for each situation, so that you can instantly start playing and tell the audience what you want to tell. Just learning to combine words so that others understand what you're meaning. This is quite different than most other guitar styles, where you start with learning a scale and then play ready-made songs from a sheet of paper. A good Blues guitar player doesn't need to be fast - he needs to know when to play which note like a good storyteller without a book. Lingering on a note is often effective, as is vibrato. And to make the blues solo more interesting, try adding in some minor or 7th notes.
I have improvised the blues guitar solos and tried to put feeling into the notes. Please click the buttons to play.
Blue Days
If you would like to contact me, please email mark@bluesguitarsolo.com