How To Play Blues Intros in the Style of Eric Clapton


Hey, how’s it going, this is Jon McLennan with Guitar Control, today’s topic
is Blues Intros. This is something that I picked up from Eric Clapton, but it’s been played by thousands and thousands of blues artist and it’s a piece of the language. So you’re going to practice this and right away if I pick up a guitar and play this lick, there’s no doubt about it that it’s the blues. Here we go.

Blues Intros in the Style of Eric Clapton - Blues Guitar Lesson

We’re in the key of A, A blues, and we’re going to start actually up on an A7 triad, which looks like this, a three-note A7 chord: 9, 8, 9; E, G, C sharp are those notes. I slide into it like this. And then I’m going to just drop it down in half steps. Here’s A flat 7, G7, resolving to an A triad here, no 7th involved. I play the 5th, 5th, 5th here and I quick hammer into the 6th.


So that’s the flat 3rd again, going to the major 3rd, which is just this ubiquitous sound that we hear in the blues, all that stuff. And then leading into the 5 chord, which you can play like this: 7, 6, 7, 5. Once again, from the top. There’s the basic lick. If you want to make it a little bit more intense going to the 1 chord, you could make it augmented, a la “Stormy Monday”.
So this would be 7, 6, 5, 5. And then, of course, resolving to the A7. So check it out.

Blues Guitar Lessons

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *