Hey, guys. Claude Johnson here and today I want to talk about
creating your own blues licks and understanding phrasing.
We’ll use the A major pentatonic scale today. Usually in a lot
of the examples I like to use the A minor pentatonic, which has
a certain sound to it. So today we’re going to be using A major
pentatonic, a very different sound.
So here’s where we’re going to do a little exercise to try to
get you going with this. You’re going to use the A string as a
drone note. You just hit the open A and it provides a nice kind
of background noise, a harmonic context.
Here’s the first lick you can do. You hit the A string and then
do this. This is going to be 2nd fret of the D string with your
1st fret; 4th fret on the D string with your ring finger and
then 2nd fret of the G string. What I’m doing here is called
a hammer-on. I’m going to be picking the first note, hammer-on
and then… So the whole thing is like this. You can give that
little note a shake. I go over some of these basic concepts,
if you’re not familiar with hammer-ons, vibrato, just check-out
guitarcontrol.com/secrets. I go over all that great stuff.
But the point here is you want to try to feel that. You can
experiment with the rhythm. It could go… Or you could go…
Or you could go… And you can repeat notes. For example,
repeat the last note. Or repeat the middle note. Or repeat
this note. There’s no wrong way. Just try to feel it out.
Now you’re going to go to the next note. Hear how that sounds?
Now try to go back to the first one. Try alternating. Now try
going up one more. You can slide up. So now we’re on the 6th
fret G string. You can go up like this if you want. The next
note of the scale would be this. And the next note of the scale
would be F sharp up here, but we’ll just do this one, or…
So let’s review: first one, second one, third one, fourth one
and fifth one. Just try hitting that A string anytime you want
and just start here and just play whatever you want. What you’re
actually doing when you’re doing this is you’re playing little
melodies. A melody is just a couple notes put together. You’re
learning how to play melodies and the idea is to experiment with
it so you feel free.
I hope that was helpful. I guess I’ll catch you in the next video.
Take care.
