Blues – Advanced Improvisation Concepts

by Hanspeter Kruesi of GuitarTricks.com

Blues - Advanced Improvisation Concepts

This is a lesson about advanced improvisation concepts on blues. It shows how you can play 3 different scales on any 12 bar or other blues.

The blues pattern I use here has the following chord progression:

D / D / D / D
G / G / D / D
A / G / D / D

The scales which can be used are:

D minor pentatonic
D blues scale
D, G and A mixolydian scale.

You can play the following scales on the following chords:

D : D minor pentatonic, D blues scale, D mixolydian scale
G : D minor pentatonic, D blues scale, G mixolydian scale
A : D minor pentatonic, D blues scale, A mixolydian scale

On the Guitar Tricks site I have a whole bundle of licks which might give you some additional inspiration. Each lick is marked as pentatonic or mixolydian lick in the description. When you transpose a pentatonic lick you have to transpose it to the key of the blues you are playing. When you transpose a mixolydian lick you have to transpose it to the chord you want to improvise.