This is the most aspiring subject for musicians, but probably the hardest to learn.
We will talk about blues improvisation in this section, observing the various shades that can be derived, starting with the pentatonic scale. But first of all, I would like to make some clarifications.
The blues, like jazz, has always been tied to improvisation. There is even a saying that says: "if you don't know how to play the blues you are not (in our specific case) a guitarist". I don't want to start a debate with this, seeing many guitarists play without having a bluesman career behind them. As already explained in the introductory page of this section, the blues is at the base of all modern music. All musicians (rock, jazz, fusion, etc.) passed from the blues. In the 1990's the blues made a real comeback from the end of the 1960's. But it has probably been this sector that has suffered the most, due to a return in the search for "vintage" sounds. And in fact, most manufacturers have instruments in their catalogs that use typical characteristics of the 50's and 60's. Now there are even companys that specialize in this sector. Lets continue with blues improvisation.
The blues and the pentatonic scale
The pentatonic minor, which has an entire section devoted to it, is the fundamental scale for the blues, but also for many other musical types such as country, jazz and rock. We will try to deal with this subject in an exponential way, seeing we will find ourselves talking about other musical types that are tied to the blues.
We assume you have the basic knowledge of the pentatonic scale: if needed, the pentatonic section shows the basic fingerings.
The fundamental question is this: why the pentatonic scale and not, for instance, the major scale? This is a critical point which needs to be explained, even if all it takes is to hear a sound that merits a dominant chord to understand its qualities. This requires a close theoretical and harmonic examination.
As already shown, the dominant chord is the chord that is most commonly used in blues. This is due to the melodic line that is created with respect to the minor pentatonic scale. The intervals that gain importance within the scale are the third and seventh minors. The third minor interval creates tension with the third major interval of the dominant chord: this is one of the main characteristics for the use of the pentatonic minor in a dominant chord.
Before analyzing and studying a series of phrasings, initially based on the pentatonic scale, we should first develop some basic blues improvisation techniques. We are talking about bending, the release, the vibrato, the legato and the slide.
These are analyzed in depth at their respective pages. For those who are not familiar with these ways of playing the guitar, I reccomend you look closely at the information contained in these pages before moving on to the study of the phrasings.
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