One of my favourite tracks from my Modern Rock Guitar Soloing book is a blues pop-style ballad in the key of C# minor, combining musical elements typical of John Mayer and Pink Floyd in the A and B sections, respectively.
The rhythm guitar part follows the changes with some very sparse, lightly fingerpicked triads. There’s the occasional little melodic embellishment, but I’m really trying to be light and intentional with what I play. I’ve added a bit of reverb and tremolo to sweeten up the sound, along with a Wurlitzer piano and an ambient pad giving some texture throughout the track.
This track can be a great vehicle for minor pentatonic and blues scale language. Although there’s lots of harmonic movement in the B section, the C# minor pentatonic (C#-E-F#-G#-B) and C# blues (C#-E-F#-G-G#-B) scales can give you a lot of mileage if you let your ear guide you through the changes.
As an E major chord features prominently in the A section, this is the perfect opportunity to practice some pentatonic conversions by visualising your C# minor pentatonic shapes as E major pentatonic (E-F#-G#-B-C#).
The only time that you’ll run into trouble with the minor pentatonic scale is when the diminished chords crop up at the end of the B section. All you have to do here is take the b7th of the minor pentatonic and raise it a semitone to a major 7th. Although it’s just for half a bar, hitting the major 7th will really add the tension and functionality of the diminished chord to your line.
Now let’s explore these concepts lick by lick before putting them together in a pair of extended 32-bar solos.
Technique focus
If you analyse my playing from tabs alone, you’ll see some seemingly random picking directions. You might notice short spells of double downstrokes or repeated upstrokes.
This is a system I’ve developed called RDAP (Rhythmically Dependant Alternate Picking), where I maintain a strict alternate picking motion with downstrokes on downbeats and upstrokes on upbeats – this locks me in physically with any even subdivision.
With that metronomic motion established in my picking hand, I choose whether to strike the string or ghost past it depending on the line. You’ll notice how this tightens things rhythmically. So, those periods of prolonged upstrokes are played that way because those notes are falling on upbeats and are filled with ghosted downstrokes in-between.
Lick 1
This first lick starts with a three-string pentatonic sequence that I move across the string sets. The lick is derived not from a melodic idea but a shape. The pentatonic fingerings we all know and love are two-notes-per string scales, and the pattern for this example comes from taking that observation and being creative with it.
Lick 2
Lick 2 is a Joe Bonamassa-style cascade applied to C# minor pentatonic plus the 9th (D#), with some added blue-note inflections on the way down and a liberal use of pull-offs for a smooth sound. The lick ends with a soulful blues ‘curl’ on the minor 3rd (E), followed by a singing vibrato on the tonic (C#).
Lick 3
Here we have another application of the minor-pentatonic-plus-9th scale over the C#m chord. This might not be immediately apparent, as I use larger intervals and add a chromatic embellishment on beat 3 of the first bar: an example of how concepts can be tied together to create an idea greater than the sum of its parts.
Lick 4
This David Gilmour-inspired idea starts with a four-note sequence across three strings, designed to sound typically smooth and delicate. During the highest octave of the opening phrase there’s a pedal note at the 12th fret of the second string. This stops the phrase from sounding too sequential and repetitive.
Lick 5
Our final lick features lots of ear-catching chromaticism in the style of the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. When learning this lick, do not try and compartmentalise it into a scale.
Chromaticism is a different thought process, and you’ll be pulling your hair out trying to find a scale that contains all of these notes. Django felt his music instinctively, so aim to do the same as you play this idea, while being aware of where the root note and other chord tones lie within it.
Intermediate solo
Now let’s put this lesson’s concepts to work in an extended solo, starting with some call-and-response phrases of increasing complexity. Some of the solo’s highlights include some Texas blues–style bending in bars 10-11, an exciting interplay between legato and staccato articulations in bar 19, and a Steve Lukather-inspired bend in bar 27, similar to the one that he plays in Toto’s Rosanna.
Advanced solo
This more advanced solo starts with a melody that lays the foundation for what’s to come, including an Eric Johnson-approved lick in bar 12 and a Frank Gambale-inspired altered line over the Cdim7 chord in bar 24, among other compelling moments.
Once you’ve learned both solos, be sure to use them as inspiration for your own blues ballad improvisations, just as I have done from listening to my own guitar-playing influences. Have fun!
- Modern Rock Guitar Soloing is out now via GuitarVivo.
