Constructing A Good Blues Solo

All scales are in C concert. All scales to be played ascending and descending and over entire range of your instrument.

In this column I am going to give you some basic scales that are used over blues progressions and from which blues riffs are developed. In the end analysis, what makes a good blues solo is a particular player's phrasing, tone and emotion, but before we get to that point we need to know what notes to play and where to play them, and by listening to other players we can create our own blues ideas.

The starting point for playing blues is the blues scale (see A). (For ease of explanation, we are using the key of C. All 12 bar blues and various scales can be …