Here’s a man who, in the past, ed has done 342 one-night stands eee in a year - the life of Riley, eh? Hetil rg Lesson by Lee Hodgson iley B King was born in Indianola, Mississippi ‘on September 16th, 1925. His early influences included his cousin Bukka White, Blind Lemon For a variety of interesting collaborations, eee Jefferson, Lannie Jonnson, Robert ied Nighthawk, not forgetting jazz Friends or the Guitarists Charlie Christian and more recent Django Reinhart Deuces Wild, B's fondness for jazz and Classic 88 sophisticated accompaniment (he includes the used an orchestra back in the 50s, legendary and a 13 piece band in the early Live at The 60s) means that his older tunes are Regal often in the jazzier keys of Bh, Ds, Es The “Biase or even A, ~ certain brass, Boy’ or BB Instruments are not at ‘concert moniker was pitch and the players are typically apparently thinking up a tone to the rest of the ‘given to King band (an effect otherwise achieved byatfellow DJ, by drinking strong English ale!) Don Kern, in Yet BB King has gone on to play the tate 40s, Ina diversity of styles and sub- genres. Being spoilt for choice then, for this month's lesson I've opted for ‘ebme aol the rather jazzy, upbeat ‘ump’ blues. true flue not. = Ablue noteisa Here it's essentially major as If by some chance you haven't ‘marginally sharp o9Posed to minor but, as every been following Geoff's Blues or flat 2d scale step blues guitarist should know, foreing you missed Dave K's ‘Essential = though the the minor flattened 3rd against the Blues Licks’ back in Apri, then | demonle flat Sth backing is generally to 0€ -uess you might appreciate the 's blue toot encouraged while occasionally Bb minor pentatonic and blues tweaking that note sharp to create a scale diagrams. B) minor pentatonic scale 1's Seale Fragments “ “s « o 78 © Guitar Techniques August 1998CONTEC ‘Traditionally, blues guitar should be relatively undistorted. Yet BB sometimes err rir ete eee) BB often favours a variation of the pentatonic scale wiere the sweeter ‘sounding 6th scale step is substituted for tho .7 (see diagrams: scale fragments). Interestingly enough, Robben Ford is fond of that particular variant too. BB King occasionally hints at the Mixolydian scale: B King Blues Cartton) as heard on the GTCD. Pee ee ees Se aur Quarter Pounder (staggered pole, RWRP) In parallel with bridge position Van Ee eee men) Be p BF GA cai a Downplaying scales for @ moment. the likes (of BE King and Peter Green would much rather hear elegant phrases ~ Peter, indeed, hnas even voiced his dislike of ‘licks’. Itis ‘more human ~ more vocal at least - to create a wholesome musical idea than to Pee ence CRT ce reer eee Our Ce ey Dr ecu cd ‘merely throw snippets together. Any great ‘bluesman’s mission is surely to play the ‘minimum of notes and yet tell a story oF touch the audience at some deep emotional level. Strve to get inside a note... | know it's a strange concept, but it's one that may be seen in effect in other art forms ~ for ‘example, when a great actor ‘becomes’ the ‘character he is playing. August 1998, Guitar Techniques © 79Bu Mu Bu H oo] e 19-46) 06) 5 a c 0 Fi a x = wae ap straight 1716 — > sigh bee be? a7 (Piano lick here) stony bering best — ey ey * mai? against IV dom7 chor! 80 © Guitar Techniques August 1998rac BU, August 1998 Guitar Techniques © 81.*® GTCD wack 40 — stenght 116 — “e matalgh 8 i Sees > St See ——— a 8 H FO Ls - | - eo, — | Ae = BAT) 8B rarely plays chords! Bearing that in chord diagrams here which are piano parts. mind, you may stil wish to check out the approximations of some of the brass or Chord diagrams Elo EW” ere gor, care 6 e $ @ ¢ @ ole ole Boor Fae Agro ooo 1 ons aB48 82 © Guitar Techniques August 1998Ending (brass arranged for guitar) GTCD track 40 € BTA, 8i°7 Ejmsrc) E,m6/G CIE) e[[@ «(Tele O16 9 yore cae aces aces a35t ea BSie Bete & Boor BD (0m7;5)noroot — _(Fm)no root ole e “e105: tos erie é Deo wer m3 eS 5 ao oS Chord chart arrangement 100 (em eam ‘aa fe ab(7) | Fz | ee ip ab [rr iL B) ENDING ] 123 aE ae ee In closing, try to absorb the ‘moves that an artist makes. In preparation for the CD lesson | seribbled dawn some patterns, not ‘in musie/TAB form but as simple scale step (formula) ideas meandering up and down the page in accordance with the various ‘contours’ that I regularly hear in BB's playing; things like hiting a high root note; bending the 5th to the @th or stretching further to the flat 7th; dropping from the root through the 6th, via the b3rd to the lower root etc. August 1998 Guitar Techniques © 83