Fusion Blues Tutorial

8/15/2019 Fusion Blues Tutorial

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Fusion Blues: - Modern Lines For The Advancing Blues Player

Welcome to this tutorial and thank you for your interest in this lesson. As

a guitar player I’m sure the Blues is something dear to your heart and a

genre you’ll be very familiar with. What I want to present to you today is

a ‘fusion’ based approach to soloing over a standard blues progression.

By standard I mean a basic I, IV, V chord sequence. This is the ‘Blues’

variant that most people will be familiar with and simply means that we

will use dominant 7th

chords built from the 1st, 4

th and 5

th degrees of the

key that we are in.

Throughout the tutorial we will be using minor pentatonic, chord tone

ideas, mixolydian scales, melodic minor scales and diminished ideas. All

will be explained and their application described. Refer to the video

demonstrations of each lick for details of phrasing and fingerings. Many16

th note ideas and triplet lines will be utilised using modern techniques

and phrasing devices.

We’ll be dealing with a 12 bar blues in the key of G. The structure looks

as follows,

G7 / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

C7 / / / | / / / / | G7 / / / | / / / / |

D7 / / / | C7 / / / | G7 / / / | D7 / / / |

Even with a simple structure like this there is a great deal we can do to

create interest and a more modern sound.

The most common approach to soloing over a blues progression is to use

the ‘minor pentatonic’ scale built from the root of the key that we’re in.

In this case we would use a Gm Pentatonic or Blues scale. This is a great

approach in that it gives us a very ‘bluesy’ sound, full of blues

vocabulary. The term ‘vocabulary’ is used in a musical context in much

the same way it is in a language one. In order to sound ‘bluesy’ we playcertain licks and lines that have arisen over the decades people have been

exploring and developing blues phrasing. The larger your vocabulary, the

more interesting and free you’ll be as an improviser.

In this tutorial I want to take your vocabulary beyond the standard

pentatonic territory, giving you a set of ideas to both outline each chord

and push further to imply ideas that aren’t even in the original chord

progression. Some of the licks require a high level of technique and co-

ordination. By starting very slowly and practicing accurately on a daily basis the speed element will eventually take care of itself. Once you’ve







Blues Solo Number 1: - Modern 16th Note Solo

When we think of the blues we tend to think of long, vocal phrases with screaming bends and emotive nuances. Phrasing tends to be very much based within the

pentatonic scale and the time feel is loose, floating over the bar-line. This is the style

of blues that most of us are very familiar with but I want to introduce another, morestructured phrasing approach.

Jazz players tend to play blues with a much stricter rhythmic approach than straight blues players would, using 16th and 8th note lines. The goal with these lines is to

outline the harmony of each chord as it passes by and create tension and release

within that harmonic framework. As a ‘fusion based’ blues improviser, we can usethis approach to inform our lines and this first solo takes 16 th notes as its base for each

phrase.

The solo is broken up into 6 Licks that I will analyse here for you. Once youunderstand the concept used in these lines, try to use them in your own line writing

and perhaps keep a ‘diary’ of phrases that you like and try to apply them to as manymusical scenarios as you can.

Lick 1

This first lick is based almost entirely on the use of chord tones, derived from a G7

chord. When using the G minor pentatonic scale over our G7 we outline the root, 5th

and 7th of the chord but not the major 3rd. Instead we get a minor 3rd and it is this note

that gives us our characteristic ‘blues’ sound when played against the major 3 rd of the

chord. We can use this to our advantage by playing the minor and major 3rd

off

against one another and this is precisely how the lick starts. I bend from the minor 3 rd

of the G7 chord (contained within the G minor pentatonic scale), up a semitone to themajor 3rd contained within the G7 chord. This is what you would term ‘blues

vocabulary’ in that it sounds inherently ‘bluesy’. The line continues on beats 2,3 and

4 of the bar, based on 16th notes lines, with nothing but chord tones outlining the root,

3rd, 5th and 7th of the chord. These are explained on the video for you if you’re not

sure where chord tones occur on the guitar. Each time I play the 3 rd of the chord it’s

preceded by the minor 3rd from the minor pentatonic scale. I really want to make the

most of that blues vocabulary. By using the chord tones we really outline the sound of

the chord and create strong sounding lines.

In bar 2 I slide up to the 3rd of the chord adding the 6th (E) into my chord tone line on

the 3rd 16th note of beat one. At the end of the bar I bend up from F# to the root noteG. Playing a semitone behind the note you want and bending up to your target pitch is

a great phrasing device that adds a ‘bluesier’ feel to your lines.

Lick 2

Lick 2 starts where Lick 1 left off using the same bending technique of targeting anote from a semitone below. In this case it’s A# bending up to the 3 rd of the chord B. I

then proceed up chromatically to the 5th of the chord D. This is another classic blues

vocabulary phrase, playing chromatically from the 3rd to the 5th. I’m sure you’ll

recognise the sound. The bend at the beginning just gives it some new life. Next I

play a pure pentatonic phrase, creating some tension with the minor 3rd

/major 3rd

clash of the pentatonic against the chord played in the backing track. I do a very quick



slide into the G root note and pull off to the 7 th. I then repeat the phrase a 5th lower

before doing a classic sliding, pull-off lick. The last beat of this bar resolves back to

the major 3rd of the chord

The second bar of this lick utilises a G Superlocrian or Altered scale. This is the 7 th

mode of the Ab melodic minor scale and is used in this context to create tension before the chord change to the C7 chord in bar 5. See the ‘Scale Compendium’ at theend of the tutorial for more on this scale. This lick outlines the b9, #9 and b5 of the

G7 chord and gives an awesome ‘outside’ feel to the lick that resolves beautifullywhen the C7 chord comes in. Check out my tutorial ‘Blues – The I-IV Movement’ for

more information on this kind of playing. Be careful with the fingering in this bar asyou can very easily wrap your fingers in knots by mistake!

Lick 3

Here we’ve moved to the C7 chord and this lick outlines the chord tones of that

particular chord – C, E, G and Bb. The lick starts with a slide up from the b3 to the 3rd

of the chord and this acts as our resolution from the very ‘outside’ sounding

Superlocrian scale in the previous bar. When using a Superlocrian scale in this way,

always try to resolve your lines onto a chord tone in the next bar. This way your

resolution will be strong and the audience will be more convinced of your ‘outside’

moment. On beat 3 a bend up from the 9th

(D) to the 3rd

(E). The lick finishes with a

bend from A (the 6th) up a semitone to Bb (the b7th) of the chord. Again, almost

everything here is a chord tone.

Lick 4

This lick starts on beat 3 of bar 6 over the C7 chord, but outlines a G7 sound, pre-

empting the G7 in bar 7. I bend up from A# to B (minor to major 3rd against the G7again) and include a very quick slide up to the 5 th at the end of the bar. Pre-empting a

chord change in this way creates an element of tension and release with

sophistication. It works best in beat 3 or 4 of the previous bar; just before the chord

change occurs. In bar 7 we start with a fast trill between that all-important minor to

major 3rd combination before descending down a standard minor pentatonic lick.

Lick 5

Lick 5 starts on beat 4 of bar 8 and again pre-empts the D7 chord that it is based on. I

start by ascending a D7 arpeggio from the root up to the 7th

. The rest of the bar is

based on chord tones again (you may be getting the idea here that I’m not thinkingabout scales here as much as chord tones) but with an interesting twist. Each time I gofrom the root to the b7th I move between them chromatically filling in the semitone in

the middle.

The second bar of this lick is an intervallic lick over the C7 chord. It is based onsliding 5ths moving up the A and D strings finishing with a ‘dirty blues bend’.

Intervallic lines sound naturally strong as the listener has an interval thread to follow

aurally. Notice how the last note of the phrase holds over the bar line to become the b7 of the G7 chord.



Lick 6

The final lick of this solo starts over the G7 chord in bar 11 and is a basic minor

pentatonic phrase. In this case I stick with the minor 3rd

of the scale and don’t resolveit up to the major 3rd of the chord.

Bar 12 is over a D7 chord and I use another Superlocrian scale here. In this case it’s a

D Superlocrian scale (the 7th mode of Eb Melodic Minor). The lick starts with a

chromatic, bebop style phrase and then descends down the same 4-note motif playedin 3 different octaves, outlining the b9, b7th, #5 and b5 of the chord. This phrase then

resolves to the root of the G7 chord at the end of the solo, but instead of playing theroot directly I bend up to it from a semitone below.









Blues No 2: - Adding Rhythmic & Harmonic Interest

16th note lines are superb for outlining each chord as we found in the first solo, butwe could perhaps do with some more interesting rhythmic playing. This second solo

is again built from a 16th

note feel but adds some rhythmic variety and some cool

harmonic devices such as chromaticism, diminished scales and ‘outside’ playing. I’veeven included a country lick for good measure.

Lets look at each lick in turn.

Lick 1

We start on the 16th

note before the start of bar one. Because the first note starts onthe weakest part of the beat we can play a chromatic note here leading up to the 5 th of

the G7 chord in bar 1. I proceed up an F major 7 arpeggio and then down 3 triads – a

G, F+ and Asus4 triad. These triads come from a G Lydian Dominant scale. (see the

scale compendium for the Lydian Dominant). The Lydian Dominant scale contains all

the same notes as a Mixolydian Scale but the 11 th has been sharpened to a #11. The#11 sounds great over the G7 chord. This is a harmonic device employed by players

such as Miles Davis, Robben Ford and Scott Henderson all the time. You can also tryusing a C Lydian Dominant scale over the C7 chord.

The lick finishes with a chromatic run around the 3rd of the G7 chord. This is another

classic jazz vocabulary line and is a great one for your arsenal. This lick is basedentirely on 16th notes with no rests.

Lick 2

Here’s the first of our rhythmic licks based around a G7 sound. Here I employ 16

th

note rests to create a broken rhythm that may take some practice to play tightly. As

with the previous solo I move from the b3 to the major 3rd of the G7 chord and then

move chromatically from the b7 to the root. The last part of the bar is based on a Gm

Pentatonic scale but uses open strings for interest and a triplet to break up the rhythm.

In bar 5 I use a country guitar technique for playing G Mixolydian scale utilising openstrings for a rolling, hybrid picking sound. The G Mixolydian scale outlines a G7

chord and the last part of the phrase is a G7 arpeggio ending on the root note. Try tosustain the B (9th fret), D (7th fret) as you hammer on from F to G at the end of the

phrase.

Lick 3

Lick 3 starts on the 9th

of the C7 chord and descends chromatically to the root note. Iemploy a semitone below bending technique at the 9th fret for a bluesy nuance. The

final part of the bar is a sneaky side stepping, outside phrase based on 4 th intervals.This resolves up to the root note (C) in bar 7 and then moves around a G Mixolydian

phrase with some chromatic elements. The fingering on this last section is a little

tricky but it helps with the position shifts so persevere for best results.

Lick 4

Here we have a pure pentatonic phrase using position 1 of a G Minor Pentatonicscale. I’m using 16th note triplets so start slowly and make sure you’re playing











Blues No. 3 – Modern Diminished Blues

I hinted in solo number two at the use of the diminished scale in blues soloing. Thediminished scale is unusual in that it is constructed from 8 notes as opposed to the 7

we are used to with major and minor scales and the 5 of the pentatonic scale. The

scale is one of a family known as the ‘symmetrical scales’ in that it is constructed of arepeating intervallic structure. It is made from a repeating series of semitones and

tones giving us the sequence ST-T-ST-T-ST-T-ST-T. The scale is useful for the blues

for a number of reasons but lets look at its harmonic nature first and find out how it

functions over our G7 chord (chord I).

We use the diminished scale built from the Root of the chord we are playing over soG diminished fits over a G7 chord. Using our semitone/tone structure, we get the

following notes from G,

G – Ab – Bb – B – C# - D – E – F

Written as a series of intervals against the G7 chord we get,

Root – b9th - #9th – 3rd

– b5th – 5th – 6th

(13th

) – b7th

This gives us the G7 arpeggio with all chord tones – R, 3, 5, b7th and then four

tension tones – b9, #9, b5 and 6 or 13.

What we can create using these notes is a fantastic ‘inside/outside’ sound using the

inside sounding chord tones of the G7 arpeggio, embellished with the outside

sounding tension sounds of the other 4 notes. Just be careful how you use the tension

tones – if you stay on them for too long we hear more tension (outside) than chord

tones (inside) and the focus of the chord sound is lost, meaning you’ll sound lost too.Try to resolve each of your lines to a chord tone for best effect. The exception to this

rule is the 6th or 13th which will sound great if you finish the line on it.

There is a further bonus to using the diminished scale contained within its symmetry.

Any ideas that you play can be repeated up or down the neck every three frets (up or

down a minor 3rd

). You’ll see this idea used in the solo below quite a bit. This makesrepeating an idea very easy as you simply need to play the same idea up or down the

neck at each three fret interval. There are many cool shapes and structures that can be built from the diminished scale that would take a whole tutorial to go through on their

own. I will be doing an extensive diminished tutorial in the future but for now I

suggest checking out the scale in the scale compendium at the end of this tutorial andlearning the shapes and intervals, coming up with some interesting lines of your own.

The diminished scale can be played over any of the chords in the blues. Simply use

the diminished scale starting from the root of the chord you are playing over.

Lets check out the licks and break down what’s happening. We’ll be looking for all

the chord tones and tension tones contained within the scale.

Lick 1

This starts on the 5th (D) and uses the b5th and 6th tension tones (C# and E

respectively). At the end of the first bar I sustain the 7

th

(F) against the 6

th

to furtherincrease the tension in the phrase. You hear jazz guys such as Adam Rogers and Bill



Frisell do this all the time. In the second part of the phrase (bar 3) I start on the b9

interval and drop the whammy bar to create a Scott Henderson type phrase. The line

then proceeds through the root and b7, sliding up to the 6th or 13th for more tension.

Lick 2

Here’s the first of our sequenced ideas using major 6 th shapes moved around in minor

3rd and tritone intervals (a tritone is two minor 3 rd intervals). The listener will follow

the phrase because of the constant 6th

shape. For maximum effect try to let each notein the 6th shape ring together to increase the tension. The second bar of this lick is a

repeated bending phrase moved up a minor 3rd

from the 14th

fret to the 17th

. Again,I’m using the symmetrical nature of the diminished scale to its best effect. Notice the

resolution of the lick to the 5th

and 3rd

of the C7 in the following bars. The resolutionreally helps to solidify the original idea.

Lick 3

This is a tricky lick consisting of a series of bends around the chord tones of a C7chord. As in the previous two solos, rather than just playing each chord tone, I bend

up to certain notes from either a tone or semitone below to add more phrasing interest.

This is an interesting way to create music out of arpeggios rather than just running

arpeggio shapes in a more boring and predictable manner.

The second half of the lick occurs over the G7 chord and is comprised of all major 6th

shapes again, sequenced down through the diminished scale giving us inside and

outside sounds as we go down the neck. I love this kind of sound and it really adds a

modern, fusion element to your lines.

Lick 4

I mix things up a bit here over the D7 chord and move away from the diminished

scale, preferring to use the D Superlocrian scale instead. Too much of one thing can

become boring and predictable so try mixing harmonic ideas up for the best results.

Things speed up with some 16th note triplet legato lines and tricky ‘in-time’ bends.

Over the C7 in the following bar I return to a diminished scale idea, starting with

chord tones and moving back to my thematic 6th’s idea moving up through a C

diminished scale. Again, notice how I resolve the idea back to the chord tones (5th

and3rd) of the C7 chord.

Lick 5

In bar 12, over the G7 chord, I start on the root note (G) and bend up a major 3 rd from

the note A# (the b3) to D (the 5th

). This is classic Scott Henderson territory and I mustadmit my intonation here requires some work. This is a really tricky bend and I have

extra tension on my 10 gauge strings due to tuning my B and E strings to C and F. Inthe videos I am in standard tuning however.

The lick is finished with a symmetrical idea based around the tension tones within the

G Diminished scale, sequenced down the neck in tritone intervals. I finally come to

resolve on the root note of the G7 chord.









Pentatonic Expansion Blues: -

The three previous blues solos have all been very much based on

outlining each chord using a number of different scales and approaches

based on tension and release scale choices. For our final solo I want to

introduce a concept that I closer to the standard pentatonic approach but

still outlines each chord and creates tension on the V chord leading backto the I chord.

The basis of this approach is to extend our basic Gm Pentatonic scale byadding one extra note or substituting one of the existing notes for another

note. The nature of the minor pentatonic is that is contains a minor 3rd

,

giving us a great blues sound but not outlining the major 3rd

of the G7 I

chord. For the G7 we are going to add the major 3rd

(in this case B) into

the Gm pentatonic giving us a 6-note hybrid scale containing both theminor and major 3

rd. It is this juxtaposition of major and minor that gives

the characteristic blues tonality. We’ll call this scale the G7 pentatonic.

We don’t need an official name for this scale – we just need to add a

major 3rd

to the Gm pentatonic scale. Make note of how I use the minor

and major 3rd

. Usually I will lead from the minor to the major 3rd

tooutline the G7 sound with a bluesy inflection.

For the IV chord, C7, we will add the 6th, E, into the Gm pentatonic scale.

The E is the 3rd

of the C7 chord and now each chord tone of the C7 is

outlined in our 6-note scale. From the C root note our new hybrid scaleoutlines the Root, 9

th, 3

rd, 4

th, 5

th and 7

th of the chord. You can visualise

this scale from either the C root if looking from the perspective of the

chord (C7) or from the G root if looking from the perspective of the Gm pentatonic scale.

For the V chord, D7, we’re going to substitute a note instead of adding

one. If we take the root note of the Gm Pentatonic and move it back a

semitone to Gb (A#) we get a great 5-note scale that resembles the

pentatonic shape we’re all so used to but outlines a D7 chord with sometension notes added for colour. This scale outlines the following intervals

against the D7 chord, Root, #9 (b3), 3rd

, #5 (b6), b7. Try taking your

standard blues licks and applying them to this scale, using the same shapeto your lines but changing the notes to fit the D7 chord.

The idea behind these hybrid pentatonic scales is to easily learn the new

scale shapes and quickly gain the ability to outline each chord withouthaving to learn lots of complex scale shapes.

Good luck with the solo.











Blues Scale Choices Chart

The following scale charts outline some available scale choices for

playing over the blues backing tracks provided with this tutorial. Each ofthese scales is used at some point during the transcribed solos.

There is a huge amount of information here and it would be unwise to

attempt to digest it too quickly. Try to learn the sound of each scale and

use one at a time so you don’t become over-whelmed. Everyone learns

scale shapes in slightly different ways and there is no right or wrong

method but one thing I would certainly recommend is to learn the

intervals within the scale and how they look in relation to the root note in

each position. Fretboard knowledge is your friend and you should spend

as much time as you can trying to learn where each scale lives and where

each interval within that scale is. Only this way will you truly be in

control of your note choice and changes playing.

Good luck with this information and playing some killer blues solos!

Tom





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Fusion Blues Tutorial