B.B. King Blues Licks Made Easy

Today I want to bust a myth floating around out there in the guitar world about guitar solos! For some reason a lot of players, especially ones that are newer to improvising often think, “Well to really be doing it, I have to be able to play up and down my entire guitar neck”, or “I'm not really a soloist until I've mastered all the positions of my pentatonic scales, and blues scales etc.”

Maybe they had a teacher tell them in a lesson, well if you want to solo you’ve got to learn more theory first. I love how often guitar players speak of music theory as if it's some magic pill. Like “oh yeah just learn more theory, and then it will all make sense, and you’ll be able to solo.”

While that stuff isn’t going to hurt you, and yes, if you want to become a complete zen master musical guru than by all means study it all.

However, is it necessary to know a lot if you just want to start playing some licks or trying a solo today. 

Friend the answer is, no!

Think about this, a lot of great blues players learned by osmosis, and by just being around other great musicians. They didn’t go to music school, or take online courses like the programs on my site that teach you how to accomplish specific guitar goals fast and step-by-step. They didn’t have access to the internet.

So in contrast to all the guitar players saying learn all the positions on the guitar, and learn all the scale patterns etc I want to share with you this special video of B.B. King jamming with Jerry Reed. 

Now these two guitar players are absolute guitar legends and each in their own way. And in this video you'll see B.B. trading licks with Jerry, and B.B. plays an entire blues solo barely even moving his fretting hand the whole time. In his solo B.B:

🚫Does not use every position of the neck
🚫Does not use exotic scales or arpeggios
🚫Does not use a ton of crazy techniques 

He keeps it super simple and just stays in one area of the neck, and focuses on jamming.

He focuses on key musical areas like:

• Listening to the band
• Following the leader
• Play tastefully and not getting in the way
• Using short rhythmic phrases

So next I want to share and break down 3 of these blues guitar licks that demonstrate how B.B. pulls this off. 

3 Awesome B.B. King Style Blues Licks

Keep in mind that this is a 12-bar blues progression in the key of A. Example 1 slides into the 11th fret on the 3rd string. Then bounces back and forth from the 2nd and 3rd strings creating a little momentum in the sequence, and then concluding with a bend on the 12th fret of the second string.

B.B. in this lick is combining eighth notes with quarter notes and playing out of his typical “B.B. Box position.” This is one of his home base positions for his expressive and soulful style.

In example 2 B.B. goes higher in pitch and does a bend on the 12th fret of the 1st string, and then comes down the scale. The first two notes have little rests in between, and then you end with 2 quarter notes.

This gives the rhythm a nice skip to it with the syncopation, but then lands on direct downbeats 1 and 2 and grounds the rhythm section.

Notice how just playing these simple riffs and simple rhythms but really nailing it sounds awesome and entertains the audience. B.B. is not playing a lot of notes here, but he’s getting a great sound, and all while still not leaving that 10th position. He's barely even moving his fretting hand.

Finally, for example 3 notice how B.B. this time begins with a ½ step bend. Here is a secret sauce and one of the keys to how B.B. was able to make so much music without moving all around the fretboard. The secret is varying the bends. So sometimes he would use ½ step, whole step, or even a step and a half bend all without changing frets.  

  Also notice the quick hammer-on, pull-off technique that was another one of B.B’s go-to moves. 

Conclusion

B.B. King’s guitar style and techniques were actually not too complicated, but it was how he used them that made it so effective. These concepts allowed him to develop a signature voice and sound that influenced generations of guitarists. If you're looking to improve your blues guitar playing, studying B.B. King's techniques and style is a great place to start.