As the 12-bar blues progression has been interpreted many different ways over the last century by electric guitarists, and a thorough study of the vast stylistic differences is extensive. A straight I-IV-V progression can be as primitive or as sophisticated as the player wants, depending on the context of the musical situation. Here are four levels of sophistication that I follow for playing electric blues. I don’t really think about it in the heat of improvisation, but when analyzing my musical influences, this is what I’ve come up with.
The first level is the “Minor Pentatonic on Everything” concept. Those five little notes contain so much expression that hundreds of great blues guitarists have needed nothing else to get their point across. My favorite example is Albert King’s solo on “Crosscut Saw.” Try phrasing those two choruses exactly like Albert. It’s almost impossible, due to his insane, upside-down technique. But those are some of the best blues lines ever.
The next level is the “Major and Minor Pentatonic” approach. This technique involves a slight shift in tonality from the I chord to the IV chord. In the key of A, players like B.B. King use A major pentatonic on the I chord, and A minor pentatonic on the IV chord. This helps outline the chord changes because the C# in A7 is the third, and it resolves to the C natural in D7, which is the seventh. By outlining these two changes, we bump the level of sophistication up a notch and expand our note choices. Check out the first solo chorus of “Crossroads” by Eric Clapton on Cream’s Wheels of Fire CD. Duane Allman and Dicky Betts are also masters of