B.B.King

Intermediate Level

If you've heard of the blues then you've heard of B.B. King. With his incredible feel, tone, bending and vibrato he truly is The King of the Blues. In this course, Dan passionately takes you through some key aspects of B.B.King's style to allow you to bring some of it into your own blues playing. He'll guide you through two solos in the style of 'The Thrill is Gone' and 'Three O Clock Blues', and take an in depth look at B.B. King's note choice over each chord in a blues. If you've always wanted to play the blues like The King this is the course for you!

Unit 1: The Fun Is Back

Welcome to our B.B.King player study! Let’s get started by learning a BB style solo in the key of B minor. This is a great place to start as, theory wise, and allows us to really focus in on his phrasing, vibrato and incredible tone.

Unit 2: Minor & Major

In our second section of the course we will be diving deeper into the combination of the minor and major pentatonic scales, and how B.B.King uses them.

Unit 3: Chord Tone Soloing

In our third section we will be exploring the exact way B.B.King constructs his improvisation over a 12 bar blues. He is the king (no pun intended) of chord tone soloing!

Unit 4: Four O'Clock Blues

For our final section we will be putting all of our theory and new skills together in a great blues piece. The track is in a slow 12/8 time signature, which is more traditionally called a “slow blues” and features all the best of B.B.King.