These 3 Things Finally Made Blues Soloing Click for Me - 53

Struggling to make your blues solos actually sound like blues? These are the 3 simple shifts that finally made it all click for me — and they’ll work for you too!

No New Tab. Just Real Talk.

Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs happen when you stop chasing more and focus on what already works.

In this wrap-up video, I sat down like I would with a private student to reflect on the core things that made all the difference in my blues playing. No charts, no deep theory—just concepts that finally made it click!

Here they are.

1. Control and Feel

You don’t need 50 licks. You need one lick, played well—with feeling.

Here’s how to get more feel from your solos:

Add bends and vibrato.
Slide into notes instead of playing them straight.
Focus on how you play the notes, not just what the notes are.

Example: I played a simple minor pentatonic lick with no embellishment—then again with bends and slides. The difference in feel was massive. Same notes, better expression!

This kind of phrasing makes a simple line sound professional—and it’s something anyone can practice right now.

2. Dynamic Control

Your volume and picking intensity shouldn’t stay the same throughout your solo.

Try this:

Start soft and build up.
Use palm muting to drop your dynamics instantly.
Let some notes barely ring, then strike the next one with full attack.

In the video, I demonstrated how picking dynamics create emotional contrast—just like vocal inflection in a conversation.

This isn’t about being flashy. It’s about expressing something. And the audience feels that contrast even more than the notes themselves.

3. Targeting Chord Tones

This one took me a long time to fully grasp. You can play all the "right" scale notes—but if you’re not hitting the chord tones, your solo might feel disconnected from the song.

Focus on landing strong notes:

3rds and 7ths of each chord in the 12-bar blues
Root notes to ground your phrases
Bends that resolve to a chord tone

I demoed solos that missed the chord tones vs. ones that nailed them. The second approach made the harmony pop and gave the solo purpose.

Once I learned to target chord tones, my solos finally stopped sounding like aimless noodling!

Bonus: Confident Phrasing

This isn’t one of the official “three,” but it wraps them all together.

Your solos should have shape and structure—like a conversation.

Use call and response
Leave space between ideas
Vary the rhythm and dynamics
Think in musical “sentences”

In the final demo, I alternated between low and high octaves to create a dialogue. Each phrase had punctuation—an ending, a pause, a transition.

When you start treating your solos like a musical story, everything changes.

Ready for the Next Step?

If you’ve been following the Blues Mastery Series, and these concepts are starting to click—you're ready for the Blues Elevation Toolkit!

It takes all these ideas and gives you:

Essential licks built on these concepts
Quick-reference visuals and guides
Practice tracks and daily tools
A framework for real growth

If it's live, grab it now. If not, hop on the waitlist so you don’t miss the launch.

Final Thoughts

Thanks for going through the Blues Mastery Series with me.
If this was your first structured blues experience, I hope it’s helped you build real confidence, clarity, and creativity in your soloing.

The next series starts next week—and it builds right from here.

See you inside the Toolkit or in the next lesson!

▶▶ Blues Elevation Toolkit: https://www.playguitaracademy.com/blues-elevation-toolkit-coming-soon

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