The Captain Is Back

Hey everyone! Time for the next edition of the Captain’s Privates series. We’re up to number 5 now, and Lee is making some serious progress. Follow along with him and see your guitar level rise too. :)

Notes On The Neck + Ultimate Goal

My goodness has Lee learned the notes on the neck! I pointed to eight notes spread over the neck, and he named all of them correctly. When we first met, he had no idea what the notes were other than on the thickest two strings. A huge improvement.

The ultimate goal is to know all the notes instantly. There are some notes Lee knows instantly, and he uses those to work out the others. If he sticks with his exercises, he’ll know all the notes automatically.

Why Music Theory Is Crucial

He admitted that if he can’t see the practical application of an idea, he switches off immediately. This has been true since his school days! I reminded him that if he doesn’t understand why he’s learning something, he needs to ask me!

Some of the music theory Lee is studying relates to knowing the notes on the neck. Without knowing the notes, some music theory just won’t make sense. Though you’ll develop a relationship between the shapes and the sounds over time, you’ll lack something.

He duly asked me if he could create solos by remembering that the 3rd of the chord is one fret back and one string up from the root. I said that sometimes this would be enough if he could use it instantly. But if there are lots of chord changes, you need to know the theory.

Put Blues Theory Into Practice

Lee will see the advantages of knowing the notes on the neck when making the changes in blues solos, so let’s talk a little about theory in the context of a 12-bar blues.

Over the A (or A7) chord, we can target C# notes because it’s one of the notes in the A Major Chord (A C# E). We can target F# notes over the D (or D7 chord) because it’s one of the three notes in the D Major Chord (D F# A).

Here’s the point – you might miss some of these notes if you don’t know how to find them on the guitar. For example, the top C# (string 1, fret 9) is not even part of Pattern 1 of the Minor Pentatonic Scale.

💡 Mimic The Masters – I doubt Albert King deliberately targeted 3rds in his solos. He likely discovered it by soloing a lot and listening to what sounded best. Knowing theory helps us learn tricks that masters like him took years to discover.

And if we know the notes, we can target specific notes in all areas of the guitar, meaning we don’t have to jump across frets and strings to find the notes we know. We can forget about positions and think more about individual notes.

If you rely on knowing the root note to find the 3rd, you have to do two things: find the root note (which might not be obvious) and then use the Major 3rd shape to find the 3rd. It’s longer.

Remember, this has to be fluent when you’re playing a solo! Make the process shorter by knowing the theory and the notes on the guitar.

With some practice, Lee will know the function of all notes in the keys of A, E, D, and G and be able to use this knowledge when soloing. The greats always target chord tones!

At this stage, he doesn’t think about chord tones when playing a blues solo. And he isn’t sure about chord functions, such as why a C# works over an A and not a D. While he might not understand why, he can hear it doesn’t work, which is fantastic.

Really important – don’t think about avoiding specific notes. That way, you’ll likely play the notes you want to avoid. Instead, focus on targeting the good ones!

The Learning Process

I told Lee that if he ever needs a hand, he can call me or leave a comment on the website. It’s up to me as a teacher to justify my teaching, not the other way around. And I never teach you stuff you don’t need!

The only caveat to this idea is that sometimes you simply can’t understand the motivation for learning a new idea until later in the journey. If you haven’t progressed far enough to see the benefits, you just have to trust me when I say I’ve taught these exercises for many years and know they work.

💡Justin's Journey – At school, I learned Sonata form, counterpoint, and Bach chorales, and I had no idea why. Looking back, it was a complete waste of time.

As adults, we can choose what to learn, but we should know exactly why we’re doing so. Interval naming comes under this category. Lots of people leave me comments asking why I teach this. Trust me when I say this is useful later in the guitar journey. And in the short term, it helps you learn the notes in the keys.

Sharps and Flats in Scales

There was one thing that Lee couldn’t imagine being useful, ever! That was identifying the scale based on the number of sharps and flats it contains.

This trick is handy for sheet music because it helps you find the key right away. But it’s less relevant for guitarists today because TAB is so prevalent. And if you’re a rock and blues guitarist, you won’t use sheet music or any keys beyond G, C, D, A, and E.

However, knowing the rules for the complex keys means that the useful ones are easy for you. You’ll start recognizing guitar keys from the chords in the song almost automatically.

Make Your Lick Book

If you’re yet to make a lick book, go and do so now! Do a bunch of blues soloing and identify the ten licks you use most. Write them down in TAB.

Now, choose one of your licks and solo with it over an entire 12-bar blues. Get used to this idea of repeating licks. It’s easy to slip into playing without a structure or repeating theme, meaning you don’t tell a story with your solo. This exercise has you do the exact opposite of that.

There are great ways to expand on this, like repeating little parts of the lick. Lee did this automatically. Listen out for when the greats use their licks, how they change them and whether they repeat them. They tend to use variations of basic licks.

💡 Lick Library – I use licks as starting points or backups when I’m not in creative mode. I start a solo with my pet licks, knowing I can build on them.

Lee agreed that repeated licks in a solo sound wicked and cited Purple Rain as an example. He gets it! And this exercise is the perfect way to do this.

In real playing, we don’t want to think about scales, licks, or any of that. We want to practice those things such that they come out instinctively when we’re live. Playing one lick repeatedly means we’re more likely to play that lick when it matters.

How to Build On Basic Licks

Another great reason to have a lick book is that you can take your basic licks and alter them.

Take Lee’s lick (TAB) below or your own and see if you can expand on it. There are tons of ways to do this!

|--------------------------|
|---------8----------------|
|---7s9-------9s7---5------|
|-----------------------7--|
|--------------------------|
|--------------------------|

From a technical point of view, this lick is a slide, a single note on the next string, then the same slide in reverse. We can take that pattern and start on fret 8 of string 2 instead:

|----------8-----------------|
|---8s10-------10s8---6------|
|------------—------------7--|
|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|
|----------------------------|

Move this lick around the neck into different keys and see how it sounds. You can also add extra notes. The lick Lee uses is in A and doesn’t have a C#, so it doesn’t have a 3rd. Try adding the note C# (found at fret 6 of string 3).

Other options include changing the time, taking notes away, and using different fingers. That way, you find new ways of using ideas that are already natural for you. This also helps you find your own voice instead of just stealing from the greats. Learn their licks and make them your own! :)

Transcribing Tricks

Lee learned part of the Albert King solo but not all, so I wanted to ensure he knew why he should learn it.

He said it was so that he could play the solo like the original artist and use King’s licks in his own music. Those are great reasons, but there are more!

💣 Transcribing Power – When you transcribe solos and try to copy them, you learn a lot that you'll never find in TAB. You pick up on the subtleties, which will impact your solos and make you a much better player.

Have a go at transcribing some Albert King. Warning – he plays upside down! He also bends from the thinnest strings, pulling them downwards. So when replicating him, try bending from the thinnest strings.

Become a detective – transcribing requires detective work. Use the clues in the song to find out exactly how the guitarist played it. Analyze their licks and choose the parts you love, incorporating them into your own playing.

Practice Tips

Don’t confuse practice with playing. When you practice, you’re supposed to mess things up. If you don’t, it means you’re not pushing yourself hard enough! True, with technical ideas like scales, you want to play slowly and perfectly. But when exploring, making mistakes is simply part of the process.

Transcribing Eric Clapton

Lee’s homework for this week is to transcribe five Eric Clapton licks he loves. The Beano Album (John Mayall and the Blues Breakers) is a solid introduction to Clapton’s playing.

This task has two parts: first, I want Lee to find half an hour every week when he can sit down and listen to the album free of distractions. He’ll write down on paper the licks he wants to learn as they appear. Then I want him to transcribe the five he likes most.

Make Your Scales Silky Smooth

All the scales from last week sounded good, but he struggled to play the three-notes-per-string pattern with flick-offs. If you’re the same, don’t worry. Everyone finds the flick-offs exercise challenging. The key is to do it slowly, making sure all the notes are clean.

We did an exercise to demonstrate an issue that trips up a lot of blues players. I played a blues in A while Lee tried to play the three-note-per-string pattern in G. He found it sounded weird because he used a straight rhythm (with “and” in the middle of two beats). Instead, try using a shuffle rhythm, with “and” closer to the second beat.

💡 Blues Tips – If technical stuff like fingering separates scales from your real playing, you’ll never use it in context. It’ll feel detached.

If you only practice major scales with a straight rhythm, you’ll be unable to use them in the real world. Next time, Lee used a shuffle rhythm and played the same scale, starting on the note A instead of G (playing the A Dorian mode). It sounded great!

When you learn a new scale or lick, think about it in the context of what you already know and how you play. Use fingers 1, 2, and 3 on strings 1 and 2 to break out of the usual fingering. When soloing in a real context, you’re unlikely to use finger 4.

Playing scales up and down is a great dexterity exercise. But playing in 3rds is also handy for developing melodies. We can make solos with these patterns, so we should practice with the fingers we’ll use in the real world.

Hope you’re digging the series! Stick around for more Captain’s Privates Lessons to see how Lee progresses and take your playing to the next level.

💙 It's time to play like the masters! Check out my module Making The Blues Changes.

Homework

Lee's schedule for this week looks like:

Lick Book – Exploring licks one at a time
1. Use backing track and explore different ways to repeat or modify a lick
2. Look at ways of changing the lick to other melodic ideas.
Theory – Continue Practical Music Theory course
Listening – at least 30 minutes a week listening to Beano album (John Mayall & Blues Breakers Feat. Eric Clapton)
Transcribing – pick five favorite licks from Beano and transcribe them.
Notes on Neck – Continue!
Scales
1. Continue 3rds practice – add in 3 notes-per-string Pattern 1
2. Continue legato work – focus on slow flick-offs, making sure movement is good and notes are clear. No fluffy stuff! :)