The Blues Riff Blues Licks and Solo
Lick 18a will help you to learn, and memorize, the jump between the note 2i and the note 6e. This jump is of great importance, as these two notes are the first and last of the most easily obtainable Cross Position blues scale.
Licks 18b through 18e should be practiced, with special attention towards making each note clear and single. All of these licks require the playing of two different notes during one single beat. Listening to the demonstrations, then playing each lick slowly and carefully, will help you to do this accurately.
Lick 18c is especially useful, as it utilizes almost all the note of the Cross Position blues scale, with the exception of the note that require the technique known as bending note.
Combining licks 18b through 18e will produce a twelve bar blues solo, as demonstrated. For a more rhythmically complex solo, the last two notes of lick 18b, 3i and 2i, and the last two notes of lick 18e, 4i and 5i, may be combined into a single beat of time, rather than given a separate beat each. This is demonstrated in the second verse of the solo, which also features a slide down to the 1i note in the last bar of the solo, instead of ending on the 2i note, as does the first verse of the solo.
- The "Play-Along" section included here consists of four medium-speed blues verses in Cross or Second position. You may play any of the Cross or Second position solos from this book or Progressive Blues Harmonica during this section, or experiment with making up Cross position solos of your own.
