TECHNIQUE FOCUS

The BB King Note Pool

BB would never just run a scale from low to high. His strategy was to find the appropriate root note and then be aware of the surrounding location of the most important intervallic ingredient notes around this‘pivot’point. When changing from key to key the relationship between the notes remains the same, just the physical location changes. It’s a definite step in the right direction to make an explicit connection between the sonic properties and physical location of each of the intervals from within a chosen tonality. Rather than having to run through each and every note in sequence to get to the sound you’re after, leaping straight there will allow you to pinpoint a specific melodic colour with clarity and economy. When people talk about BB’s magic facility with‘one note’, this is a combination of how he articulated his choices, using vibrato, bends, rakes and so on, but also it was very much about how he committed to the quality of each chosen note intervallically juxtaposed against the underlying harmony. It’s a great exercise to select a chosen interval, perhaps starting with a crucial harmonically defining choice such as the Major or Minor 3rd and target this interval against each of the changes you’re working over. Of course, BB was able to articulate these ideas in an organic and natural way, but it’s often helpful to fast-track this process by undertaking some very specific woodshedding when we’re aiming to assimilate a new sound, concept or approach.