Blues Headlines
Richard Barrett is on a mission to make you a better blues player – with full audio examples and backing tracks
It’s All Blues
Tutor Richard Barrett | Gear used Knaggs Kenai & Kemper Profiler
Difficulty★★★★☆ | 20 mins
Mike Oldfield’s powerful melodies tend to steer clear of standard blues-based vocab
PHOTO BY MICK GOLD/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES
THIS ISSUE, I felt it would be interesting to draw a distinction between soloing in a clearly defined blues-based approach and one that uses the guitar as a lead instrument but avoids obviously bluesy/ pentatonic patterns, vibrato and quarter-tone bends.
Players such as Steve Howe (whose radically different approach is derived more from jazz), Mike Oldfield (who prefers classical vibrato and picking technique) and Steven Wilson (who is known for his aversion to vibrato and blues scale licks) would not necessarily be described as ‘bluesy’ but nevertheless use sounds and techniques that are not considered ‘alien’ by a more obviously bluesbased player. On the flip side, it’s completely possible for a bluesbased guitar solo to sit comfortably in almost any genre: Junior Marvin’s solo in Bob Marley’s Waiting In Vain and Andy Summers’ beautiful embellishments on Message In A Bottle are two examples.