7 Easy Blues Licks For Beginners

When starting off playing pentatonic scales and improvising, it can be hard to break away from sounding like you are just playing an exercise, and start sounding like your guitar heroes.

These licks will show you just how we use our favourite scales to make music and sound like a pro in many different musical genres.

Lick #1

Our first lick, played in the A Minor Pentatonic Scale (as with the majority of our licks seen here) is a blues rock staple!

This lick is a simple run through the Minor Pentatonic Scale, which although is nice and simple, gets straight to the point with conviction.

By sliding in and using a double stop as we reach the top of the phrase, we are able to add a little more flair to an otherwise very simple phrase.

Lick #2

Lick number 2 is another blues rock classic that will work pretty much anywhere we put it.

Although we are still in the A Minor Pentatonic, we slide out of our regular box for a brief moment before coming back in.

A common theme within most of these licks, this one is simple but effective, and resolves on the tonic.

Lick #3

Lick 3 comes in two variations, and if you think you’ve heard it before then you’re probably not wrong.

You will find this one anywhere and everywhere, although the one that first comes to mind for me is “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry.

This lick is often used by the greats such as Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Lick #4

Lick 4 again steps outside of our regular box, which allows us to access some higher notes not found in our favourite position.

Adding some bends will give a bit more spice and shape to an otherwise simple lick.

Lick #5

Lick number 5 is our first lick to break out of the strictly Minor Pentatonic box, using a Major 6th note that is found in the Major Pentatonic.

The play between major and minor is a big characteristic of the blues styles, blending the two together to create different sounds and textures.

Lick #6

Lick 6 is more or less all in the Major Pentatonic box, otherwise known as the “BB King Box”, as BB often likes to highlight this major sound.

We can use similar double stop techniques as found in the Minor Pentatonic, although the sound of the major 3rd opens up a whole new characteristic.

Lick #7

This particular lick, although in the key of A, reminds me of “Are You Gonna Go My Way” by Lenny Kravitz, originally played in the key of E.

This lick utilises a quick bend up and down to create excitement, before resolving back to the tonic.

Lick #8 (bonus lick!)

A bonus lick that I’ve decided to throw in because the difficulty level is a little harder is a descending pentatonic run using pull-offs.

This lick jumps in in intervals of 4ths, which lends itself well to the Minor Pentatonic Scale as that is the interval in-between the notes when moving the pattern to the next string.

This pattern could start or finish anywhere, and can also be played ascending.