Essential Blues-scale Riffs, Part 3: Three Historic Licks You Should Definitely Know | Lesson

With Part 3 of Baron Bowcott’s Essential Blues-scale Riffs series of videos, Nick treats you to a guitar lesson that bridges the metal and rock sides of the blues-scale’s enduring influence with three iconic licks every guitarist should have in their repertoire. Don’t worry about taking notes! In the link above, Nick’s provided TABs alongside a few additional tips to help you nail the parts. Six-string genealogy takes us from Jimmy Page to Dimebag Darrell, with a necessary stop along the way via Randy Rhoads. Arm your axe and get ready to rock — class is in session!  

00:00 — Play-in & Intro 01:07 — Rules of Engagement 02:13 — Gear Abused 02:37 — E Minor Blues Scale 03:20 — Lick 1: Whole Lotta Page! 06:13 — Lick 2: A Randy Rhoads Gem 10:09 — Lick 3: A Diamond from Dimebag 14:08 — Wrap-up & Play-out 

As promised in the accompanying video to this short piece, below you will find TAB for the three fine, blue-scale rock licks in question. And, as also stated in the video, for the sake of convenience, all three are shown in the key of E minor. Thus, the only six notes being used are E, G, A, Bb, B and D. Furthermore, the “blues note,” the flattened fifth has to be used at least once in each lick in order for them to qualify as blues-scale licks. If the flattened fifth note – which is Bb in the case of E minor – is omitted, then the lick will merely be a minor pentatonic one. Make sense?

That said, below is a chord window diagram of the E minor blues scale played in the 12th position, as that’s where all three of the below licks reside:

FIGURE 1: E Minor Blues Scale

That all stated – here’s Lick 1 – and this epic 11-note burst of minor blues scale brilliance is probably the first lick of this type I ever learned.

LICK 1

As I’m sure you’ll immediately recognize as soon as you play it, Lick 1 is based on the first lead lick Jimmy Page plays midway through Led Zeppelin’s timeless track “Whole Lotta Love.”

LICK 2

This bluesy bad-boy is based on one by the late great Randy Rhoads. To be precise, I shamelessly plundered it from the last but one bar of his unforgettable “I Don’t Know” solo. That solo is in G minor but, as already stated, for the sake of convenience I’ve moved it to E minor.

LICK 3

Our third and final rock-infused, blues-burst is inspired by the much-missed Dimebag Darrell and his jaw-dropping “Cowboys From Hell” solo, which uses the flattened 5th note to great effect – especially when it first starts out. lick 3 is based on one he does in the final straight of his iconic lead.

NOTE: When I play certain parts in the video, “#TEAM LION ’68 GHOST NOTES” appears on the screen. Here’s why! One of the many great things about the UA Lion ’68 Super Lead Amp pedal is that it emulates those wonderful “transformer ghost notes” that often occur in old Plexi amps, especially when cranked! This can be switched off in the Lion using the app, but I love it, so I left it switched on, and you can hear it when I play the first bar of Lick 3 slowly. This wonderful feature is discussed in the “Lion Roundtable video with James Santiago, Pete Thorn and Blues Saraceno. A link to that part of the video is below: 

And there you have it, my friend…three great licks you can add to your own playing that are all crafted from the simple but oh so effective minor blues scale. I sincerely hope you enjoyed this video and will be able to use one, two, three or even all three of these licks in your own playing. As the saying goes – be an artful thief.

Most of all, as always, have fun playing!

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