How to Play a Swinging Blues Guitar Lick in A

Hi, my name is Robert Renman from Dolphinstreet.com. Today, I want to show you a nice swinging Blues lick in the key of A. It sounds like this [Demonstration] Let's have a look at it. One, two, three. [Demonstration] One, two, three. [Demonstration] One, two, three. [Demonstration] The first note here I'm playing is on the fifth fret on the G string. I pick that note and then I hammer on up onto the sixth fret [demonstration] and then I play on the fifth fret with my index finger on the B string [demonstration] and the E string [demonstration]. So the first part is [demonstration]. And in fact these three notes [demonstration], they make up an A major triad. These first four notes [demonstration] are leading notes to that note here [demonstration], which is on the one of the beat and this is on the E string on the eight fret [demonstration], the note C. So it becomes like this. One, two, three. [Demonstration] Meaning, that this note [demonstration] is on the one of the beat. One, two, three. [Demonstration] And then, we’ll go back to the fifth fret on the E string [demonstration] there, switch to the B string [demonstration] on the fifth fret. Now, up to the eight fret on the B string [demonstration] and then back to the fifth fret on E string [demonstration]. So then we have [demonstration], so far. The next part is, I’m going to be starting there by doing the slide down [demonstration] from here on the eight fret on the G string [demonstration], sliding down to seventh fret [demonstration] and those are the fifth fret on the G string [demonstration]. And then here, I'm switching to the B string on the fifth fret [demonstration], back to the G string on the fifth fret [demonstration] and here I'm bending up a bit and ending the phrase on the D string on the seventh fret [demonstration]. So we have the first part [demonstration] and then up to—here on the eight fret [demonstration], and then we do the slide down from the eight fret the seventh fret on the G string [demonstration], switching to the B string on the fifth fret and back to the G string on the fifth fret and doing a half note bend [demonstration], and ending on the note A here on the seventh fret on the D string and applied a little bit of what I brought here. It sounds cool. [Demonstration] This is sort of like a Bebop king style note [demonstration]. He often uses that technique. One more time, a little faster. One, two, three. [Demonstration] One more thing, you can probably notice here on this note [demonstration], this one I'm bending up a little bit [demonstration]. It just—make it sound a little bit more Bluesy and tasty [demonstration]. Even this note [demonstration], I'm bending a little bit and this is all matter of taste. You can apply this without doing these bends as well, it will sound like this [demonstration]. And here, it is with the bends [demonstration].