Jimmy Page Blues-Rock style - Early Zeppelin Blues Licks

Michael Johnson >> Jimmy Page Blues-Rock style >>

Lesson Subject: Jimmy Page Blues Rock

What you learn: Early Zeppelin Blues Licks

Teacher: Michael Johnson

Michael: Our interactive lesson is on early blues style of Jimmy Page Zeppelin ear. We'll cover the minor blues progression, scale pattern and licks, notice in the lesson sample the MINOR BLUES has a sadder sound to it, unlike most standard blues progressions.

Michael: For this lesson we'll use the key of A minor.

howie: Your examples of jimmy scale last lesson was very good, is this a different scale.

Michael: Howie yes, but we'll build on that. Here's the scale pattern. This is the A Minor scale, A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

Michael: I'll show you how the minor pentatonic and minor blues relate, here's the patterns:

Michael: Notice in this tab I give you; 1. A Minor, 2. A Minor Pentatonic, 3. Minor Blues. Notice how they all fit together. This means you can switch between each scale pattern and change the sound of your solo.

skaman: Cool, what's the difference between minor pentatonic and major pentatonic

Michael: Ska, the major pentatonic scale is based on the MAJOR scale, just like the minor pentatonic is to the minor scale. Here's a jam track you can play these scales and licks over:

Michael: This is a minor progression; A m, Dm7, Am, Em7, Dm7, Am7, Em7, knowing the scales is very important. This will give you the framework for all the licks we are going to cover. Here's the A minor rhythm pattern:

Michael: Blues progressions are fun to play over. Once you know the scale it's a lot of fun. See how the chords fit over the progression. You play the Am barre and strum the higher strings then switch to the Dm7 and so forth. Notice also how the notes also climb with the bass later in bar 8. Let's try some guitar licks... lick 1 starts in the A min pentatonic scale pattern and later moves to a higher pentatonic box position.

Michael: Notice when you jump to the Dm7, the lick jumps to the minor notes more giving the lick a sadder sound. The rest of the lick stays mostly in the A Minor Pentatonic and then later jumps to the higher A Minor Pentatonic box position. All of that line is in the box pattern of the A minor pentatonic scale. Notice how you can jump around the scale variations I gave you earlier as the chords change.

howie: Mixing the two scales opens up all kinds of stuff

Michael: Yes it does Howie. OK, next lick... this next lick actually jumps into different scale positions as you play the Dm and Em chords, I add an arpeggio for each chord change.

Michael: See how bar 1 starts with an E min arpeggio then a lick, then bar 3 plays the Dm arpeggio and then the lick. The ending jumps into kind of a A major pentatonic scale, but uses half bends which are in the minor scale. Lick 3 is basically the same concept as lick 2, but uses a different variation on that theme:

Michael: Notice in bar 3 the progression returns to the Am (I) of the progression and uses a cool blues run. The next lick uses the A minor pentatonic position again, very classic Page sound:

Michael: See how this jumps to minor pentatonic box 2.

Michael: See how the positions fit. Here's the next lick:

Michael: You bend 1 1/2 steps in bar 1. This is a classic Page type bending technique like we covered in earlier lessons. You have to grab the neck firmly and try to over bend.

skaman: I like the ending progression

Michael: I hope you all enjoyed this lesson, see you next class!

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