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Lead Licks
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Turn one simple scale into a blues solo that rocks
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Practice your licks on these 12-bar blues
You can’t stroll more than a few feet in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame without bumping your head on a 12-bar blues classic. To save you a trip to Cleveland, here are a few songs you can practice your blues licks on.
1950s
•Elvis Presley covering Big Mama Thornton’s “You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog” and rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes”
•Chuck Berry’s classics “Roll over Beethoven,” “School Days,”
•and, of course, “Johnny B. Goode”
•Ray Charles, “What’d I Say”
1960s
Many British Invasion bands made their mark with covers of Chicago blues classics:
•The Rolling Stones covered Willie Dixon’s “Little Red Rooster” (first recorded by Howlin’ Wolf), Cream did Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads,” and Led Zeppelin concocted “The Lemon Song” out of lyrics swiped from Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killin’ Floor” and Robert Johnson’s “Travelin’ Riverside Blues”
•Back in the US, the Allman Brothers reworked Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues,” Elmore James’ “Done Somebody Wrong,” and T-Bone Walker’s “Stormy Monday”
1970s
•Duane Allman and Eric Clapton duked it out on “Have You Ever Loved a Woman”
•Bonnie Raitt recorded the now-standard “Love Me Like a Man”
•ZZ Top cut “She Loves My Automobile” and “Tush”
•George Thorogood’s version of Hank Williams’ “Move It on Over”
•Led Zeppelin, “Rock and Roll”
1980s
•Stevie Ray Vaughan’s version of Otis Rush’s “Texas Flood,” along with originals like “Empty Arms,” “Pride and Joy,” and “Say What?”
•Robert Cray, “Nothin’ but a Woman”
•Robben Ford, “Talk to Your Daughter” and “Help the Poor”
•The Clash, “Brand New Cadillac“
1990s
•Tracy Chapman, “Give Me One Reason”
•Keb’ Mo’, “Love Blues”
•Jonny Lang, “Rack ‘Em Up,” “Matchbox”
•Eric Clapton, again, with “Before You Accuse Me”
Change Key with a Capo
You don’t have to learn new chords to play in other keys—use a capo and put your newfound knowledge to use. The capo clamps down on the strings, effectively shortening them and raising the pitch, so the chords you play will sound higher. Suppose you want to sing along to a song that you can play in G, but the key of G is too low for your voice. Try it in the key of A, one whole step higher than G. Each fret is a half step, so place the capo at the second fret. The capo is now at “fret zero.” Count the next fret as one, the next as two, and so on. So your first-position G chord shape now sounds like an A chord.
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