What makes a guitar player sound interesting?
Why is it that sometimes you hear a guitarist play with incredible technique, but the end effect is boring? How about guitarists who know every scale in the world but put you to sleep with improvisations that sound like they are just running up and down the scales?

Many components go into the making of a good guitarist—technique, knowledge of scales, taste, equipment—but perhaps the single most important thing, after a good ear, is a vocabulary of musical ideas. Every soloist and improviser needs command of a solid repertoire of licks, or musical ideas, to create interesting solos.

The solos offered on this website were specifically designed to teach you musical ideas in the blues idiom.

Why should you learn these solos?
• Each solo has numerous blues ideas that you can use in your own playing.
• The solos are composed of licks in phrases designed to make it easy for you to extract ideas for use in your own playing.
• By learning entire solos rather than only individual licks, the approach taken in many books and methods, you have the opportunity to see how the lick is used in context.
• The solos are long enough for you to develop the feel for playing over the key, tempo, and style of the backing track. Books and courses that do offer licks in context usually have only one, or occasionally two, choruses per track. These solos will allow you to really get into the music.
• Playing along with the backing tracks provided will also enable you to develop the proper timing and phrasing for each solo.
• Learning these solos will help you to develop an authentic blues sound.

What level do you have to be at to play these solos?
• These solos were designed for working guitarists, or guitarists who aspire to be working. 
• Ideally you should know the following scales: minor pentatonic, major pentatonic, blues scale (minor pentatonic with the addition of a flat 5th), dorian, and mixolydian. However, if you know only the minor and major pentatonic scales, you should be ok. Just be aware that from time to time you will encounter notes outside of these two scales.

Note: Scale diagrams are not included with the solos because there are numerous books and resources available with this information.