Watch the Back Pedaling online guitar lesson by Chris Buono from Guitar Lab: Blues Soloing

Up until this point you've played over some semi-challenging changes, but Back Pedaling is where the gloves come off. That's not to say Try Tone was a walk in the park, it's just this set of three solos will require you to really dig your heels in. Aside from bars 5-6 and 10-11, you have a chord change every two beats and they're not ones you can just horizontally gloss over with one device, or can you?

The idea with any set of changes is to make your solos feel connected and cohesive. Up until now, you've probably been hitting that mark by laying into a static minor pentatonic device or something related to that. When it comes to changes that are a bit more involved than a standard 12 bar you might still get away with it; albeit you're holding your breath the whole way through. The funny thing is sometimes the changes that seem most scary are ones that can be wrestled into submission with a horizontal, static melodic device. Need proof? Just check out the first chorus and try to find a note outside that's normally up for grabs in a blues setting. In fact aside from the pair of Eb's (b5/#11) and some bends to a pair of Cs (b3rd) to call out the IV chord (an idea we've been employing since Sussy Strut) this solo is all about A Mixolydian. What's more, the second and third choruses don't up the ante all that much. Yes, they play out a little more vertical, BUT within motifically developed boundaries. See? You CAN do this.

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