30 Sweet Blues Licks You MUST Know

Licks inspired by blues greats like Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Joe Bonnamassa, & B.B. King

Get this course and 1,000+ more with All Access

Try 14 days free. Cancel any time.

Purchase Individual Course for $14.99

Jeff McErlain

Educator

blues, blues-rock

Genres

About this course

When you listen to players like Peter Green, Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa, Robben Ford and BB King, there’s a special and very distinctive “sweet” quality to their lines and every note seems to sit just perfectly over the prevailing chord changes. That sweet, bright major sounding quality is created by targeting the right notes - those sweet notes — at just the right time, often combining both major and minor pentatonic scales in the same lick.

Jeff McErlain’s 30 Sweet Blues Licks You Must Know will not only majorly stoke up your lick vocabulary, you’ll also learn how to target those sweet notes, and combine major and minor pentatonic scales, over major blues changes.

”What's a sweet blues lick? In the context of this course, I'm referencing that warm, happier sound that we get from mixing the major and minor blues scales. The main “sweet blues” guy for me is BB King! But of course, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Taylor, and Robben Ford are some of the other masters of that “sweet blues” sound. The licks in this course are not presented in any particular order, so please feel free to dive in anywhere you like. Learn the licks as I’ve written them and then make them your own!”

Jeff will show you soulful intros, how to mix major and minor scales for great turnarounds, rocking double-stops, classic southern rock licks, sweet sounding jazzy lines, how to superimpose a diminished 7th arpeggio over a IV chord, how to outline the changes on classic blues turnarounds, how to add the fourth to your major pentatonic line for a sweet sophisticated sound, and dozens of other very versatile “sweet” blues licks.

For each of the 30 sweet blues licks featured in this course, Jeff will first perform the lick over a jam track, and then break it down for you note-by-note emphasizing the essential techniques and harmonic concepts in play.

All of the licks are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop and/or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons. Plus, Jeff generously includes all of the backing tracks for you to work with on your own.

Grab your guitar and let’s sweeten up our blues vocabulary with Jeff McErlain!

Jeff McErlain's Preferred Gear

Below is a list of Jeff McErlain's preferred gear including guitars, amps, pedals, accessories, and more. What you see in Jeff's lessons may or may not be this actual gear, but if you are trying to capture Jeff's sound and tone, the gear listed below is recommended by Jeff and it's a great place to start!

Guitars

Amps

Pedals

Accessories & More

What you'll learn

Master complex blues turnaround licks
Bend control
Understand pentatonic scale variations
Expressive note manipulation
Develop advanced bending techniques

Release date: 05/22/2017 • 2h 32m runtime

intermediate late intermediate guitar electric guitar soloing licks

Start Course

Sample lessons

Someday

Lick 1

Smooth G

Lick 5

How Blue Are You?

Lick 7

Blues Breaker

Lick 25

Someday

Lick 1

Smooth G

Lick 5

How Blue Are You?

Lick 7

Blues Breaker

Lick 25

What's included

32 lessons • 30 charts • 29 Jam Tracks

30 Sweet Blues Licks

Hi, I'm Jeff McErlain, and welcome to 30 Sweet Blues Licks You Must Know! What's a sweet blues lick? Well, in the context of this course, I'm thinking that warm somewhat happier sound we get from mixing the major and minor blues scales. The main guy for me that comes to mind is BB King, and everyone who came after him! Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Taylor, and Robben Ford just to name a few.

These licks are not in any particular order, so please feel free to listen through so you can pick and choose where you'd like to start. Like any lick, you learn take some time and check out different keys and different feels. So, let's start in and have some fun!

Someday

This lick is essentially the introduction to "Someday After a While" that Peter Green plays on the John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers record Hard Road. It's an essential lick, as you can use it for any turnaround on a blues, so it's not just an intro lick. The timing is essential on this lick, as it starts on beat four, meaning that this is called a pickup. I highly suggest practicing with the jam track to make sure you start on beat four, because if you miss that beat, the lick will be off and not sound right. Hard Road is an essential record for any blues fan, and Peter Green's debut recording as well.

Keep Walking

I'm a huge blues rock fan, as I assume you are as well or you probably wouldn't be watching this! One my favorite guitar players is Joe Walsh, especially his stuff with the James Gang. The song "Walk Away" is an excellent example of how cool the mixture of major and minor pentatonic can be on a one chord vamp in A.

The slick thing about this lick is its use of half steps, whole steps, and pre-bends, and therefore it's a bit trickier than it may appear on the surface. It's important to isolate each bend and make sure it's in tune. If not, well, that's where it'll fall to the ground! I chose this lick as Joe's solo on this tune was always a challenge for me growing up, and I can also track many things I do from it.

If You Be

Man, I love old Fleetwood Mac and Peter Green. I've learned so much from him and his playing. The song "If You Be My Baby" was particularly eye opening for me. The song has a very strong main melody that plays against the horn line. The song is a D major blues and the melody is a textbook Peter Green approach of mixing both the major and minor pentatonic scales. Green often avoided the flatted 7th when soloing in favor of the natural 6th found in the major pentatonic scale. This definitely adds a "sweeter" sound than what we'll hear a lot of in this course. This song can be found on the excellent Mr. Wonderful record released in 1968, a must have!

My Baby

Please check out the lick above, "If You Be", before digging into this one as it's the second half of Peter Green's intro on "If You Be My Baby". This one is on the turnaround so learn this one and steal it because we all need some cool turnaround licks. I use this one all the time, as it's not the typical turnaround style lick we normally hear.

Go through the lick slowly and dissect each note and see where it falls on each chord. This way, you aren't just playing a lick, you're getting inside the lick. This also helps free you up to use segments of the lick.

Smooth G

"Smooth G" is a lick in the style of my friend Robben Ford. Yup, I name dropped. Robben's impact on modern blues is immense, his impact on me as a player has been huge as well. What I love about his playing the most is how smooth he is. This lick is similar to something he'd play along with those tricky position changes.

At the heart of it, we're really just outlining a G7 chord, all the rest of the notes are just "filler" in a way. That's the way I look at much of my soloing, and I know Robben does as well: We know the chord and we play around it.

Sweet Intro

This is truly an essential BB King lick - we start off with The Lick! The trick here is placement as it's a pickup, so the lick starts before the top of the blues form and comes in on beat 4. So, listen to the count off and make sure you nail the timing on The Lick, or it'll be a swing and a miss!

To me, the hardest part is not rushing it; it's difficult to play as relaxed as BB did. His relaxed feel is as big a part of what made him great as his note choice.

+ 25 more lessons

Reviews

24 results

Filter by:

Sort by:

CAMillan

Verified buyer

12/21/25

Great content, teaching and usefulness

Terrific content, Jeff is an excellent musician and educator and his explanations are straightforward and useful. Five stars, as despite some app glitches, the content surpasses my expectations

SouthKev

Verified buyer

10/14/22

Just Brilliant

ibanezjs20

Verified buyer

09/16/22

This licks are a true sweet blues licks, a must have true fire course

dahrothgar

Verified buyer

12/14/21

Handy Riffs

Great ideas well represented. Certainly adds to my soloing vocabulary.

sslugger

Verified buyer

10/08/21

More Than I Expected

Sometimes these can be a little straightforward but the licks in this course are quite challenging for an intermediate. Great ! As always Jeff is a superb teacher making it all the more enjoyable.

Stop searching. Start improving with All Access.

Try 14 days free. Cancel any time.

Learn More Start Free Trial

Start Free Trial

Full library access
Unlimited learning paths
Unlimited jams
Interactive video tools

Similar courses

30 Sweet Blues Licks You MUST Know

Licks inspired by blues greats like Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Joe Bonnamassa, & B.B. King

Jeff McErlain's Preferred Gear

Guitars

Amps

Pedals

Accessories & More

What's included

Reviews

Stop searching. Start improving with All Access.

Similar courses

50 Blues Rhythms You MUST Know

50 Slow Blues Licks You MUST Know

50 Texas Blues Licks You MUST Know

30 Beginner Blues Guitar Licks You MUST Know