BB was a master of the "less is more" style of guitar playing. He didn't try to impress anyone by playing all over the neck of the guitar. He knew exactly what notes to use and when to play them. He also knew when not to play them. I drive a truck into St Louis every day, and I sometimes listen to a jazz and blues station based in St. Louis. Just today they played "The Thrill is Gone Away" and in my head I was creating all these riffs and whatnot in the spaces that he left open in that song, but I was still amazed at how what he does in that song is just so perfect the way it is.
When I am just practicing, I sometimes force myself to stay in the "BB Box" for the entirety of a particular backing track.....8 or 10 minutes forced into that little area really makes you search for ideas 👍
Wow, great video. Your easy to understand approach to playing blues licks that sound like BB King is the best; definitely a keeper! Demonstrating how BB could get so much music from one position was revealing.
It's not, actually... while the root is Bb, it's not Bb minor pentatonic or Bb Major pentatonic - that's why it can be tricky, the way you bend the C to either Db or D makes it major or minor.
Thanks!! You gave me a lot to work with and connected the dots better than I've ever seen. I appreciate the help and hope you keep up the great work and have a great weekend.
I love your videos! which is why I know these patterns. Please do a lesson on phrasing using BB, Albert boxes. pentatonic 6 etc as no matter what I try I cant get a BB sound out of the BB box😫
This is revelatory. Maybe it shouldn’t be if you have been playing fifty years... but hey... so what? Time passes. Great lesson from a great bluesman. Thanks.
At the beginning Griff I think I heard a little Peter Green there. I came across the "Peter Green scale" a few years back, has the house pattern as you call it in this "scale". Now If I recall correctly I think Peter mixed that pattern with box 4...or maybe box 3 I'm not sure. It was a while ago. I'll look it up again now I've thought about it. Many newer players learn the boxes as they connect to each other, but don't realise the scales sit on top of each other. Take A Major box one, move into box 2 and it sits right inside Am box 1...and so on. As do minor and Major scales...Dorian etc. So was BB's playing "simple".? Well..yes it was, but that was and is the beauty of it. Less is more, it's just a case of learning how to get more from less. Add his creamy vibrato to it and....you cannot get any better blues. So many players use this 5 note box, I call it the everyone's box. To me it is just about the sweetest little pattern in the entire Pentatonic/blues scale. In fact wouldn't most people be better off learning just this little box first? 5 notes 3 strings..or any of them from the 1st string not the 6th..? If we think about it how many musical instruments only have 4 strings? Bass..Violin...Banjo I think before the 5th was added..I think. Guitar you have 2 extra ones. So over time I came to see it this way..I could play an entire solo on 1 string If I wanted to. So I see 1 string. But there are 5 pairs of strings. 4 sets of 3. And 3 sets of 4 across your 6 string fretboard. Kinda like 3 violins for instance... Then I can skip strings If I want to. What I don't want is to play 2 octaves of the same scale all the time.. Also for chords which don't have to be full on Barre chords..which you have done videos on as well..chord fractions I call them. Great video for anyone who hasn't seen this before, wish I had because it would have saved me a long time of figuring things like this out. Especially realising you can bend to a minor or Major 3rd so it is so easy to get that Major/minor sound.
Every time I transcribe some Peter Green I find BB King elements in it. BB King came first, so I believe he must have been a big influence on Peter Green, for sure.
@@bluesguitarunleashed Hi Griff. Totally agree Peter was influenced by BB as many of us were..and still are. Interestingly I came across the Peter Green scale a few years ago now, just can't recall where at the moment. IF I recall correctly he used either box 3 or 4 with an extra note or two, which then created box 2 within the box he used. Or something like that..Can't recall how it was now. Maybe similar to yours... Interestingly I need your love so bad..which was that very PG bit I mentioned..BB played that song. There's a live version from Stockholm in 1968 by BB on YT. Classic BB. To me this is something everyone should learn to play..and it does not need to be exactly as either PG or BB played it. Bit of improv.
Be that as it may, it's a coincidence, I would never look at it that way. The root is Bb, and there's no scale with a Bb root and those notes (that I'm aware of.)
GRIFF, The BB King box is what type of Hexatonic scale? I have seen pearl jams guitarist Mike McCready use hexatonic scale 1-2-b3-4-5-6 which is a hybrid hexatonic scale but he uses it as a symmetric scale for box#1 thru Box#5. Example use only your index and ring finger and play 5th fret to the 7th fret starting from the low E go up and down the strings and end on the high E string its a hexatonic scale that Mike McCready uses. He does this for each minor pentatonic box#1 thru box#5 is only playing the symmetrical hexatonic scale so you're getting notes that aren't in the minor pentatonic scale. Try to make a YT lesson about the Mike McCready hexatonic scale and Dickie Betts uses hexatonic melodies
I have always wished you’d out out a ‘simple’ -like this-BB course focusing on SIMPLE notes in just one or two boxes for simpletons like me. I know you have a BB course but ‘for me’ it’s complex:-)
Duly noted, and in the works, actually. I've been thinking my next course will revolve around the house pattern and licks I've taken from BB King, Peter Green, Matt Schofield, T-Bone Walker, and others who use it a lot.
@@bluesguitarunleashed Oh I would love that Griff. And I suspect a ton of folks like me would jump all over it!! Kind of a (non theory) fast track to PLAYING wo going all across the neck. Great ‘songs’ can be made in a small space…according to so many internet teachers…but no one seems to put together a ‘course’ for it. They just say ‘start here’ and make your own combos. That’s ez if you already know songs to copy but for us ‘creativity-challenged’ folks, it seems impossible. I’d just like to ‘get to playing’ and worry about theory and stuff after I have some ‘simple’ success!!:-) Your 4 note song was a great beginning but nothing ‘simple’ after that is offered, imo:-). Thanks for listening. You’re the best!!
Absolutely, in fact, in his older stuff he got pretty crazy with some outside sounds and all kinds of stuff... but this pattern is attributed to him, typically, so we go with it.
BB was a master of the "less is more" style of guitar playing. He didn't try to impress anyone by playing all over the neck of the guitar. He knew exactly what notes to use and when to play them. He also knew when not to play them. I drive a truck into St Louis every day, and I sometimes listen to a jazz and blues station based in St. Louis. Just today they played "The Thrill is Gone Away" and in my head I was creating all these riffs and whatnot in the spaces that he left open in that song, but I was still amazed at how what he does in that song is just so perfect the way it is.
This is one of the best bb box explanations I've seen.
Wow! This one got me running to grab my guitar to try this out! Thank you!
When I am just practicing, I sometimes force myself to stay in the "BB Box" for the entirety of a particular backing track.....8 or 10 minutes forced into that little area really makes you search for ideas 👍
Wow, great video. Your easy to understand approach to playing blues licks that sound like BB King is the best; definitely a keeper! Demonstrating how BB could get so much music from one position was revealing.
I got confused at the beginning until I realize that it is in B flat minor pentatonic.
Thank you Chief. Cheers from Indonesia.
It's not, actually... while the root is Bb, it's not Bb minor pentatonic or Bb Major pentatonic - that's why it can be tricky, the way you bend the C to either Db or D makes it major or minor.
Excellent breakdown. Thanks 👍
you and Rusty are my go to's for instruction...Thanks so much for this content!
Thanks!! You gave me a lot to work with and connected the dots better than I've ever seen. I appreciate the help and hope you keep up the great work and have a great weekend.
22 is a pretty good morning douqld
I love your videos! which is why I know these patterns. Please do a lesson on phrasing using BB, Albert boxes. pentatonic 6 etc as no matter what I try I cant get a BB sound out of the BB box😫
This is revelatory. Maybe it shouldn’t be if you have been playing fifty years... but hey... so what? Time passes.
Great lesson from a great bluesman. Thanks.
Great video, dude! 👍🏻
Awesome!
The heart of the blues is finding that "note"....
I would agree, partially, the right note *at the right time*
At the beginning Griff I think I heard a little Peter Green there.
I came across the "Peter Green scale" a few years back, has the house pattern as you call it in this "scale".
Now If I recall correctly I think Peter mixed that pattern with box 4...or maybe box 3 I'm not sure. It was a while ago.
I'll look it up again now I've thought about it.
Many newer players learn the boxes as they connect to each other, but don't realise the scales sit on top of each other.
Take A Major box one, move into box 2 and it sits right inside Am box 1...and so on. As do minor and Major scales...Dorian etc.
So was BB's playing "simple".? Well..yes it was, but that was and is the beauty of it. Less is more, it's just a case of learning how to get more from less.
Add his creamy vibrato to it and....you cannot get any better blues.
So many players use this 5 note box, I call it the everyone's box. To me it is just about the sweetest little pattern in the entire Pentatonic/blues scale. In fact wouldn't most people be better off learning just this little box first?
5 notes 3 strings..or any of them from the 1st string not the 6th..?
If we think about it how many musical instruments only have 4 strings? Bass..Violin...Banjo I think before the 5th was added..I think.
Guitar you have 2 extra ones.
So over time I came to see it this way..I could play an entire solo on 1 string If I wanted to. So I see 1 string.
But there are 5 pairs of strings.
4 sets of 3.
And 3 sets of 4 across your 6 string fretboard. Kinda like 3 violins for instance...
Then I can skip strings If I want to.
What I don't want is to play 2 octaves of the same scale all the time..
Also for chords which don't have to be full on Barre chords..which you have done videos on as well..chord fractions I call them.
Great video for anyone who hasn't seen this before, wish I had because it would have saved me a long time of figuring things like this out.
Especially realising you can bend to a minor or Major 3rd so it is so easy to get that Major/minor sound.
Every time I transcribe some Peter Green I find BB King elements in it. BB King came first, so I believe he must have been a big influence on Peter Green, for sure.
@@bluesguitarunleashed Hi Griff. Totally agree Peter was influenced by BB as many of us were..and still are.
Interestingly I came across the Peter Green scale a few years ago now, just can't recall where at the moment.
IF I recall correctly he used either box 3 or 4 with an extra note or two, which then created box 2 within the box he used. Or something like that..Can't recall how it was now. Maybe similar to yours...
Interestingly I need your love so bad..which was that very PG bit I mentioned..BB played that song. There's a live version from Stockholm in 1968 by BB on YT. Classic BB.
To me this is something everyone should learn to play..and it does not need to be exactly as either PG or BB played it. Bit of improv.
The notes G, Bb, C, Eb, F are a scale. It’s Eb major pentatonic ie the 4th degree of Bb
Be that as it may, it's a coincidence, I would never look at it that way. The root is Bb, and there's no scale with a Bb root and those notes (that I'm aware of.)
GRIFF, The BB King box is what type of Hexatonic scale? I have seen pearl jams guitarist Mike McCready use hexatonic scale 1-2-b3-4-5-6 which is a hybrid hexatonic scale but he uses it as a symmetric scale for box#1 thru Box#5. Example use only your index and ring finger and play 5th fret to the 7th fret starting from the low E go up and down the strings and end on the high E string its a hexatonic scale that Mike McCready uses. He does this for each minor pentatonic box#1 thru box#5 is only playing the symmetrical hexatonic scale so you're getting notes that aren't in the minor pentatonic scale. Try to make a YT lesson about the Mike McCready hexatonic scale and Dickie Betts uses hexatonic melodies
I have always wished you’d out out a ‘simple’ -like this-BB course focusing on SIMPLE notes in just one or two boxes for simpletons like me. I know you have a BB course but ‘for me’ it’s complex:-)
Duly noted, and in the works, actually. I've been thinking my next course will revolve around the house pattern and licks I've taken from BB King, Peter Green, Matt Schofield, T-Bone Walker, and others who use it a lot.
@@bluesguitarunleashed Oh I would love that Griff. And I suspect a ton of folks like me would jump all over it!! Kind of a (non theory) fast track to PLAYING wo going all across the neck. Great ‘songs’ can be made in a small space…according to so many internet teachers…but no one seems to put together a ‘course’ for it. They just say ‘start here’ and make your own combos. That’s ez if you already know songs to copy but for us ‘creativity-challenged’ folks, it seems impossible. I’d just like to ‘get to playing’ and worry about theory and stuff after I have some ‘simple’ success!!:-) Your 4 note song was a great beginning but nothing ‘simple’ after that is offered, imo:-). Thanks for listening. You’re the best!!
So what do you call patrern 2 which also looks like a house?
I call it pattern 2 :)
we need licks on the blues box
BB doesn't always stay in BB box
Absolutely, in fact, in his older stuff he got pretty crazy with some outside sounds and all kinds of stuff... but this pattern is attributed to him, typically, so we go with it.