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Almost every blues, jazz, and funk solo is improvised – top players will pretty much never play the same thing twice over a particular groove. It’s important to develop these improvisational skills in order to be a truly adept soloist. A great way to do so is by having an arsenal of licks ready to pull out in any situation, in any kind of progression.

Oz Noy will teach you to improvise using this method in his new TrueFire course, Twisted Guitar: Blues Soloing. He’ll introduce a progression, and then teach you three licks that can be applied before showing you them in a soloing study. Then, he’ll wrap up the section by performing another solo, this one completely improvised.

In these free blues soloing guitar lessons, we’ll go through all of the licks and solo studies for one of Oz’s tunes, “Ice Man”, and then work through the solos for another of his tracks, “Twisted Soul”. Let’s check it out:

Ice Man – Overview

This set of lessons is working with a track called “Ice Man”. It’s a medium-tempo funk groove over an A7 chord. Harmonically, there’s a lot that can be done with it – we’ll being taking it in and out with some diminished sounds. It’s heavily inspired by Albert Collins, hence the name of the song, especially his work bringing the funk into the blues.

Lick 1 – Ice Man: Demo

Download the tab, notation, and jam track for this blues soloing lesson on TrueFire.

This first lick is an A7 vamp – which means you can do whatever you want on it! Here, I’m taking an A minor pentatonic blues line, moving it a half step up and down.

Lick 2 – Ice Man: Demo

Download the tab, notation, and jam track for this blues soloing lesson on TrueFire.

Here’s another lick from the track. Over an A7 chord again, I’m using the A minor pentatonic into a Bb7, and then back into the A minor pentatonic.

Lick 3 – Ice Man: Demo

Download the tab, notation, and jam track for this blues soloing lesson on TrueFire.

Our final lick for this track is over an A7 chord again. The concept here is basically taking a triad and jumping it in fourths. So, playing A-D-G-C over the A7 chord.

Solo with Licks – Ice Man: Performance

Download the tab, notation, and jam track for this blues soloing lesson on TrueFire.

Now let’s look at some of our licks in action. This solo for “Ice Man” will show you how to use them in a real time soloing scenario. Try to pick out each one and see how they work in the big picture.

Improvised Solo – Ice Man: Performance

Download the tab, notation, and jam track for this blues soloing lesson on TrueFire.

We’ll wrap up “Ice Man” with another solo, this time completely improvised.

Solo with Licks – Twisted Soul: Performance

Download the tab, notation, and jam track for this blues soloing lesson on TrueFire.

This solo for “Twisted Soul” will show you how to use licks in a real time soloing scenario. Try to pick out each one and see how they work in the big picture.

Improvised Solo – Twisted Soul: Performance

Download the tab, notation, and jam track for this blues soloing lesson on TrueFire.

We’ll wrap up “Twisted Soul” with another solo, this time completely improvised.

There are eight more songs to practice with in the full version of the course on TrueFire. Make sure to learn all the licks and solos, which come with accompanying tabs, notation, and jam tracks to practice on your own. Check it out!