Learn this simple and melodic blues solo to see how much impact you can have with just five notes! Lesson includes printable tab, Guitar Pro file and MP3 backing track.

A rather minimalist approach to soloing over E7-A7-B7 is to use only E minor pentatonic for the whole time.  Limiting ourselves to five notes for three chords in three different keys is actually a bit challenging.  We’ll examine the context of each note of this scale against each of the three chords.

Over E7:

• E-1 (root/chord tone-stable)
• G- b3 (clash-blue note)
• A -4 (unstable-wants to resolve to natural 3 or 5)
• B-5 (chord tone-stable)
• D-b7 (chord tone- wants to resolve to 5 or 8)

The root note, E, will always sound like a solid resting or ending place.  The b3, G, will sound very sour and is called a “blue” note.  We can bend it upward toward a natural 3.  The 4 is unstable and often bent up to 5 or partially resolved to b3.  The 5 can be bent up to b7 and released.  The b7 is a chord tone, but has an unsettled sound.  It’s often bent up to the root, or resolved down to 5.

Over A7:

• E- 5 (chord tone, stable)
• G- b7 (chord tone- wants to resolve to 5 or 8)
• A- 1 (root/chord tone-stable)
• B- 2 or 9 (unstable)
• D- 4 (unstable)

Over B7:

• E- 4 (unstable)
• G- b6 -AVOID – WILL SOUND AWFUL
• A- b7
• B- 1 (root)
• D- b3