Here is a little blues guitar lick from Eric Clapton in the key of C major. I lifted this from a live recording of him playing “Stormy Monday” by T-bone Walker.
The C note in this blues lick is the 8th fret on the 1st string. So that’s is the note in the lick you want to use as your reference point if you wanted to move this around the neck to a different key.
For instance if you wanted to play this in the key of D major, you would just move everything up 2 frets so that note in the lick would be at the 10th fret on the first string (D).
C Major Pentatonic Scale
Other than the very first note, everything other note in this guitar lick is out of a C major pentatonic scale. The first note can be thought of as a half step approach to the 2nd note which is in the scale. Here is the basic C major pentatonic scale form that this lick comes out of.
Here is the same C major pentatonic scale in guitar tablature format.
So as you are improvising with this lick, you might try mixing in some notes from the c major pentatonic scale. It works over the whole chord progression.
Blues in the Key of C
Moving the Blues Lick for Each Chord
This Clapton blues lick can not only be moved around to any major key, but can be used over any major chord. So if I have a basic blues chord progression in the key of C, there are 3 chords. C7, F7 and G7. Just think of these as a little fancier major chords.
So we have already seen the lick for C. Now here is the lick for F, and G. In the video guitar lesson you can see me demonstrate how to play this over the whole blues progression in C.
Here is the Blues in C chord progression I am using in the video, and what is used in the jam track below.
Blues in C Major – Jam Track
Here is a Blues in C Jam Track that you can use to put your new Eric Clapton lick into practice. As well as playing the lick, also try out the notes of that C major pentatonic scale form as well. You can also try play the F form of the lick over the F7 chords, and the G form of the lick over the G7 chords.
This blues jam track has the chord highlighted to help you keep your place.
