“It’s a tried-and-true sound that we’ve heard in the soloing of all of our favorite players, from Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter and Leslie West to Eddie Van Halen”: Jared James Nichols explains why we should all be using the blue note in our solos

A sound that can change your playing: Jared James Nichols targets the flat 5 “blue note” - YouTube

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One of my favorite sounds in blues and blues-rock soloing is utilizing the “blue note.” I’m talking about the flatted 5th, or b5, which is located one half step below the 5th of the root note of whatever chord you’re relating to.

Let’s use the key of G as our point of reference: Figure 1 begins with a G5 chord, establishing the “home base” sound of the I (one) chord. I follow this with the single notes G, then the minor 3rd, Bb, then the b5, Db, which I proceed to bend up a half step to D, the 5th. I then play these same notes an octave higher, followed by a phrase that descends through the G blues scale (G, Bb, C, Db, D, F).

Notice in the last bar that I mphasize the b5, Db, before ending the phrase with the notes C, Bb and G.

When I was first learning the guitar, I found that when playing the G blues scale, as shown in Figure 2, the inclusion of the b5 in this scale added a really cool, bluesy sound, one that we all know and love. It’s a tried-and-true sound that we’ve heard in the soloing of all of our favorite players, from Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter and Leslie West to Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads and Zakk Wylde.

I discovered that using the b5 as a landing note added suspense and drama to my melody playing. One of the things I would suggest to everyone is to get that note “in your ear” and try using it as more than as just a passing tone.

Let’s take a simple riff like Figure 3: I begin on the G root note, then walk up the G blues scale with the notes Bb, C, Db, and D, then walk back down. A neat, twisty way to add expression to this phrase is to bend up to the b5, as demonstrated in Figure 4.

After playing G, Bb and C, I bend the C, which is the 4th of G, up a half step to Db then proceed to bend it up a whole step to the 5th, D. I then partially release the bend back to Db, followed by a vibrato-ed C note.

Another cool thing to do is, instead of bending all the way up to the 5th, just bend up to the flatted 5th, Db, as your final destination, as demonstrated in Figure 5.

I like to isolate the b5 within a phrase to make the note stand out. In Figure 6, the phrases played in each bar emphasize Db as a target note, which results in a very distinct sound.

Using the b5 in this way changes one’s perception on where to start and stop within an improvised phrase. Figure 7 offers a longer, nine-bar example that emphasizes the b5 throughout. Bar 2 begins on a low Db, followed by Db an octave higher. In bars 3 and 4, I repeatedly play F, D and Db as triplets as I approach the end of the phrase in bar 5.

Bar 7 offers another angle, with the emphasis of the repeating Db-Bb-G triplets. Bar 8 brings us back to a more straightforward blues-rock style phrase, followed in bar 9 with another targeted Db note.

Emphasizing the b5 is a great way to put a fresh spin on a sound we already know and add some flair to our improvised solo ideas.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.