I’m a sucker for a great blues lick. Blues is easily my favourite kind of music to play, and BB King my favourite blues guitar player. This excellent video from John Truggle features John teaching you, and me, how to play a lick from BB’s Sweet Sixteen.
From Guitarist: BB King Exclusive: “We recently caught up with a full-on legend; BB King. We’ll be featuring our interview in a future issue of the mag but if, like us, you just can’t wait, there’s a decent chunk of it up on Music Radar.”
(Via Guitarist.)
I’ve said it many times before on Fretboard, but BB King is one of my favourite guitar players. In fact, if I was forced to choose my No. 1, I reckon BB would get the nod. There’s just something about that lovely warm tone from his Lucille, the way he strips it right down to just the clean note and uses vibrato to wring everything he can from the strings. I’ve seen him live a couple of times, and he’s sensational.
If you’re a regular (and if not, why the devil not?) reader, you’ll know about my love for the music of blues legend, BB King. So when this popped up on my RSS reader, I had no choice but to pass it on to you.
Learn to Play Like B.B. – Tabs of BB's favorite licks in A: “A free online guitar lesson on how to learn to play the blues like B.B. King. Includes mp3 clips, tablature, and many written examples of great BB King guitar riffs.”
It’s been a bit quiet round here of late, for which I apologise. I will do better. Back up to speed next week, but in the meantime, here’s something to get your teeth into over the weekend.
You’ll know if you’re a regular, that I’m a huge BB King fan, so what better way to spend a few hours over the weekend than learning a few of the great man’s licks.
Here, courtesy of About.com are some tabs and mp3s of BB King licks in the key of G.
Have fun.
For as long as I’ve been able to play the guitar, BB King has been my favourite guitar player. There’s something about his style which manages to capture the joy and misery of the blues in one note. And the way he wrings the neck of his beloved Lucille to extract every last ounce of vibrato and sustain from it is sensational.
I’ve been lucky enough to see him live twice. On the first occasion, at the Edinburgh Playhouse in 1989, the theatre was absolutely jumping. Everyone was dancing by the end and there was a couple in front of us who looked they were having a particularly good time.