Play The Blues Like BB King! A Style Analysis

Why I Suck... Series 2, Episode 6 - BB King Pt. II

Another month, another deep dive into the legendary King Of The Blues. We've already covered the extraordinary life and times of Riley B. (aka “blues Boy” or “BB”) King in last year's blog, so here we'll limit ourselves to another in-depth look at his style. Last year's entry was focused on the legendary “Live At The Regal” album, but this time I've cast the net a little wider and gone through my “Best Of” album to take a look at examples from both the earlier and later parts of his career.

Let's start with an early example – BB got his start as a gospel singer and guitar player and this example, taken from “I'm Working On The Building” features some beautiful jazz tinged soloing (it also features a nifty use of diminished chord and an interesting turnaround that I think Showaddywaddy might have pilfered – more on that in a moment!). This track is in C and we're based on the major pentatonic with a healthy dose of chromaticism to spice things up:

Play this at speed with a swing rhythm and notice the great sense of resolution as you come off the G at the 15^th fret E string to the C on the 13^th fret B string – from the 5^th to the root, a mini V-I perfect cadence. The chord sequence to this song also merits a look, as it's an interesting divergence from a regular 12 bar blues:

// C / C / C / C / F / F / G / G / C / C / F / F#dim / G Am / Dm G / C F / C G //

Notice the interesting use of the #IVdim as a chromatic passing chord between the IV (F) and the V (G), as well as the turnaround – V vi ii V I IV I V . This is a deft use of relative minors in the Am and Dm chords being substituted for their relative majors, C and F. Without the relative minors the turnaround becomes / G C / F G / C F / C G / - not exactly unpleasant, but a bit bland, and the use of relative minors for chord substitution show an interesting evolution here, blues based players and composers trying to evolve the 12 bar template without getting rid of it completely. You'll also find that turnaround used in Showaddywaddy's “Under The Moon Of Love”, which is played at EVERY WEDDING EVER (or so it seems).

An interesting note choice which crops up quite a bit in BB's soloing is his use of the b6 interval, bent up into the b7. This would technically fit nicely inside a minor blues but he manages – apparently by sheer force of will and charisma – to make it fit over a major key one too, and this cadenza lick from “Payin' The Cost To Be The Boss” is an excellent example of this. This is in the key of Bb (a sop to the horn section, I would imagine) and starts off on the Gb (b6) bending into the Ab (b7), followed by a quirky first finger bend on the 11^th fret E (Eb bent to F 4^th to 5^th) , includes the major 6^th (G) on the rundown and ends with his characteristic “stinger” high root note on the 18^th fret high E (see last year's entry for more on that technique).

This last example is a big one, as it deals with BB's use of the major 6^th in a turnaround. This example is from the Blues Collection recording of “You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now” in A, and listen to how skilfully he uses the 6^th (F#) to imply the V chord. I've tabbed out the entire turnaround section, and things to look out for are the use of the E bent up to F# (5^th to 6^th), interplay between minor and major pentatonic, minor and major 3rds, and the use of the 3^rd (C#) and 4^th (D) played to imply a sus4 to major resolution. It's just FULL of BB-isms, including it's resolution to the E, the 5^th, giving a sense of purpose – now we've introduced the song, pay attention as we go into the first verse!

This is the second look at BB King and as before I've come away with a sense of awe that he could be so unique and so inventive with really very basic tools at his disposal. Although we've delved a little into tsome of the nuts and bolts of his note choice there is so much of his style that realy defies quantification and explanation, so I urge you to pull out any of his material you might hae – or hell, go nuts and buy yourself a copy of one of his many Greatest Hits collections – and see what you can pick out yourself, there's a reason so many great players in their own right (looking at you, Pete Honore) list him as a key influence.

See you next month for “God's own guitarist”, Jeff Beck!