Example1 JIMMY PAGE STYLE

[Bars 1-2] The opening phrase looks at a simple but effective musical concept; varying note length. We enter the study with a long held bend, immediately followed by a staccato based phrase and again back to a long held note. It’s really the short notes here that are helping to build that tension. Give this concept a try within your own improvisation – just think, ‘short, long, short long’ etc. A little bit of that Jimmy Page vibrato goes a long way too. You may have also noticed the targeting of chord tones on beat 1 of bars 1, 2 and 3. Often phrases end or resolve on beat one so having that ending note as a strong chord tone really helps push out the underlying harmony.

[Bars 4-6] Within this frame you will find the phrase at the end of bar 4 leading into bar 5 is then turned inside out. Page often does this within his lines and it’s a simple way to get that extra bit of mileage out of your phrases.

[Bar11] Here’s an example of how Page will add the 2nd/9th degree into the blues scale to further its colour: B Blues scale (add9) - B-C#-D-E-F-F#-A.

[Bar15-16] There’s a bend on the fourth string here. We bend from the root up to the 9th degree. Perhaps try and use this as a pathway into more bending on the wound strings - fourth, fifth and sixth. A good exercise is to perform a full Minor Pentatonic scale, on all six strings, played as bends.