80-Something Blues

Tutor Richard Barrett | Gear used Gear Used Knaggs Choptank & Scott McKeon SM Fuzz Difficulty | 10 mins per example

THE 1980S ARE NOW LONG ENOUGH AGO TO GENERATE SOME LEGITIMATE

NOSTALGIA. Those of us who were (ahem) there can recall heady summer days to the soundtrack of Journeyman-era Clapton, and Toto. There was also a fad for brightly coloured guitars with pointy headstocks and locking whammy bars… In John Mayer’s recent video for his own 80s-inspired journey, Last Train Home, he appears to have embraced the idea of bright pink guitars, but the phrasing is more Clapton inspired, with no divebombs!

This Headlines is a look into that style – not an absolute clone of Mayer or Clapton but ‘vocal’ phrasing along those lines. Beware of the twist in the backing track chord changes, which are laden with subtle traps: a full bar of F# diminished and an A major instead of the more pentatonic-friendly A minor are two of them. It’s still perfectly possible to take a pentatonic/blues approach, but it is a challenge. The alternative approach of using diminished and major arpeggios (or fragments of these) moves away from the feel I was looking to highlight, so I opted for a more Clapton/BB King approach, adding a note here and there to the major or minor pentatonic, plus a few bends to push minor 3rds sharp over major chords.

Remember when improvising that it’s perfectly okay to take your time between phrases; we’re not looking for anything too slick or jazzy. In the accompanying video, you can see that I’m hesitant before playing some phrases, choosing carefully where to head after each pause. Admittedly, that’s partly because I was consciously going for a style, but it’s also because I’m trying to create melodic phrases like a vocalist rather than falling back on scales or licks. Most of the time, anyway… I hope you enjoy the solo and see you next time! Richard Barrett’s new album, Colours (complete with backing tracks), is available now from www.richardbarrettguitar.com