25 blues guitar licks and riffs: Must-know licks and riffs to expand your blues guitar vocab fast and play like a pro

#13 Connector C minor lick

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#14 C minor blues scale

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#15 B.B. King is in the house

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#16 Traditional 

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#17 Blues "pickup line" into I chord

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#18 3-note phrase with a microtonal bend

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#19 Thirds lick

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#20 Hit, descend, bend (B.B. King inspired)

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#21 Repeated lick (T-Bone Walker inspired)

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#22 A Jimi Hendrix / Stevie Ray Vaughan flavor

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#23 Slides

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#24 Major to minor in the key of A

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#25 B.B. King-style tag

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And that’s only those in this article.

Check out this video playlist on the Pickup Music channel.

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My 5 top tips for learning blues licks

If learning licks was so easy, you wouldn’t be here, right?

It’s one thing to go through this list and memorize licks.

But I don’t just want to abandon you with a bunch of cool blues licks.

Let’s talk about how to find licks and how to turn them into phrases you’ll actually use.

Below are step-by-step blues guitar riffs practice tips.

(These tips are partially inspired by Seth Rosenbloom’s blues guitar lessons for Pickup Music’s Blues Learning Pathway.)

Tip #1: Listen to what you love

You don’t have to learn Albert King licks if that’s not how you want to sound.

Put a song on that you enjoy.

Keep your hands off the guitar and just process the sound.

Tip #2: Decode the lick

Figure out how to play the lick in whatever way is accessible to you.

If you’re a beginner, this might look like searching for a tutorial on how to play the song or searching for TABs.

Transcribing is a great option for blues guitar riffs for intermediates.

Tip #3 Run the reps

Get the lick under your fingers.

Find effortlessness.

Tip #4 Move it around

Analyze the lick.

What key is it in?

What are the intervals?

Figure out over which chords you can play it in a blues-based progression.

See where else you can play it on the guitar neck.

Transpose it to a different key. 

Tip #5 Apply it

Make it your own by exploring the lick in creative contexts.

Here are some more tips from Seth:

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Blues guitar playing techniques 

You probably noticed how many additional symbols there were in the TABs above. 

They indicate bends, slides, vibrato, etc.

Knowing how to interpret those is essential.

Let’s look at how to play blues guitar licks.

Bends

Bending a note means you’re fretting a note and then pushing the string towards the sky or pulling it towards the ground to manipulate the pitch.

It sounds fairly easy but there’s a lot of nuance – getting the intonation right is one challenge.

Here’s a blog article that explains the technique behind bends and vibrato in more detail. 

John Mayer has turned into somewhat of a blues guitar teacher on the internet. 

Whenever the modern bluesman drops one of those impromptu mini-lessons, they make the rounds on the internet.

Here’s what he says about bends: “When it comes to blues guitar, every player bends a note differently. It’s literally as unique as a fingerprint.”

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Vibrato

Combine multiple bends and you get vibrato. 

Just like bends, not everyone’s vibrato sounds alike. 

Anything goes from steady wide vibrato to fast and energetic. 

Watch this video below to learn more about both bends and vibrato as well as how to combine them.

You’ll definitely need them to master classic blues guitar licks.

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Slides

To play a slide, you need to move your finger across the fretboard while a note is ringing out.

You can test this out by playing a note on the high E string and then releasing just enough pressure to slide your finger to the adjacent fret.

If you’re completely new to the technique, check out this article on how to slide on guitar. 

Hammer-ons and pull-offs

We use a finger on our fretting hand to hammer down onto the fret.

With the right amount of speed and force, you can make the string resonate without the help of your picking hand.

If you revert the technique and slightly tuck at the string as you’re pulling your finger off, you’re playing a pull-off.

Check out this in-depth article about both techniques.

Double stops

Dyads or double stops – two notes played at once – sit comfortably between single notes and full chord shapes.

You’ll find this technique in a lot of blues licks for guitar.

All you have to do is play two notes on adjacent strings with one picking motion.

Here’s Pickup Music co-founder and lead guitar expert Sam Blakelock with a video demonstration:

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Call and response

It doesn’t matter whether your favorite blues style is from Mississippi, Texas, Chicago, Memphis, or New Orleans – the concept of call and response is baked into all of them. 

Basically, call and response describes the idea of playing a lick and then responding to that lick with another phrase.

You can hear this pattern in most great blues solos.

Take this blues guitar improvisation over The Thrill is gone by B.B. King:

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FAQs

How do I find classic blues guitar licks?

I’ll give you a list of guitarists and songs to check out here in a minute.

First though, I’ll tell you about a method that I found very helpful:

Figure out who your heroes are and follow the trace. 

Take Muddy Waters, for example.

He’s often called the father of modern Chicago blues and Robert Johnson as well as Son House were two of his influences.

So if you like Muddy Waters, take a listen to musicians he looked up to.

If you’re completely new to the blues, below are some of my favorite sources of inspiration. 

There’ll be plenty of licks to transcribe among these:

• Three O’Clock Blues by B.B. King 
• Guitar Solo Compilation with Sister Rosetta Tharpe 
• A video of John Mayer improvising over random backing tracks
• Description Blues by T-Bone Walker
• Do Me Bad So Good by Johnny “Guitar” Watson

What are some good beginner riffs to practice blues guitar?

Great beginner riffs are those that are derived from one scale shape.

That way you don’t have to worry about moving your hands around the fingerboard too much.

Here’s an example of a simple descending line using the open position of the E blues scale:

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It also helps that blues incorporates a lot of repetition.

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For example, here’s the ultimate Delta Blues lick in the key of E:

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Some of the best blues licks for beginners can be found in slow songs.

Try out the shuffle pattern below.

No need to rush – it sounds great at slow speeds.

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How can I get better at blues soloing?

Developing these two skills will make a huge difference: 

• Ear training
• Expressive techniques

The most emotional instrument we have is our voice. As a guitarist, one of the main goals when soloing is to step into the role of a vocalist.

Ear training will help you transcribe melodies from blues vocalists or melodies that you sing yourself.

Singing melodies and then playing them is a great exercise.

You’ll likely come up with more interesting lines than when you’re just sticking to playing notes within scale shapes.

Expressive techniques tie into that.

Blues lines are often simple when it comes to the note material.

Your playing will sound a lot more musical, when you can infuse blues guitar phrases with vibrato,bends, rakes, slides, and more.

How do I train my ears to copy licks?

Start really small with just a few notes.

If possible, slow down the recording.

This will make studying blues guitar licks a lot easier.

You can use software such as Moise or Transcribe!.

If you use the chrome browser, you might want to look into an extension called Video Speed Controller. 

Listen to the snippet a couple of times and then sing it back.

You don’t have to be a good singer.

Singing it back will help you memorize and understand it.

Use trial and error until you find the notes on the fretboard.

If you practice this a lot, it’ll get easier and easier.

It also helps to make informed guesses by figuring out the key of a song first, the chord a phrase is played over, and relevant scales the phrase could be derived from.

What is blues guitar lick theory?

Combine music theory knowledge with blues lead guitar licks and you’ll be able to do a lot more with fewer licks.

Let’s say you look up blues guitar riffs on YouTube. 

You find one that is taught over a standard 12-bar blues E minor.

You learn the riff, go to a blues jam the next day, and your fellow musicians want to play the blues in A minor.

Well, that would be the perfect time to show off your skill of playing blues licks in all keys.

The same is true for adapting licks according to chord qualities.

Did you learn a lick with major thirds in it?

Simply convert them into minor 3rds and you can use that same lick over a minor chord instead of a major or dominant chord.

The more you’re able to analyze a lick, the easier it’ll be to turn one single hot blues lick into multiple useful blues licks.

What is the most famous blues guitar lick?

In general, you can never go wrong with learning any lick by the three kings: Albert King, B.B. King, and Freddie King are all considered blues legends.

There’s a reason why portions of the pentatonic scale carry their names: the 'Albert King Box' and the ‘B.B. (King) box’.

If you make me pick one song, I’d say Born Under A Bad Sign is a pretty good starting point. 

Wrapping Up

Licks are an essential component of blues lead guitar lessons.

There’s no better way than studying the language of the Blues Hall of Famers if you want to learn how to play authentic blues guitar.

Once you start combining classic blues guitar licks with arpeggios and the blues scale, improvising over a typical 12-bar I-IV-V structure will become much easier.

The most important thing about learning licks is being able to use proper technique, understanding in which context you can use the phrases, and how to modify them.

As a Pickup Music member you’ll gain full access to the Blues Learning Pathway so you can learn to navigate blues chord progressions from a seasoned pro.

Are you ready to step up your lead blues guitar game?

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Author: Julia Mahncke

Julia Mahncke is a journalist and musician based in Pittsburgh, PA. Holding a degree in musicology from the University of Bonn and a guitar performance degree from the University of Oregon, Julia is a skilled guitarist with a knack for communicating musical concepts in a straightfoward manner.

She has written, recorded, and performed music as a solo artist, as part of a duo, and as the lead guitarist for the band Meeping. With hundreds of shows under her belt, Julia plays bass in various projects, enjoys participating in jam sessions in Pittsburgh, and remains active as a singer-songwriter.